Devotions
Rev Gav
Comparison
John 3.22–30
After this Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, and he spent some time there with them and baptized. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there, and people kept coming and were being baptized. (John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.)
Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew. They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptising, and all are going to him.” John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Reflect
Some of us love to be in the spotlight — where our identities are defined by our achievements or status. However, healthy humility, as modelled by John the Baptist, is defined by honest and truthful comparison. When John identified himself, he did so by his relation to Jesus Christ.
It makes me wonder what it would be like if our world leaders did the same? Somehow, I can’t imagine them saying, “Christ must become greater and I must become lesser.” However, the principle does not only apply to those who are on a pedestal and in the limelight, but also to you and me.
Have you ever considered that because your own identity is in Christ, it is defined by honest and truthful comparison with Christ? Our identity is not in what we do, or what we consume. For example, you are not a ‘plumber’ or an ‘administrator’, nor are you a ‘Swifty’ or ‘soccer fan’. You are a child of God, called to point away from yourselves and towards your heavenly parent.
John the Baptist used quite an extreme and ‘intimate’ example when he compared himself to Christ. He described himself as the bridegroom’s friend, but what you probably didn’t know was that when he said that the friend, “stands and hears him (the bridegroom) and rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice” he is talking about the joy of standing outside the door of the bridal chamber and hearing the bridegroom cry out in ecstatic orgasm signifying that the marriage had been consummated! Yup! Talk about making it clear that his role was NOT to be the bridegroom!
Humility is not just a mindset but is beneficial for our wellbeing. There is great comfort and joy in knowing our place, recognising that God is God, and that we are God’s children. We stop trusting in our own abilities or looking to ourselves, and discover that the burden of life, with all its worries and anxieties, is gently lifted from our shoulders.
Pray
Holy God
Thank you that my
identity is found in you.
Today, may I recognise that
you are my heavenly parent
and I am your child.
I put my trust in you
to guide me and lead me
in all things.
This day and forever.
and then