Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease

 

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 

 

In yesterday's reading, Jesus continued His teaching to Nicodemus:   "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!"   John 4:2 explains that Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples.  

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."  John the Baptist calls himself the friend (or "best man"), while Christ Himself is the bridegroom.  The bride, my study bible explains, is the Church, the people of God.  Here John is confessing that his role in the coming o the Messiah is to be witness to the wedding of Christ and His people, therefore he rejoices in that celebration.  John's joy is fulfilled ("this joy of mine" is specific to him) because his true role and identity are fulfilled.

"He must increase, but I must decrease."   My study bible expresses the view universal to the Church regarding John the Baptist:  John exemplifies a humility that serves as model for all believers.   It says that he renounces all earthly glory and reputation for the sake of Christ.  As John allows Christ to increase in him, he himself finds his own true glory.  Moreover, this statement also expresses the end of the old covenant.  As the law vanishes, my study bible says, the grace of Jesus Christ abounds.  John's declaration is revealed in the liturgical calendar of the Church.  His birth is celebrated at a time when the sun begins to decrease in the sky (June 24th), while Christ's is celebrated when the sun begins to increase.

"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."  My study bible comments that John echoes the teaching of Christ Himself given earlier in this chapter (see John 3:18 in yesterday's reading above;  also yesterday's reading and commentary).  It also notes the absence of the word "alone" in this statement of faith.  St. John Chrysostom writes:  "We do not from this assert that faith alone is sufficient for salvation; the directions for living that are given in many places in the Gospels show this."  See also James 2:14-24.

John's humility is a remarkable thing to behold, but it also speaks very loudly to us of our own place in the cosmos, in all of creation, and in relationship to God.  Let us observe that John is in fact acknowledging his true role in the entire picture of salvation, even in creation.  He knows himself to be the friend of the bridegroom.  Therefore his own joy (to reiterate, he says, "this joy of mine") is fulfilled, because he knows who he is and is fulfilling his true role.  This role, the friend of the bridegroom, is what we would call John's "true self."  A world permeated with social media, in which we are used now to presenting ourselves in a certain way for others to see and behold, seems to do anything but give us a sense of humility, in which our true role is hidden behind the desires cultivated by popular pressure.  This is especially true if that role or image is one that seems secondary, or "less than" anything but whatever the top might be.  We are given images to behold every day in which we might measure ourselves by the achievements of others.  Billionaires hold top places in terms not simply of material success, but increasingly as those who are becoming the arbiters of morality and truth, if we but look closely.  As social media titans begin to implement their own forms of censorship, for whatever the motivation, there are yet other great "men of business" (to use an old expression) who offer us solutions for every ailment facing the world:  energy supplies, environmental crises, hunger, health, public policy, and so on.  None of them are experts in ethics or social policies, or medicine, or environmental science, for that matter.  But to have a platform is to proffer the image to the world that we would prefer people to behold about us.  Compare this to the humility of John the Baptist, who earnestly tells us that his true joy is in fulfilling the role that God has prepared for him, whatever that is in service to God's purpose and plans.  We are each encouraged through various types of social pressure to be like the titans, that success and wealth make us "somebody."  It's not good enough if our houses don't compare to what we see or imagine that others with more wealth have.  This has become such a standard yardstick by which to measure ourselves that our various social engineers twist themselves into pretzels to explain why poverty still exists, or any sense of inequality -- be that talent, or skill, or even hard work.  But the truth is simply the way John the Baptist displays it for us.  We were not created to be all the same.  In fact, the truth is far, far away from this vision of sameness.  God has created each one of us as unique persons, and each one of us has a true "joy of mine" to fulfill in the salvation plan of God.  Each one of us has our own way in which we bear our cross, and serve the purposes of salvation in a communion with our Creator.  While what we might see in carefully crafted social profiles might look like there are others with supposedly "perfect lives," or special people who deserve a special sympathy because of a unique tragedy in their lives, the truth is that we all have disappointments, flaws, failures, and places where we are "less than" someone or something else that someone has that we wish we had (whether that is a talent, a personality trait, or a possession of some other kind).   And the deepest truth is that to bear our own crosses, with the humility that asks of us, is the true sense of success as far as the Gospels are concerned.  This is the real strength and the real faith it takes a lifetime to hone, and real courage to face up to.   This is the achievement praised in the gospel message.  For to bear our own cross, and to find our own joy as the person whom God asks us to be, is to truly find ourselves.  It is to find who we really are.  And to rest in and claim that joy as our own takes a kind of courage that can face up to a world that demands the impossible and makes us miserable in the process, leading us off the sane and very real path that Christ asks us to enter as we seek to follow Him.  Because it is Christ who knows our burdens, our strengths, and the things of which we are capable, there is so much more that we serve when we seek to follow Him than the popular flattering images in magazines and television stories.  But it is in the statement of John the Baptist that we really come to full maturity and greatness, as Christ has said:  "But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Matthew 23:11-12).  To cultivate this kind of humility is to come to terms with the greatest truth we can face, that it is the place to which God calls us where we find ourselves, and to let go of impressing or following the world's images for us is to become truly free in Christ.   Of course, this is not to say that the place God has in mind for us to serve God won't be as one of those titans of industry or images in magazines of popular stars.  With God, all things are possible, and there is no such thing as a "cookie-cutter" saint.  We're given two great saints of tremendous courage and humility in John's Gospel -- Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea -- who were very socially prominent and wealthy men of their time and place.  But let us seek first the Kingdom, and then God will add to us what God will add.  To be ashamed of humility is to turn our back on the Gospels and Christ's central message.  And, lest we forget, it is to turn our backs on the humble whom Christ loved.  Let us find our true selves, our honest joy, in the place Christ has for us.  John the Baptist was an exceptionally revered figure in his time, and yet he goes one better in greatness through his exemplary humility.   John's disciples echo the voices of the Pharisees to come, who will woefully complain of Jesus' popularity:  "You see that you are accomplishing nothing. Look, the world has gone after Him!" (John 12:19).  But it is John's response that is the proper one, to which we must look ourselves to find our true joy.