Asked For A Comment

People like to comment on things. If you don’t believe me, just post something online and wait for the takes to come rolling in. People can’t seem to help themselves. Even when their opinion is irrelevant or unwarranted, they can’t resist chiming in. Many times those comment don’t do much of any good and may even cause great harm

I think it might have to do with our pride. We expect everyone wants to know our take since we are so important. If we don’t remark we might not be relevant anymore.

This concept, I think, is seen in John 3, when we read about a discussion involving John the Baptist disciples. In verse 25 we read, “Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purification.” The next line is John’s disciples going to him with their concerns that all the people were now going to Jesus to be baptized. Why the odd transition?

Maybe in the discussion, the people quoted Jesus. Maybe they felt undermined by Him. Whatever the motivation, they feel like John needs to do something or he might lose his popularity to Jesus.

Yet that is exactly what John wants.

"He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John 3:30

For John, his mission isn’t about elevating himself but fulfilling the task given to him by God. He is to proclaim God’s truth and uplift Jesus, not to make a name for himself and gain followers. He is to point people to Son, not to bask in the limelight.

Maybe we could learn something from John. Instead of trying to put ourselves in the conversation maybe we should consider how it would uplift Jesus if we do. Some folks want to “be the bride at every wedding and the corpse at every funeral”. John was happy to be the best man, uplifting the groom and his bride, rather than himself.

We too should think more about lifting up Jesus and his bride, the church rather than blowing our own horn.

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