This week's sermon: "He Must Increase, I Must Decrease"
John 3 seems like a strange place for John the Baptist to reenter. There he was in John 1 saying what he was not: not the light, not the Christ, not the prophet. Just a voice crying in the wilderness.
But then he returns in John 3, on the heels of Jesus' renowned encounter with Nicodemus. What prompts the Baptist's return?
John the Gospel writer reintroduces the Baptist as the model responder to the Father's plan to exalt his Son. It was the Father's plan that garnered the Baptist a following as "the voice crying in the wilderness," and now it is the Father's plan that the bride hears the voice of her bridegroom. John the Baptist sees the plan, embraces it, and says with glad approval, "He must increase, I must decrease."
It's not egomania for Jesus to conspire with his Father to bring attention to himself. It's love. Jesus is the Bridegroom-Lamb who dies to purify his bride and draw attention to himself that he might save her and protect her forever. This makes John an exceedingly happy friend of the groom.