It feels like the dominant currency of today is attention. We work and spend and fight to win as much attention upon ourselves as possible, whether through honorable means or not as honorable. All of us want to be someone, and all of us want everyone else to see that we’re someone. So imagine how crazy it was that this man named John the Baptizer devoted his life to winning attention for someone else, and not at all for himself!
John baptized and preached for the sole purpose of glorifying the Lord, a purpose he found more than worthwhile. Not one bit of it was selfish; he wanted to direct people's attention entirely onto Christ Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, and prepare the way for Jesus to come and change the world. In fact, even when John’s observers started to think a bit too highly of him, he shot them down immediately. Surely I’m not the only one who would have wanted to revel in their mistake at least for a little bit, right? But John was a great minister of the gospel indeed; he knew his purpose, knew how good and important it really was, and knew that letting himself be exalted even a little would just become a distraction from that purpose.
The cool thing is that John was the last of a long line of biblical voices that devotedly prepared the way for the coming Christ! In this conversation between John and the Jewish leaders, they discuss a prophecy from Moses in Deuteronomy 18, the great prophet Elijah, and the voice in the wilderness mentioned in Isaiah 40. All of the Old Testament, including these three parts, point our attention forward to the coming Christ. This is no mere coincidence. No biblical story stands in isolation. Every prophet wants you to look at Jesus who is worthy of all glory.
Now, John the Baptizer held a unique role of heralding in the immediate coming of the King. But all of us are ministers of the gospel just like him! The other John, who wrote this gospel telling, wants you to see right off the bat that nothing is worthy of our attention other than Christ. It is our purpose, our responsibility, and indeed our greatest privilege to direct the world’s attention not at ourselves but at the Savior of the world. Whatever worth we in fact have comes from his saving work for us. He alone is infinitely worthy!
