We Must Decrease - He Must Increase
Church here we are at our second week of our creed series. We are exploring the Apostles’ Creed so that we can better know the ins and outs of our faith. We want to know the foundations of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. We got to have these foundations within our bones so that when it becomes too hard to believe that the world is good and beautiful, when things are really tough, we can point to this simple creed and know a few good things about God, ourselves, and the world around us.
Last week we talked about God the Father. We talked about what it means to believe in a Creator God who is also Abba or “Dad,” to all of creation and why that does and must change our outlook towards the world around us. We are challenged to then know that we follow a God that isn’t far away from us, but rather near and caring about what goes on in our day-to-day lives.
We also talked about doubt and how our creeds are not afraid of our doubt, rather our doubt has a place within them. We know that we follow a God who both made the Earth and the Heavens-- everything we cannot touch, see or know on our own was crafted by the same God we talk to as a loving parent.
And so the one thing I want you to leave this morning holding on to for the rest of the week is this-- as we become more like Christ, we begin to live life as it was meant to be lived. As we become more like Christ, we begin to find freedom in this life and the next life.
The portion of the creed we are talking about this week is about Jesus-- here it is:
Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the Virgin Mary
Suffered under Pontius Pilate
Was crucified, dead and buried.
The third day he rose from the dead
And sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
Substantially more to work with this week, right? And that makes sense, right? I mean, Jesus is the reason for all of this, right? The cornerstone of what we believe and why all of this church business matters. Without Jesus, we are just trying our best and trying to be on our best behavior. Jesus gives us substance, gives us a backing, gives us a marker to reach for and the sort of Divine grace we could never earn on our own.
Our passage today comes from my favorite book of the bible. The Gospel according to Saint John reads a lot like a comic book wherein the hero is Jesus. Jesus is my favorite superhero so of course I would like this comic book. This particular passage has words from John the Baptist, who was Jesus’ cousin. John the Baptist or John the Baptizer was a character in the historical narrative of Jesus’ life that played an important and supporting role. John was also Jesus’ cousin and so he and Jesus knew each other before their ministry began. They went way back-- the story actually says that while John was still in the womb, he moved around when near the pregnant Virgin Mary.
Prophecy said that the Messiah would have someone that went before them, preparing the way. They would preach and teach and get the people of Israel ready to hear from what God was trying to show them. John the Baptizer was a wild sort-- living off of the land and making all of polite society very uncomfortable. John said the things that no one wanted to hear and as you can imagine he was not intensely popular.
But despite or because of that, he was well loved and widely followed. He had his own disciples that followed him around and supported him in his ministry, not unlike Jesus had. And so John is this catalyst for the work of Jesus and people begin to question John and seek to know why he is doing what he is doing. John at this time is the authority on all things new and exciting about faith in the God of Israel and here is what he says: look at Jesus. I must decrease and he must increase.
More on that later.
When we see the creed, we see line after line identifying every aspect that was pertinent about the nature of Jesus to the folks who wrote the creed. It mattered to the authors of the creed that the person of Jesus was 4 things-- number one that he was Divine, then that he was fully human. It mattered that Jesus conquered death and lastly it mattered that Jesus was still in charge.
Let’s talk about the Divinity of Jesus. The creed says that Jesus was the son of God Almighty, also that He is our Lord, and that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. There is a popular belief within culture that Jesus was not in fact Divine, but rather he was just a really good person who showed people the way to be nice to one another. This was a belief that is not novel but has been around for as long as the story of Jesus has been around.
The reason why this belief is so hard for people to grasp or hold on to is because it is wholly unique to our faith. In fact most of the time when we talk about “God,” folks would define God as something or someone who is not human. This being beyond us and beyond our understanding.
It is also really convenient to believe in a God that doesn’t care about the world around us. This belief in a God that is distant from our day-to-day lives is a lot easier to stomach than a God that cares so much about what goes on that they come all the way into creation is hard to comprehend.
