John 3:27-36

2. John 3:27-36.

John does not solve the difficulty raised by the Jew or the Jews. He goes directly to the foundation of things. After having characterized the relation between the two personages of whom it is desired to make rivals, he shows that all opposition, even all comparison between them, is out of place. The solution of the pending question follows of itself from this general explanation. The discourse has two parts which are very distinct and the idea of which evidently answers to the given situation: “ I ” and “ He,” or, to use John's own expressions, the friend of the bridegroom (John 3:27-30), and the bridegroom (John 3:31-36). The first must be thrown into the shade and decrease; the second must increase. Each of the two, therefore, is in his place; that which grieves his disciples fills him with joy. It will be asked why the forerunner did not at that moment abandon his particular position, in order to go and join himself, with his disciples, to the retinue of Jesus. The answer to this question, often proposed, is not difficult. Summoned to prepare Israel for the kingdom of the Messiah, John was like the captain of a vessel, who must be the last to abandon the old ship, when all its company are already safely in the new one. His special part, officially marked out, continued so long as the end was not yet attained, that is, so long as the whole people were not yet given to Jesus.