NOTES for Joh 3:34

Sometimes, after doing some good deed, one can feel a surge of strength. We are used to thinking that when we work, we give up strength and energy, and when we eat, we restore them. But this kind of logic is characteristic only of the fallen state of human nature, which we consider "natural." According to God's design, it is God who is the source of life and the giver of strength, and the human person is God's co-worker and a channel of His grace into the surrounding world. Thus a person's self-giving turns out to be participation in the source of life and the person's true nourishment, because the main thirst of the human being is the thirst for love. Jesus shows His disciples an example of such nourishment when He brings the Samaritan woman to a faith that changes her life and thereby fulfills the will of the Father who sent Him.

How simply Jesus speaks about Himself. He calmly declares that He is the Son of God, that He has come from above and is therefore above all... And just as calmly He states that no one accepts His testimony. Then why bear witness at all? This is usually how we reason: no one will listen to us anyway, so why speak? We will sit in silence; after all, do we have a monopoly on truth? Is it somehow more our responsibility than anyone else's? Jesus looks at the situation differently. The Truth is He Himself. The Truth is what must be proclaimed. He speaks the words of God because these words are supremely important, not because a sufficient number of listeners have gathered. What matters to Him is bearing witness to what He has seen and heard; then people will appear who accept His testimony and thereby attest that God is true... And what comes first for us: bearing witness to God, or having suitable conditions in which to bear that witness?

The account of certain people telling John that Jesus was baptizing and everyone was going to Him comes immediately after the mention of a dispute between John's disciples and the Jews. In this episode one can see an attempt by opponents, most likely from among the Pharisees, to drive a wedge between John and Jesus. But John is firm in his support of Jesus; moreover, he testifies that Jesus has been given authority from heaven to act.

Why, then, did John himself not become a direct follower and companion of Jesus? This is a difficult question. Presumably, however, John remembered Christ's words that 'it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness' (Matt. 3:15) and could have understood them in terms of a division of duties in serving God. We may also suppose that, although inspiration from above had made him aware of the importance of Christ's Person and mission, John did not immediately grasp intellectually the full significance of His coming into the world. And who, indeed, can comprehend all His fullness?

It is difficult to determine where one John's words end in this passage and the other's begin: they are inseparably interwoven and interconnected. It seems that John the Evangelist goes on to unfold and express in his own words the thoughts John the Baptist had stated briefly. Particularly important among what is said is the reminder that the words of the One who came from heaven are qualitatively higher than even the loftiest human wisdom. These words cannot be called fundamentally new or unexpected, but the reminder is important in connection with the testimony that Jesus is this One who has come. Unexpectedly, we hear that whoever accepts His testimony has set their seal to this: that God is true—in other words, has literally affixed a seal certifying God's truthfulness.

It is unfamiliar to think of ourselves as such a high authority, but the Lord places incomprehensible trust in our free choice. He wants to raise the human person high, far higher than we are capable of taking in.

Today's reading offers us John the Baptist's testimony about Jesus. The prophet had already recognized Him once and pointed to Him as the Messiah (John 1:29–34). Yet that testimony alone apparently proved insufficient. The reason was the jealousy of John's disciples (vv. 25–26). John himself, it would seem, had said quite unambiguously that he was not the Messiah (vv. 27–28). But his disciples' ambition probably played a part. Every outstanding person inevitably gathers a circle of disciples, and sometimes admirers, around them. Often, what keeps these people close to their teacher is not so much the desire to know the truth or learn to live righteously as a certain emotional comfort and sense of security. Perhaps this is why many disciples remained with John, although the prophet himself said that with Jesus' appearance his task was complete (vv. 29–30). But there may have been something else that kept John's disciples close to their teacher. It often happens that an event long and eagerly awaited comes as a surprise to those who prepared for it so carefully. This happens especially often when the event itself does not unfold quite as those waiting had imagined. John's disciples probably had their own ideas about the Messiah, more or less traditional for Gospel times, perhaps with an Essene coloring, since John himself was most likely connected with the Qumran community, which was Essene in character. Jesus turned out to be entirely unlike such a Messiah, which caused many to reject Him (vv. 31–32). John himself, however, apparently has no doubt about the truth of Jesus' words or His being the Messiah (vv. 33–36). Yet even the prophet's disciples, judging by their reaction to the success of Jesus' preaching, doubted Him. The last thing John wanted, of course, was to obscure Christ and the way into the Kingdom. But those frightened by the road or by the One calling them still managed to use him to hide from the Messiah who had come into the world and to remain as they were.

These words of John the Baptist are perhaps the best description of the life of a person who has learned why he lives. For as long as the basis and meaning of human life remains the person himself - his life, his love, his faith, his ascetic labor - he will never be able to say: "I must decrease." On the contrary, he will say: "My goal is my growth; I want to know more, see more, experience more, do more..." The line separating such a life from the life of the prophets and apostles (where, in Paul's words, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" - Gal. 2:20) is very thin. Yes, we really do need to learn, understand, experience, and do very much, but only on this path of our decrease does the highest calling in the world await us: to become the Friend of the Bridegroom, and not remain "earthly, speaking of earthly things."