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After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison.
Then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified -- behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him!" John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent before Him.' He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.
"He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him."
- John 3:22-36
Yesterday, we read Jesus words to Nicodemus, after teaching him about baptism and being born of the Spirit: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."
After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. For John had not yet been thrown into prison. Then there arose a dispute between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purification. And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified -- behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him!" The temple leadership will echo these words, that "all are coming to Him!" John the Baptist's response, and theirs, tells us something important in the difference between them.
John answered and said, "A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but, 'I have been sent before Him.' He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice." My study bible says, "John the Baptist is called the friend (the equivalent of a modern 'best man'), but it is Christ who is the bridegroom; the bride is God's people. As God was the Lord of His people in the Old Testament, so Christ is the Bridegroom of the Church in the New Testament."
"Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease." A note here tells us: "The forerunner expresses profound humility and acceptance of his role in the service of God. He renounces all earthly glory and reputation and glories only in Christ. John's aspirations of hope and joy as a minister and servant of God have now been fulfilled."
"He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him." John sums up who Jesus is here. As my study bible puts it, he "gives a summary of the teaching of the Gospel about the origin, dignity, and saving work of Christ." It says of today's reading, "John the Baptist gives his final witness to Jesus as the One who is greater. Jesus has the Spirit in fullness, He possesses all the authority of the Father, and He grants eternal life to those who believe."
It's important that we understand the figure of John the Baptist. He's been called "the greatest among those born of women" by Jesus. And yet, as Jesus said, "the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he" (Luke 7:28). In his own time, John was a highly revered figure and widely considered to be a holy man by the population in Israel; so much so, that the Gospels tells us even members of the leadership come to him to be baptized. He is a radical figure of humility and service to God, both in his demeanor as one who is so clearly in the lineage of the Old Testament prophets, and also in his words toward Jesus, such as those expressed here in today's reading. As we've seen in John's Gospel, John the Baptist shows his disciples the way to Jesus, the Bridegroom. There really can be no greater humility than this. The earliest disciples chosen by Jesus, including the author of this Gospel, were all followers of John first. The sort of humility displayed here by the Baptist (also called Forerunner, as he is the one who herald's Christ's presence in the world) tells us something significant about spiritual truth. Nothing can stand in its way. In our own lives, if we're going to really follow where Christ leads us, we have to be prepared to give up whatever stands in the way of the fullness of that truth. Here, John is prepared to lead his own disciples to another teacher, and in his words, "He must increase, but I must decrease," we hear the complete understanding of what he is called to by God, and his willingness to accept it. This is a hard lesson to learn in life, but it is his willingness to serve, to fully accept the truth of God, that makes John the Baptist the great example that he is. John points the way to the Kingdom, to this new Gospel, the dispensation that has come to Israel. Could we accept the true things he is willing to accept, for a higher truth, a greater reality? What do we love above all else? Let us also receive the Bridegroom, and our own place in His wedding, as a friend and servant of God. This, too, is part of righteousness, or right-relatedness. It is the exchange of one way of being for another, the way to who we really are, to the place where our joy is fulfilled.
