The Gospel According to John 3:22-36 [NLTse]

²² Then Jesus and His disciples left Jerusalem and went into the Judean countryside. Jesus spent some time with them there, baptizing people.

²³ At this time John the Baptist was baptizing at Aenon, near Salim, because there was plenty of water there; and people kept coming to him for baptism. ²⁴ (This was before John was thrown into prison.) ²⁵ A debate broke out between John’s disciples and a certain Jew over ceremonial cleansing.²⁶ So John’s disciples came to him and said, “Rabbi, the man you met on the other side of the Jordan River, the one you identified as the Messiah, is also baptizing people. And everybody is going to Him instead of coming to us.”

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. ³² He testifies about what He has seen and heard, but how few believe what He tells them! ³³ Anyone who accepts His testimony can affirm that God is true. ³⁴ For He is sent by God. He speaks God’s words, for God gives Him the Spirit without limit. ³⁵ The Father loves His Son and has put everything into His hands. ³⁶ And anyone who believes in God’s Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn’t obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God’s angry judgment.”

Our reading begins with John the Baptist baptizing at Aenon. Aenon is a Greek word coming from the Hebrew term “ay-yin”. It means “spring” or “natural fountain”, and was identified as a place near Salem. Its probable location was near the Jordan River in the Wadi Far’ah valley, an area full of springs. ( You can see its likely location here, down the Jordan Rift Valley from Capernaum, and about 20 miles down the Jezreel Valley from Nazareth. Jerusalem would be just a bit off our map to the southwest, here.)

The Gospel makes clear that (of course) this all took place before John was thrown into prison by Herod Antipas. (uuu Not Herod the Great who ruled over all of Judea, but his son, who only ruled over Galilee and the area east of the Jordan, here, called Perea.)

Some of John’s followers have come to him on account of a debate they were having with some religious folks. The discussion has left them concerned that people are leaving John to begin following Jesus. (Whom John himself had baptized, and whom John had plainly proclaimed as being the long-awaited Messiah.)

John replies talking about his relationship with Jesus using a marriage metaphor. “I’m just the best man,” John says, “Jesus the Messiah is the groom. I’m just glad to get to stand near Him and hear what He says. But the great Wedding is all about Him. I need to be seen less and less.”

John goes on to say how, as God’s Son, Jesus has come from Heaven, and so He can speak of heavenly things first-hand! And John ends pointing his followers to go follow Jesus, telling them – and telling us – that only after you have accepted the things that Jesus says, only then will you know that what He’s saying is true. I’ve heard it paraphrased this way: That sometimes you have to first believe to then be able to see.

I am struck, in this passage, by John’s humility and the way in which he honors the Lord Jesus, here. Now you may say, “Duh! Of course John is going to honor Jesus. He’s Jesus!” But faithful people don’t always do the faithful thing. It is extraordinary, I think, that John so boldly puts himself in second place to the Lord, even when he knows that doing so will start losing him his followers and, in losing his followers, lose him his source of support and income.

I think it is so beautiful that John knows who he is and seems so content with that, and that he knows the role he has been called to: The grandeur and greatness of it! (After all, the Lord Jesus Himself said of John, “I tell you the truth, of all who have ever lived, none is greater than John the Baptist.”) And yet John also seems to have embraced the limitations of his role, too, because Jesus also went on to say, “Yet even the least person in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than [John]!” (Matthew 11:11)

Have you ever considered that: You and I are greater than the great John the Baptist! The gifts God has given us by the Holy Spirit, the glory and honor He lavishes on us in Christ: All greater than John the Baptist! And here we see John greatly honoring the Lord Jesus! How well do we – great ones that we are! – how do we honor Jesus? (And while we’re at it, what does it even mean to “honor” someone, anyway?)

