NOTES for Joh 1:19-28
"The voice of one crying in the wilderness". These words, if torn from their context, sound like a cry of loneliness, desperate in tone. A person who cries out in the wilderness will most often be heard by no one. But John is not the one crying in the wilderness; he is its voice. A voice in the wilderness is lonely and cannot fail to be heard, if there is someone to listen.
Absolute loneliness is always waiting. John waits very intensely; in the wilderness of loneliness it is impossible not to hear the steps of the One who can fill any loneliness. Therefore John becomes a hermit, so that he may be the first to hear and prepare the way, so that he may become a voice for those who do not hear on their own.
These words can be a consolation for those who feel lonely. In loneliness one hears better. Maybe God gives us loneliness so that it will be easier for us, amid the noise and rush of modern life, to make out His quiet voice, His call, His knock at the still closed doors of our heart. And if we open, the wilderness will be filled with God's light and joy.