"He has surpassed me..."

Reading John 1:15
"John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying 'This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.'"

It is no small thing to be able to look at another and honestly say 'he is a better man than I am.' We are naturally egocentric and believe in our own superiority. The person who comes to Jesus is forced to admit this or be doomed to projecting his own image onto Jesus. If I am not absolutely clear about the fact that Jesus 'has surpassed me' then I will use my relationship with Jesus to affirm and reinforce my own sin. Even my repentance will only be a reflection of my own desire to minimize and to let myself off the hook. I will be able to use Jesus to forgive myself and to condemn others. I will have baptized my self-righteousness.

If I can accept that Jesus is the better man, if, with John, I can say 'I am not worthy to untie the thongs of his sandals' (1:27), then I am positioned to hear the whole truth about myself and then real change is possible. This is the definition of Christian humility. The presence of this humility is tested for every time I am criticized. An immediate defensive reaction is a warning sign that something is amiss in my relationship with Jesus. Even if I think the criticism is not justified there should be something in me that says: 'they don't know the half of it, the don't know my secret sins, my thoughts, my neglected duties, they don't know my coldness, my lack of love, my wanderings, my betrayals of Jesus and his priorities...'. The presence of this humility is tested for every time I criticize someone else, every time I think that someone else's sin is worse than my own, someone else's rejection of Jesus is worse than my rejection of him, someone else's neglect is worse than my neglect, someone else's rebellion is worse than my rebellion.

The one thing that stands out about John the Baptist, more than anything else, is his humility with respect to Jesus:

"He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me." (v15, 30)
"I am not the Christ" (v20)
"I am not Elijah" (v21)
"I am not the Prophet" (v21)
"I am the voice of one calling in the desert" (v23)
"I am not worthy to untie the thongs of his sandals" (v27)
"He must increase but I must decrease" (3:30)

You will be a better man when you recognize that Jesus is the better man.