19 "And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 He confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’, as the prophet Isaiah said.”
24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, “Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, “I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even he who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing."
John 1:19-28
John the Baptist's ministry had clearly been a sensation in the land, causing widespread interest, concern and comment. Hence the official deputation sent to him by the rulers, to discover its significance. Was he the long-promised Messiah? There must clearly have been a sense of expectation that something significant was about to happen. Was this it? This was their question. But John explicitly disavows any claim to be the awaited Messiah, or Elijah either (the reference in the latter being in Malachi 4:5, 6), or the prophet mentioned by Moses ('A prophet shall the Lord God raise up unto you, like unto me'). 'I am a voice', he says (cf Isaiah 40:3). Two points should be noted in this connection. The first is - and all the commentators underline it - the humility of John. The testimony he bears to Jesus is a self-effacing testimony. He refuses to claim any positive identity. I am not important, he says. I am simply the mouthpiece of God. I, in myself, am not significant; I am simply taken up and used of God. It is what I say, not who I am, that is important. This is surely a pattern for witness today - anonymity, and not the man but the message. No one can give the impression at one and the same time that he himself is some great one and that Jesus is a great Saviour. In order to magnify the Saviour, all that one can afford to be is a voice, and this is true for preacher and witness alike. This is summed up very succinctly in a later word of John's in 3:30: 'He must increase, but I must decrease'. In the words of the well-known hymn, it must be a question not only of 'Less of self and more of Thee', but ultimately of 'None of self, and all of Thee'.