Whoever accepts his testimony has certified that God is true

After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judean countryside, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there; and people kept coming and were being baptized— John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.

Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew. They came to John and said to him, ‘Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.’ John answered, ‘No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, “I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.” He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.’

The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony. Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true. He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.

- John 3:22-36

In today's passage, we get a picture of two men, both preaching and teaching, and in some sense, working side by side. We are in Judea, where John the Baptist has been baptizing and gathering many followers. Jesus' time (so far in this gospel) has mostly been spent in Galilee. His apostles also, for the most part, are Galileans. John the Baptist was a tremendously important and popular figure, widely thought in his own time to be a prophet, with many followers. I think we can easily gather from John's gospel the great significance Jesus' own followers would place on John the Baptist, and discern the importance of his figure in his own time and at the time of the birth of the Christian church.

I think it's interesting that a kind of public comparison between Jesus and John the Baptist begins over a discussion of purification. We can see in this topic a kind of "handing off" from the old to the new. Just as we have a kind of metaphor in the stone jars (stone for reasons of ritual purity) within which appeared the good wine at the wedding in Cana, created out of water by the very thought of Jesus, so we have a kind of trade off here from a discussion of purification - the old - to the new, a discussion of Jesus and who he is.

The Baptist's disciples tell him, "Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him." John answers with these important words: "No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.' " John's humility points to heaven, to God. He does not claim any place for himself, but defers to what he considers to be God's will, to spiritual reality. What is given from above is the authority of Jesus. John himself points out his own declaration that he is a prophet, not the Messiah. John's preaching and baptism have been all along declared to be a preparation for the Messiah.

John continues: "He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease." Again, there is the recall of the importance of Jesus' first miracle and its situation at the wedding in Cana. The bride is the Church - the people whom John's disciples note are flocking now toward Jesus. The festival of bride and bridegroom is an important religious metaphor throughout the Old Testament: God and Israel, the bride. The wedding feast is also the important central metaphor of teaching about who Jesus is as well; he is the bridegroom and the Church his bride. John uses this image to proclaim himself the friend of the bridegroom, the "best man." And so he is. As Jesus has called him, John is the greatest of the prophets.

John continues: "The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things. The one who comes from heaven is above all." John contrasts his identity with that of Jesus.

"He testifies to what he has seen and heard, yet no one accepts his testimony." A summing up begins here, of the gospel and its central character, the great identity of Jesus, here portrayed in the words of the Baptist. Jesus is from above, and testifies to what he knows - yet who will accept his testimony? Does it invalidate that testimony that others do not necessarily believe him?

"Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true." These powerful words teach us about notions of truth and purity of heart that elaborate on all we understand of trust and belief, and relationship. When we accept this testimony we certify that God is true, in every sense of that word. The word in Greek for "certify" means to "set one's seal" upon something. "He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure." Jesus gives God to us. When we receive His word, we receive God. This puts us in a relationship of truth, of trust, that is unbreakable because it is true. We put ourselves in Christ through this receipt, our seal, and he puts himself and all that is of the Father in us. We are given without measure, in the fullness that Christ can give. And the great statement of relationship comes next: "The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath." The Father has given all to the Son, and the Son gives us all in return for our trust: eternal life. It all starts with the reception in our hearts, a capacity for this bond, this trust, and this truth. But the one from above, John says, is the one who can give this to us and cement this relationship that is true, that will not betray us.