Matthew 3:11–12: I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
The climax of John’s powerful ministry was to point to Christ. With appropriate humility, John understood his place in the bigger picture. John’s job was to serve as a marker, directing peoples eyes past himself to the coming Messiah-King. John was indeed a great man (11:11–14), but he derived his greatness from the even greater One whom he served. To illustrate the contrast between himself and the Messiah, John thought of the lowest of all tasks (removal of another person’s sandals), and then said he was even below that. He was voicing the impossibility of comparison between his humanity and the Messiah-King’s deity. 1
Your Word is Truth
How do you measure great success when considering Christian service? What impressed Jesus about His servants? Is your love towards others filled with grace & truth?
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. –1 Corinthians 13:7
You Alone are God
Keep me at Your feet, even if it is though my defeat. – TWEET IT
Your Will be Done
Lord, it is You that I want, it is You that I need. No other will do.
1. McGee, J. V. (1991). Thru the Bible commentary: The Gospels (Matthew 1-13) (electronic ed., Vol. 34). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
