Jesus said, “Of those born on this earth, no one is greater than John the Baptist.” Everyone I know would love to hear that kind of high praise. What made John so great?
John was famous throughout Israel. Common folk and leaders made pilgrimages to hear him speak. But after John baptized Jesus, John’s disciples began to abandon him to follow Jesus. And John said, "He must increase, but I must decrease." (John 3:30)
John’s life reveals the mystery of real spiritual vitality, a life rich in hope, joy, and vision. The life we all want. And it means a kind of decrease, a letting go, an abandonment of self. Letting go doesn’t make us less of ourselves, it makes us more of ourselves. It was after John said, “I must decrease” that Jesus said he was the greatest of all humans till then.
John had to let go of fame and followers. Most of us don’t have that problem, we have no fans. We have to let go of something else:
What happened to Peter? What made him so brave? What turned his life around? He finally abandoned his false image of God and embrace who Jesus said he was.
Someone once said: “Jesus Christ is always unyielding to my claim to my right to myself. The one essential element in all our Lord’s teaching about discipleship is abandon, no calculation, no trace of self-interest.”
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