John the Baptist delivered this line after being asked about Jesus taking over his baptizing business—He must become greater; I must become less.
John received a great deal of attention for his preaching and baptizing. So much so he was eventually beheaded. People assumed he would find in Jesus a competitor, a rival preacher setting up shop downriver.
But the man dressed in camel hair knew from whence his locusts and wild honey sprang. John the Baptist understood Jesus to be the Messiah sent from God, the long-awaited one. He would do nothing except promote the work of his Savior.
The Baptizer’s message remains countercultural. I’m told to become more, to seek greatness, to maximize me. But John pursued a different life plan—to make much of Jesus. Like John, when I let Jesus take the center, I find that I enjoy the edges.
John 3 in Through the Bible in 2024
Photo by Marcos Paulo Prado
And no one ever born has been greater than John. We’d do well to follow his example.