In the Old Testament “honor” is translated from the figurative use of the word kavod, which most literally means to be heavy or weighty, but, again, only figuratively, such as a weighty person in society; someone who is honorable, noteworthy, impressive, worthy of respect; a person of high social position or wealth, perhaps; those in positions of responsibility and authority, definitely; one might be “honored” for heroic feats of courage, faithfulness, or other ways of having made a name for themselves. And giving honor to such a one would be to show that person respect, attention, perhaps even obedience. (And I mention obedience because the prophets again and again lament how Israel “honored” God with their words, but how their actions too often showed they truly believed Him to be worthless.)

Which leads us to the New Testament word for “honor”, timeo. And timeo means to price something; to set the value of something. (So the degree to which we honor someone simply shows their value to us: Perhaps we show them they are precious to us; perhaps we show them we find them worthless.)

So, in all of our greatness how well do we honor Jesus? Do our thoughts and our words, does the language we use and the actions we take, do our activities and attitudes show Him and others around us that He is truly weighty to us? That we truly value Him?

1 John 4 says, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, Whom we cannot see?” (v. 20) Which gets me wondering, can we know how well we truly honor Jesus by looking at the ways we honor those who make up His body, our fellow Christians? How is the honor we hold for the Lord Jesus shown in the ways we honor one another?

And I look around this Sanctuary and I see those of you who are very different from me in your abilities and temperaments, and I see people whom I’ve disagreed with, and I see people who hold different beliefs about some of the non-essentials of our faith than I do, and I see those of you who are different parts in Christ’s body than I am, etc. And if honoring Christ means honoring you then that means I have to figure out ways to honor all those differences, and more: Different ways of doing things; different things that you think should be done from what I think should be done; different ways of expressing our faith, of worshiping, of raising our kids…

“How do I honor you so I can show my Savior that I honor Him?” Even as I ask that questions, the Word God brings to my mind is Philippians 2:3-4, “Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.”

“Be humble”, the Holy Spirit tells me. C.S. Lewis said that humility was not thinking less of ourselves but thinking of ourselves less. So I can humble myself and honor others even by simply setting my mind on their troubles instead of my own, and thinking about what they want instead of just thinking about what I want.

The Holy Spirit tells me, “Think of others as being better than you, Ben.” So even though I think I’m right and you’re wrong, and even though as pastor I probably can get my own way every single time, if I wanted, I might do things your way instead, to honor you and honor Christ. And even if I don’t like you all that much, I might give you a lot more attention and even serve you in ways I might not serve others whom I like more, simply in order to honor you and honor Christ.

Let’s pause for a moment to just look around us here. It can be easy to hear and talk about things like this in abstract terms: Honor people; honor people; honor people; mwah-mwah, mwah-mwah wah… But we’re not just talking about honoring others: We’re talking about honoring those we’re looking at right now as we look around the room; “How can I honor him? How can I honor her?” …

The American dream and American values tend to promote independence: “I’m my own man (or woman),” we’re taught to say. And the American church has bought into that in many ways: “I’m not responsible to anybody; I don’t need to confess my sins to anybody; I don’t even need to go to church; just me and God, that’s all that matters!” But those are all lies.

We’ll honor each other and others more if we’ll acknowledge how much we need each other. After all, the faith we practice today has been built on the lives and study and sacrifices of generations past. Nor are we independent from our fellow Christians, even those that live nations away! We are one inter-dependent Body, and, as Paul says, “The eye can never say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you.’” We need each other. And recognizing that can lead me to honor you, if I will let it, even if I only humble myself and consider you better than me for our Father’s sake Who, just as He’s chosen and adopted me, has chosen and adopted you, to be His very Own…

John said to his disciples that day so long ago: “Anyone who accepts [Jesus’] testimony can affirm that God is true.” (v. 33) Let us accept these things. Let us put them into practice in your lives. Let us honor one another and in doing so honor Christ. And so experience for yourself more and more that God is true.

“Blessing and honor and glory and power belong to the One sitting on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.” (Revelation 5:13)