Going Deeper: Meeting the Messiah in John 1-4Sýnishorn

Day 6: The Best Man Speaks (John 3:22-36)

Read John 3:22-36

At the centre of this section of John’s Gospel we come back to someone we met earlier, John the Baptist, and back to the wedding theme we saw on day three.

Jesus and His followers are in the countryside, baptising people who come to Him – dipping them in water as a sign of turning back to God, a symbol of sins being washed away (3:22). John is also baptising, but his disciples are having a bad day. With people now going to Jesus, they are worried that Jesus – ‘that man’ – is taking away John’s job (3:26).

We might expect John the Baptist to be upset, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. John points out that he has always said he wasn’t the Messiah (which is perfectly true, see 1:20). John’s job was to prepare people for what was coming – in the words of 1:23 – to ‘make straight the way for the Lord’.

John then explains what he means, by getting us to picture a wedding. The bride / God’s people, belong to the bridegroom. And that’s not John. John is just the best man – the friend who helps the bridegroom / Jesus. Far from being disappointed that Jesus is getting all the attention, John is full of joy. The bridegroom is in His rightful place. Just as it would be strange for the best man to grab the bride for the first dance at the wedding, or stand next to the bride in all the photos, so John knows this is not about him. As Jesus becomes greater, John steps back (3:30).

We're also told that it’s right that this happens, because Jesus is totally unique. Jesus is the one who has come from above, from heaven. This gives Him ultimate authority in what He says. Unlike anybody else, when Jesus speaks about heaven, He’s telling us what He’s seen for Himself (3:32). Jesus has the right to speak the way He does, and the consequences of listening to Him are life-changing.

If we believe in Jesus, we are given eternal life; if we reject Jesus, God’s wrath (judgement) remains on us. John says ‘whoever’. When it comes to the words of Jesus, our response to Him really is the difference between life and death.