Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- The Best Man's Role

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 01.08.22 | Aux. Bishop R. Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Christmas Weekday

John 3:22-30

Friends, today’s Gospel focuses on John the Baptist. I think it’s fair to say that you cannot really understand Jesus without understanding John, which is precisely why all four Evangelists tell the story of the Baptist as a kind of overture to the story of Jesus.

John did not draw attention to himself. Rather, he presented himself as a preparation, a forerunner, a prophet preparing the way of the Lord. He was summing up much of Israelite history but stressing that this history was open-ended, unfinished.

And therefore, how powerful it was when, upon spying Jesus coming to be baptized, he said, "Behold the Lamb of God." No first-century Israelite would have missed the meaning of that: behold the one who has come to be sacrificed. Behold the sacrifice, which will sum up, complete, and perfect the temple. Moreover, behold the Passover lamb, who sums up the whole meaning of that event and brings it to fulfillment.

And this is why John says, "He must increase; I must decrease." In other words, the overture is complete, and now the great opera begins. The preparatory work of Israel is over, and now the Messiah will reign.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Jesus and his disciples went into
the region of Judea,
where he spent some time with them
baptizing.
John was also baptizing in Aenon
near Salim,
because there was an abundance of
water there,
and people came to be baptized,
for John had not yet been
imprisoned.
Now a dispute arose between the
disciples of John and a Jew
about ceremonial washings.
So they came to John and said to
him,
“Rabbi, the one who was with you
across the Jordan,
to whom you testified,
here he is baptizing and everyone is
coming to him.”
John answered and said,
“No one can receive anything except
what has been given from heaven.
You yourselves can testify that I
said that I am not the Christ,
but that I was sent before him.
The one who has the bride is the
bridegroom;
the best man, who stands and listens
for him,
rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s
voice.
So this joy of mine has been made
complete.
He must increase; I must
decrease.”+++