53. In True Humility

John 3:22-36, Romans 12:1-2

Key verse: "He must become greater; I must become less."

John 3:30

As we've already said, John was a cousin of Jesus.  Like Jesus, John also had a miraculous story to be shared concerning his birth.  John's family was of the priesthood.  Both of his parents were descended from Aaron himself.  (Luke 1:5) John could have become one of the great and powerful leaders of the temple.  Before John was born, John's Father had been chosen, by the casting of the lot, to burn incense before the Lord on the Day of Atonement, a rare privilege indeed.  (Luke 1:8-10 ) By worldly standards, and by Jewish religious standards, John had many reasons to be proud of who he was.  John, however, unlike so many of us, remembered who he was and kept his perspective intact. 

His followers were becoming concerned and possibly jealous of this upstart, Jesus, a carpenter's son, who was getting some of the attention that they thought John deserved.  After all, it was John who had baptized Him!  John, however, was not tempted away from his calling by their panic.  "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven." (John 3:27) John knew what he had received and his calling was not to be Messiah!  He knew that he could only be the friend of the bridegroom, not the bridegroom himself.  He knew that he was from the earth and to the earth he would return.  He knew that he was a mere man, and he knew that Jesus was different and more important than him. 

Jesus was from above and would bear witness to what is above.  John knew that Jesus was the bridegroom and John knew better than to try to take His place. 

Instead, John knew that with Jesus’ arrival on the scene, John needed to decrease in popularity so that people would no longer be attracted to him.  He knew that what Jesus had to offer was far superior to anything that John could offer the people himself.  John knew that, as a man, he might be able to symbolically wash away sin with water, but John knew that Jesus could truly offer forgiveness that only God and God's Son, could provide. 

This is similar to our own walk with Christ.  When Jesus appears on the scene of our lives, and we truly surrender to Him, He must increase and we must decrease.  We are of the earth.  What we have to offer the world pales in comparison to what God wishes to offer the world through us.  When we no longer conform to the things of this world and allow ourselves to be transformed by the renewal of our minds in Christ Jesus, we give up our own ambitions and claims to fame to allow Him to give us the gifts from heaven to serve Him, and those around us as well. 

We must decrease and let Him increase in our lives.  What we want must become less and less important than what He wants for us as His will becomes clear within us.  In letting that happen, we will become more like Christ to the glory of God, which, in truth is what we should really want anyway. 

Hymn: "May the Mind Of Christ My Savior"