So, John the Baptist came as a witness to the light. In today’s gospel reading he seems rather to refuse witness. He is quite negative, answering with a stalwart and repeated ‘No!’. He witnesses only that ‘There is one standing among you whom you do not know’. It is not always easy to find Jesus. All the way through the Gospel of John there are misunderstandings about Jesus; people fail to recognise him for what he is: there’s the Samaritan at the well, Nicodemus in the night, Mary Magdalene beside the empty tomb, even Peter and the disciples as they fish on the Lake. We can easily become so wrapped up in our own troubles and worries that we fail to recognise the one figure who can provide the solution to them, although he is standing among us, the one who ‘has the words of eternal life’. He may come to us in a way we do not like, as a corrective – blocking or diverting the way we have chosen. He may come as suffering, disappointment, failure or bereavement. All of these may be acts of God’s love, to show us the way, though we cannot see it at the time. It is just like John the Baptist, saying steadily ‘No!’, until eventually we turn around and see Christ as our true light. How can I find Jesus in the crowded events of my busy life? He often comes in unexpected ways. Is he in the quiet voice of a friend? Is he in the anger of someone I have annoyed? Is he in the rebuke of someone who knows me better than I know myself? Is he in my failures and frustrations?