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The Representative of the Human Race
Referring to John the Baptist, Jesus
said, "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there
has not risen one greater than John the Baptist" (Matthew 11:11).
This means that John the Baptist is the greatest of all the people
of the world born of women. John the Baptist, born of Zechariah
and Elizabeth, descendants of Aaron, was purely a man of the household
of Aaron. According to the Law of the Old Testament, priests could
come out only from the household of Aaron, and it was among these
priests that the High Priest was consecrated and served in the Tabernacle.
The most important of all the works
that the High Priest performed was to give the offering that remitted
all the sins of the people of Israel, once a year on the Day of
Atonement. On this Day of Atonement, the High Priest, as the representative
of the people of Israel, laid his hands on the head of a goat and
thereby passed all their sins onto the goat. Like this, John the
Baptist, a man of the household of Aaron, was consecrated by God
as the High Priest, and passed all the sins of humankind to Jesus
Christ by baptizing Him, which was a form of the laying on of hands.
Jesus raised John as the representative of the human race. Why?
Because John was a descendent of Aaron the High Priest, the Elijah
to come whom the Prophet Malachi had prophesied, and the prophet
who passed all the sins of humankind onto Jesus. Jesus had come
to this earth as the Lamb of God to save humankind from the sins
of the world, and for this there had to be a representative of mankind,
a High Priest from the household of Aaron. This was none other than
John the Baptist.
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