Last week our Gospel reading centered around John the Baptist, and his ministry of preparing people for the coming of the Messiah, his fearless and bold preaching, and announcing the Lord’s coming appearance. Today our Gospel reading takes another look at John the Baptist, and another aspect of his character.
Despite his hardline preaching of repentance from sin, John the Baptist was a popular preacher. Crowds of people came out from nearby Jerusalem and the surrounding areas to hear him speak. There were even some folks who came down from Galilee to hear him, such as the brothers James and John, along with their friend Andrew, all of whom later became Jesus’ disciples. John the Baptist had his own band of disciples, men who followed him around, near the Jordan River area where he was baptizing. Even King Herod was interested in John the Baptist, and in hearing his message.
Now, though, as we read in our Scripture passage for today, John’s disciples were experiencing some professional jealousy over the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and the people who were flocking to Him (vs. 25-26). They had been enjoying the crowds and popularity that John the Baptist had, and were probably feeling rather good about themselves and their association and connection with his ministry. But now, here comes this other man, this new preacher, and people were heading over to Him! This “new kid on the block” was attracting more crowds. They noticed that John’s attendance numbers were dwindling, and Jesus’ were growing, and they were not happy, so they went to John and complained.
What did John the Baptist do about that? If he had been like some preachers today, he might have tried to think up some new ways to put more pizzazz into his preaching. Maybe add a new and popular “worship band” to attract the younger people. He might even have gotten some of his disciples to spread a little bad gossip about Jesus and His disciples to discredit His ministry, and bring the crowds back to himself. We see this type of rivalry among many big ministries today as they each try to outdo the others in attracting large crowds. However, John the Baptist did absolutely nothing like that.
Instead of being jealous of Jesus, John exhibited humble faithfulness to Jesus and His ministry as the Messiah and Son of God. John reminded his disciples of some of the things he had preached about, such as that he was not the Messiah, but that his ministry was to announce the coming of the Messiah (vs. 27-28). John’s disciples must not have been paying too much attention then, especially since John had pointed Jesus out to the crowds the day that He came to be baptized (John 1:29-36). John the Baptist knew right from the start that his position and calling was to point others to Jesus.
John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the Messiah, and that his work was to prepare the way for Him. John knew that he was merely a vessel for God to use to point people to the Savior. As he spoke to his own disciples he gave the example of a bridegroom and his best man (vs. 29). The best man doesn’t get the bride. He is there to help and assist the bridegroom before and during the wedding, and then steps back when the bride arrives. John told his disciples that he was the best man, there to serve the Groom, which was Jesus, the Messiah.
Just like with John, our true mission should be to influence and point people to follow Jesus, and not ourselves. How many preachers and teachers today want the focus to be on themselves and their ministry, rather than on Jesus? John the Baptist was willing to decrease in importance (vs. 30). Any attention drawn to ourselves distracts from God. Jesus is the Savior and the hope for the world, and He alone should get all of the credit.
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