LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Sent and Friend
"Ye yourselves are witnesses unto me, that I said, I am not the Christ, but I am sent before him. He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth by him, and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly at the voice of the bridegroom: this my joy therefore is full" (John 3:28-29).
In the words of John 3: 28-29 there are two self-references of John the Baptist: he claims to be "sent" before Jesus, and "friend of the bridegroom". When the Jews sent messengers to John to ask him who he was, he answered that he was only a messenger and not the Christ. John was very clear about the mission for which he was born. He came as a forerunner of the Messiah to prepare the way before him, not to make a way for himself. Consequently, John places himself in the right place before the Lord.
John also said: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah" (Jn. 1:23). Luke quotes extensively from Isaiah's prophecy, which applied entirely to John (3:4-6). Three times he said that he who came after him was before him, and that he was not worthy to untie the latchet of his shoes (Jn. 1:15, 27, 30).
The other self-reference is to John as the "friend of the bridegroom". Declaring himself to be the friend of the bridegroom presupposes the existence of a wedding, of a Bridegroom and a bride. We see, then, how John, even before the Pauline revelation about the church (in Ephesians 5), already had this light on the matter. And as a friend, his joy is that the Bridegroom has the bride.
John shows the beauty of his character by adding at once: "He must increase, but I must decrease" (Jn. 3:30). This is John's character, and in this he is an example to all God's servants. Although they too are part of the body of Christ -of this heavenly bride- yet in a certain sense they are not, but mere bride-makers, friends of the Bridegroom, who rejoice to give him a well-disposed Bride.
Paul said to the Corinthians: "For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a pure virgin to Christ" (2 Cor. 11:2). Paul, like John, saw himself as a bride-maker, whose mission was limited to presenting to the Bridegroom a pure virgin as a bride - the church.
Both being sent and being the Bridegroom's friend entails having Another as the center of attention. It is not the sent one who is the center, nor is it the friend. Both the one and the other are indebted to Another, to whom they bear witness, and whom they seek to please.
In the present days we need to bow before the Lord for grace and mercy, so that we may fulfill this mission of matchmakers "with zeal for God". The tendency to be self-centered is too great, especially if there are those who follow and flatter the servants of God. A man like John, or like Paul, had been prepared by God to resist this temptation. The preparation of John and Paul had taken place in the wilderness - the proper place to be stripped of all personal pretension, of all vanity and pride.