1st Tuesday of Lent (February 24). Increase… decrease

Prepare to Listen.  In him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
 
Prayerfully Read John 3:22-30
22After this Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, and he spent some time there with them and baptized.  23John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there, and people kept coming and were being baptized.  24(John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison.)
25Now a discussion about purification arose between John’s disciples and a Jew.  26They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”  27John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.  28You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’  29He 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.  30He must increase, but I must decrease.”
 
Prayerfully Wonder
A controversy[1] about purification arose between John’s disciples and an unidentified Jew.  Yet John’s disciples didn’t complain about that, but about Jesus’ growing popularity; all were going to him.  They believed there was a limited supply and thus, if some increased, others would decrease.  If Jesus gained disciples, then John would lose them.  And who wants to be a loser?  We can feel for them.
 
John was no fool.  He saw Jesus’ success and realized if people were going to Jesus, they wouldn’t come to him.  Yet he didn’t see this as loss and refused to support his disciples’ envy.  He pointed out that Jesus’ achievement was “from above,” from God.  He also reminded them that his entire mission was to prepare the way for Messiah and then go out of business.  Like the groom’s friend, his duty was “to lead the bride to the bridegroom and to keep watch outside the bridal chamber,”[2] and not to become a rival.  Instead of making him envious, John was delighted.  “My joy has been fulfilled,” he said.
 
Therefore, he could humbly say, “He must increase, but I must decrease.”  Jesus must gain, I must lose.  Imagine saying of a rival at work: She must get all the profits that I helped gain.  I’ll take nothing.  That’s unheard of in our competitive culture.  Decrease?  No ways!  But, for Jesus to increase, you and I must decrease our attachments to ego, wanting more stuff, more success, more whatever.  Instead, practice John’s humility.  Decrease so that Jesus can increase in you.
 
In what areas of your life do you need to decrease so that Jesus can increase?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, show me the way to live so that I decrease in all that hinders living a life in which others can see you increasing in me.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Decrease so Jesus can increase in you.
[1] The Greek term translated discussion, means controversy or dispute.
[2] Brodie, Thomas L.  The Gospel According to John.  New York, NY: Oxford University Press.  1993, p. 206.