John 3:27-30
"27 John replied, “No one can receive anything unless God gives it from heaven. 28 You yourselves know how plainly I told you, ‘I am not the Messiah. I am only here to prepare the way for him.’ 29 It is the bridegroom who marries the bride, and the best man is simply glad to stand with him and hear his vows. Therefore, I am filled with joy at his success. 30 He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less. 31 “He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else."
Right before this passage of scripture, John "the Baptist's" disciple's had come to him complaining about more people going to Jesus to be baptised; instead of him. John's reply really blows me away. Look at verse 30 in particular: "30 He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less." Awesome right? Now let's take a look at verse 31: 31 “He has come from above and is greater than anyone else. We are of the earth, and we speak of earthly things, but he has come from heaven and is greater than anyone else." to see how awesome John's reply really was. He was just a human ONLY human. Jesus understood "things of heaven" but John only understood being a human. Now how would YOU feel if this happened to you? Would you have the ability to say it was all good, that whomever it was SHOULD become more and more popular, while you faded into nothing? Ok, let's look at this another way; for you girls out there; say you are in Jr. High school and the MOST popular girl there is. Everyone wants to be you, or date you. Then, in your last year of Jr. High, this new girl moves in, she is younger then you and all of the sudden everyone wants to be HER instead of you, or date HER instead of you. Now how do you feel? Are you happy for the new girl, or do you simply want to claw her eyes out? I can tell you that I've never been the popular girl, but when I look at that situation I'd be in the clawing camp...100% in the clawing camp.
How does John do it? I know that later he questions things a bit, (Matthew 11:2-3: 2 John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, 3 “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting,t or should we keep looking for someone else?”) but in this instance, he goes right for the heart of the matter; it's not ME that is the Messiah, it's Jesus! I'll be honest, I have no idea how John can feel that way, none. I guess it's just one more reason why I admire him; from the beginning he knew and recognized who Jesus was (Luke 1:42-44), and he knew that he was to clear the way for Jesus. He did all of this with a willing heart, but not only was his heart willing, it was human; which makes it even more extraordinary!
I wish that I were more like this remarkable human, able to lessen myself in order to make someone else greater. I guess I will just have to pray for a humbleness like John's, and a grateful heart to accept that humbleness.
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