He Must Increase

Don’t you just HATE IT when you’re wrong! I mean really, is there anything so frustrating or even embarrassing as having to admit “I was wrong.” And yet, there is nothing more character building than being able to say that.

Stinks, doesn’t it? The very thing my pride fights against is the very thing that is going to make me a better person and, in fact, the very thing that will make me into who I really am! So, what’s the problem? Why do we struggle with admitting that we’re wrong or mistaken or need help? What seems to be the reason we so easily trip over this part of growing up?

I think part of it is the reason our first mother and father in the Garden resorted to passing the blame in the beginning: “It was that woman You gave me!” “The snake deceived me.” Sound familiar? At our heart, we are afraid that if others see us as mistaken that will diminish us in some way. We are afraid that others will think less of us. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spoken to someone about the mystery of confession and they responded that they were afraid confessing to the priest would diminish them in the priest’s eyes! Of course nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is I struggle with remembering what someone told me in confession even moments after they finish, because I usually have another person waiting to speak to me after they are done! We humans and our fear drive so much of our brokenness and our spiritual illness.

Just look at the example of St. John the Baptizer in today’s Gospel Lesson: At that time, Jesus and his disciples went into the land of Judea; there He remained with them and baptized. John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people came and were baptized. For John had not yet been put in prison.

Now a discussion arose between John’s disciples and a Jew over purifying. And they came to John, and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness, here he is, baptizing, and all are going to him.” John answered, “No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven. You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before Him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full. He must increase, but I must decrease.

“He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth belongs to the earth, and of the earth he speaks; He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what He has seen and heard, yet no one receives His testimony; he who receives His testimony sets his seal to this, that God is true.” John 3:22-33

St. John was famous. Of course he didn’t really care about that, but he knew that when his task was completed, he would be superseded by the ministry of the Messiah. Look how he handles the question from those who came to him to tell him that Jesus and His disciples were baptizing folks also. After the eventful baptism of our Lord by John at the Jordan, the public ministry of our Lord Jesus begins, and He keeps continuity with John’s ministry by administering the ritual bath that marks the change of life that baptism represents. He also becomes immediately more popular than John. But instead of John sulking and hiring a PR firm to burnish his market share, he says “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John knows himself and he knows the Lord sufficiently well that he is at peace with the reality of the situation. He sees beyond the accolades and fame to the purpose all of his life has been heading toward. And this very clarity and peace allows John the freedom to live out the joy of the truth! So it is with us, dear ones. As He increases in our lives, we decrease, but something wonderful happens when we are mature enough to embrace this! We find ourselves by losing ourselves! We discover our true selves without the fear of being forgotten or looked over or not “getting what’s our due.” We are free to know Him and know ourselves so clearly that His increase doesn’t mean our disappearance. Just the opposite is true. His taking His proper place in my life, my priorities, and my choices means that I, finally, don’t ever have to be afraid again, because my life is “hid with Christ in God.” (see Colossians 3:3)

Today, is Christ increasing in your life? Are you allowing His identity and His Life to drown your fear that you aren’t going to be noticed or appreciated or honored? It’s an amazing truth of our Orthodox faith that we gain our lives by losing them and we live by dying. As the old monastic saying goes “If you die before you die then when you die you won’t die!” Let’s embrace the ever growing Presence of Christ in our life and the joyous opportunity to grow up spiritually in the freedom of humility. It’s only then that we can ever be Orthodox on Purpose!

P.S. We are exciting about this Sunday’s Faith Encouraged LIVE program on Baptism with my special guest His Eminence, Metropolitan Savas of Pittsburgh. Tune in this Sunday night at 8 PM Eastern on AncientFaith.com