But it matters that Jesus was Divine for so many reasons. Chief among them is that it sets the framework for how we understand the world around us as followers of Jesus. Since Jesus was Divine, we better know the nature of God because of the way that Jesus acted. Jesus noticed the folks on the margins, chose to hang out with the poor, the social outcasts, the people who were actively messing up all the time. That way we can see the true nature of God and know that the punitive and heavy handed voice we have in our head isn’t all what God is up to.
Now let’s talk about the humanity of Jesus. The Creed says that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered under Pontius Pilate. To believe in the Divinity of Christ is one thing, but believing in the humanity of Christ at the same time is just as difficult. Because as followers of Jesus, we don’t just believe that Jesus was God’s Son, we also believe that Jesus is the Son of Man.
And this isn’t just some philosophical exercise, it is instead the very essence of what we believe about this whole Christian faith. You see there are plenty of faiths who will tell you that their prophet is some sort of god-man. That they possessed super powers of some sort or were elevated beyond this human condition. Other faiths will tell you that their prophet was simply a human being, nothing more spectacular than anyone else you meet on the street.
Something completely unique to our faith is our belief in a God who was fully human and fully Divine, all at the same time. This matters because it elevates the human experience so that we know that how we are, sinful, broken, anxious, uncertain-- that very nature can be radically redeemed. It also brings the experience of God down to our level as well. The God we pray to has felt the feeling of fear, loneliness, and anger. The God we serve has gotten hungry, thirsty-- the God we serve may have even had seasonal allergies.
We do not serve a God who is ignorant of our feelings or experiences. We serve a God who is intimately familiar with how hard it can be to be a human being. Right there in the creed we confess that we serve a God who was treated unfairly. Pontius Pilate believed lies about Jesus and Jesus suffered for them. A group of people got together and spread malicious rumors about Jesus-- has that ever happened to you? Have you ever felt a certain way, spoke a certain way, or held an opinion that was twisted and changed by someone you should have been able to trust? If you have, then you have something in common with Jesus.
When we see that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, for us it means that Jesus came from a family that no one was impressed by. In Jesus’ culture, Mary would not have been a special person to most folks. Young people were looked down upon and young women were looked at even lower. Coupled with his hometown of Nazareth, nobody had postcode envy for Jesus. Have you ever been looked down upon because of where you are from? Is your family story something that gives you anxiety? If you could say yes to any of these things, then you have something in common with Jesus.
Every part of creation serves a God who can be truly empathetic to our condition. Though Jesus lived a sinless life, that life was not easy. When we suffer or when we struggle, because we confess Jesus as both fully human and fully Divine, we know that we serve a God who knows us.
We confess Jesus as one who was crucified, died and was buried, but did not stay that way. This part of the creed is, admittedly, a little heavy handed. Some Christian-nerdery for everyone: the reason why this part of the creed is so explicit is because how Jesus died was a main source of heresy back at the beginning of the faith. Some heretics said that Jesus didn’t die, it was some other guy. Some heretics said that Simon, the man who helped him with the cross was his stunt double and was crucified instead. Still other heretics said that Jesus left his human body and then reappeared after he was crucified.
Now, I am not sharing this bible nerdery just because I like to geek out, even though that is a happy side-effect. Rather, I think it is an important indicator about what we as human beings find so offensive about the Gospel. It is a natural disposition for us to be made uncomfortable by the cross. The story of Jesus dying appears to be very hard for us to take in as human beings. Maybe it is the idea that Jesus died for our sins that we struggle with. Maybe it is the idea that death, the thing all creation universally fears, could not hold Jesus down that we struggle with.
But it is not negotiable. We confess Jesus was crucified, died and was buried. But hear some great news-- he didn’t stay that way. Jesus instead rose from the dead in a miraculous show of the power of Divine Love. On the third day he rose from the dead. Death, the ultimate consequence of sin became negotiable through the power of Jesus’ perfect life and resurrection.
This conquering of death frees all of us for new life and life unto the fullest.
