Saturday after Epiphany, January 11, 2025

John 3, 22-30

Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing. John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there, and people came to be baptized, for John had not yet been imprisoned. Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings. So 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 baptizing and everyone is coming to him.” John answered and said, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. You yourselves can testify that I said that I am not the Christ, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”

“He spent some time with them baptizing.”  Only in St. John’s Gospel do we learn that the Lord Jesus engaged in baptizing though, as it is made clear in John 4, 2: “Jesus himself did not baptize, but his disciples.”  His doing so must have given the impression that he followed John the Baptist.  And this is what leads to the disciples of John to point out that “everyone is coming to him.”  The disciple should never overshadow his master.  Perhaps they expected that John the Baptist, apprised of this news, would advise his disciple to move further downstream or in some other way lessen his ministry.  

“Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings”.  The Evangelist makes a curious distinction here between the disciples of John, who were Jews, and “a Jew”.  The Greek word could be translated either as “Judean” or as “Jewish” (as in, a Jewish man).  It is possible that the Evangelist wanted to make it clear that the man was a Judean and not a Galilean.  But he also uses the word as an alternative for “Pharisee”.  This would make sense, for the Pharisees had great concern for ceremonial washings.  It would be interesting to know what position the Baptist’s disciples took on this matter but the Evangelist moves past it to get to the meat of his account, John the Baptist’s testimony to the Lord Jesus.  Still, we can surmise that this Jew was saying that baptisms should be done in purified water, not river water, confusing John’s baptism for the washings prescribed by the Pharisees.

“No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.”  John the Baptist answers the concern of his disciples, saying that if everyone is going to Jesus, it is the work of God.  And it is fitting that this is so: “You yourselves can testify that I said that I am not the Christ, but that I was sent before him.”  That is, that I am not the Messiah, the Anointed One.  The Lord never claimed to be “the Christ” because the term had become mixed up with the expectation of a national deliverer.  He himself preferred the title “the Som of Man”, which, as used in the Book of Daniel and in the apocryphal though popular Book of Enoch, was understood as purely religious.  John the Baptist indicates that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, but he understands the term correctly, as the one anointed as the Savior of the world. 

“The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice.”  John uses “bride “ in the sense that the Prophets used it: for the Chosen People, expanded now to include Gentile believers.  But the Prophets understood the Bridegroom as God, so John makes it plain that Jesus is God.  John himself is the “best man” — the Greek has “the friend of the bridegroom, who would send out invitations to the wedding feast that he had arranged at the groom’s house.  So here John shows his understanding of his role: his call to baptism is an invitation tο the Jews for the arrival of the Bridegroom, the Lord Jesus.

“So this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase; I must decrease.”  John the Baptist emphasizes his joy at the arrival of the Lord Jesus and compares it to the joy of the friend of the bridegroom when he hears the announcement from the street that he is coming with his bride.  This is the moment he has been preparing and working for.  His friend, whom he loves, has brought his bride with him and now they will celebrate. The friend of the bridegroom has bustled about the house, seemingly everywhere at once, making sure that all is ready and that the servants have everything they need.  But when the bridegroom arrives, his job is done and he recedes into the background.  “He must increase, etc.” The Greek verb means “it is necessary” and “it is inevitable”.  John is calming his disciples, telling them that this is what is supposed to happen.  And this is why he can say that his joy is now made “complete”.

These last words of John sum up the spiritual life.  As we grow, and as our faith in Jesus and our love for him grows, he becomes our everything.  We see that we exist solely for him.  This is the meaning of Psalm 123, 2:

“As the eyes of servants are on the hands of their masters, as the eyes of the handmaid are on the hands of her mistress: so are our eyes unto the Lord our God.”  Our supreme model in this is the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose intercession we should seek for this to be accomplished in our lives.