Increasing and Decreasing
John 3:22-36
February 27, 2015
Did anyone every pass you by? Maybe it was for a promotion, a new job, a solo or a position on a team. It hurts. If you know that the other person was better qualified, it still hurts. Even if you are happy for the other person, it still hurts. They increase and you decrease.
I often wonder how John the Baptist felt about Jesus' growing popularity. After all, John was the one who came first, preparing the way. Yet many of his own disciples left John to follow Jesus.
In our Gospel Lesson today, some of John's disciples reported to him that Jesus, the one who John had just a few days before, now was baptizing and "all are going to him." (verse 26). The Gospel doesn't tell us how John felt internally; but we do hear John's words of response, "He must increase, but I must decrease." (verse 30).
It takes special grace to accept that someone else may be called to increase while we decrease. There are times that we feel called to compete, to work our way to the top. But there also is a time to step down. "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." (Ecclesiastes 3:1). The key is to discern God's will for our lives, moment by moment, and submit to His will.
And yet, whether we are increasing or decreasing, we are invited to recognize God's presence. We also are called to recognize in this season of Lent that Jesus Himself recognized His mission to decrease, to the point of death, so that we might increase into that life called eternal life. He "emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death--even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:7-8).
Because Jesus was willing to decrease, "God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name..." (Philippians 2:9).
Let this same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus!
A Prayer: Give me a humble heart, O God. Amen.
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