The gospels are, at their most basic, the fallen nature of man held up against the perfect nature of God. The comparison shows us both the enormous gap between the two and the supreme and inexplicable desire of the Superior to reconcile the inferior to Himself.
Repeatedly through the scriptures within the four gospel, Jesus Christ reveals Himself by word, deed and perfectly-fulfilled prophecy. And repeatedly, His revelations are answered with the absurdities of man’s religion -- most of which continue to play out today.
It would almost be humorous if it weren’t so real.
During Jesus' time on earth, the disciples were constantly arguing who among them would be greatest. These debates would arise almost exclusively after Jesus would dispense a lesson on what His purpose actually was here -- to make Himself the lowest of all men, to the point of death on a cross, in order that we could commune with the most-high God.
The teachers of the law, the pharisees and sadducees, constantly called into question His ministry through the misguided filters of their skewed tradition rather than the clear lens of God's law. And their biggest disputes would arise after Jesus did something uncompromisingly miraculous.
Heal a crippled man's arm? Open a blind man's eyes? Well, He did those things on the sabbath, and you know what they say about working on the sabbath. Cast out a demon? Surely only a demon king could show such power. Whatever divine power was shown them, it seemed they always came up with a mortally flawed response in an attempt to explain it away.
And then we get this account of John the Baptist and his followers in John chapter 3.
Jesus and His disciples had returned to Judea and Jesus began baptizing there.
John's disciples see people flocking to this New Baptism and felt a sudden tinge of jealousy.
"He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified -- behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him!" they cried to John.
When you read it out of context, with the advantage of time passed, this is kind of a "Well, yeah," type of moment.
But John was able to see past the situation and quickly instruct his followers back onto the same page.
John had never given any miscommunication as to what his ministry was -- a preparation for the Messiah.
"You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ,' but 'I have been sent before Him,' John said.
Now that Christ's ministry had arrived, it seemed even John's disciples wanted to hold on to what they had always done, rather than embrace the Author of the Faith. Now where else in the gospels do we see that?
John the Baptist didn't want his disciples to make the same mistakes at the teachers of the law and ultimately miss the advent of their Eternal King.
It is part of human nature to desire to be right, or to at least be on the right side of an issue. We want to believe we've attached ourselves to the best answers -- to have rightly interpreted a situation and to have everyone else see it likewise.
Think about how this affects our present-day circumstances. With so many different denominations and minor quirks and differences in our beliefs, do we allow such matters to cloud the real point of faith?
Do we get John's-follower-syndrome, where our ministry, if even momentarily, becomes more important than the ministry of Jesus'. So often, our beliefs and intentions increase at the expense of Jesus' nature decreasing.
Is Christ's love sacrificed at the expense of proving a doctrinal issue? I've heard it said that it is ultimately better to be loving than right.
The two (Jesus' ministry and our ministry) not only should become one but need to be one. There can't be any separation. It's an idea fielded throughout scripture on a variety of levels.
In the greater Christian church today, I have often seen the need to be right on an issue prevail over the most important issue, which is whether or not a soul casts their faith on Jesus Christ as Lord. We tend to want our church, our study, our ministry and our particular beliefs to be the most popular.
But the danger there is that little about Jesus Christ was, is, or ever will be popular.
The tendency is to forget that it was the large religious mobs -- those with the numbers fully believing they were on the right side of an issue -- that brought about the deaths of Paul, Peter, Stephen and so many others along the way. It was the mob that condemned Jesus Christ to death.
As John says here "He must increase, but I must decrease."
Serving Christ is not just about aligning your beliefs and purposes with Him, but allowing His nature -- His very being -- to prevail over your heart.
He does not seek the number of people that align with you -- He seeks the hearts that will serve Him.
At the end of the day, that's all that matters. Not who you studied under or what church you attended or how you interpreted minor scriptural issues.
What matters is whether or not you rightly represented Jesus Christ as Lord of All, King of Creation, Healer of the wounded, Forgiver of our trangressions and Savior to the lost.
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"He who comes from above is above all. And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit measure. The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." -- John 3:31-36
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