And then lastly, the Creed tells us that Jesus’ work is not over. Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, which is reserved for the servant of the King responsible for ruling. Jesus therefore is the one in charge. In Hebrews we are told that Jesus is our high priest, interceding on our behalf. That means that all of us who call on Jesus are calling on the one who rules all of creation.
We live in a new world, one ruled by the Son of God and the Son of Man. We believe that this world is being judged by the one who made it possible for us to be reconciled back to God. We are freed from a law that would have brought about death and are instead freed to live under the rule of God who loved us so much that that same God came and dwelt among us.
This is what our creed teaches us about the very nature of Jesus.
Which brings us back to our passage. We see John the Baptist as an important figure in the story of Jesus. John announces the coming of the messiah, and prepares the way for the work Jesus needed to do for the sake of the whole world.
Beyond that, John was the cousin of Jesus, so not only was he preparing the way for the messiah, he was preparing the way for one of his oldest friends. John knew Jesus and he had been called to set the stage for him.
I wanted us to read our passage today because I think when we read the creed we are faced with a similar calling. John has a set of his own followers, people who listen to him and respect him. And yet, John here is realizing that he has to get out of the way. He is realizing that the God he serves has brought about a change to creation through the person of Jesus and that means he must decrease.
I must decrease so that he can increase. I told you at the beginning that the one thing I wanted you to leave with today is this--as we become more like Christ, we begin to live life as it was meant to be lived. As we become more like Christ, we begin to find freedom in this life and the next life.
John as a religious leader was teaching his own stuff. Through mediation and revelation he was able to point people towards God and towards repentance. We as followers of Jesus can sometimes come up with our own way of living. We come up with habits and devotions that point us more and more towards God. I have found at times in my Christian walk that I can even get into a rut when it comes to this life going after God. Before I know it, my faith is less trying to be more like Jesus and instead it becomes more of a repetition of how I’ve always lived. Without meaning to, I find myself increasing, and Jesus decreasing.
This morning I want us to remember that the Jesus we sing about-- the Jesus we talk about is not some stagnant set of motions we go through in the Christian life. Instead, Jesus is God, who came to dwell among us and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.
When we read the creed, we are greeted with a set of beliefs that show us that we do not serve a God who has done a great deed and then decided to quite while he was ahead. Instead, we serve a God who is still at work in our lives. This goes against the human desire to be our own kings and queens.
Which returns us to John’s words-- I must decrease so that he can increase. One of my commentaries said of this phrase:
“It is a watchword for the Christian ages. There has never been a follower of Jesus who has not at some time been tempted to displace him. The Baptist of the Fourth Gospel knows the folly of the move.”
We all want to be in charge and yet when we confess that Jesus is our Lord we are realizing that we don’t actually want the throne. We see that we are claiming a Jesus that rules now and will continue to rule for the rest of our lives. So instead of coming up with our own ways of living, these logical habits and motions of devotion, we must instead pursue humility and service to the person of Jesus Christ. We see when we put Jesus first, we will no longer feel the need to do the motions of spirituality but instead will be faced with true devotion. Instead of going through the motions of faith, we will be compelled towards faith.
And of course this will be less comfortable. We have our motions of faithfulness because they are easier than true devotion to Jesus. True devotion to Jesus compels us to tell others about our faith, to serve when we would rather rest, and to give sacrificially of our time, talent and treasure. The work of truly following Jesus makes our faith a priority as opposed to a supporting character in our lives.
And so we must decrease. But when we decrease, we know that Christ will increase in our lives. We are free to know that the God we serve will meet us in our humility and transform what we bring to the table. Jesus met John’s work and changed the whole world. Jesus will meet all of us as we decrease ourselves and will bring about God’s Kingdom.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Let’s pray:
Jesus who lived like us, died a human death and rose victorious. We come before you today asking that you give us the strength to decrease so that you might increase. Help us to see the motions we go through and help us to make space for your radical love. Help us to see the ways we try to be in control and help us to get off the throne. Jesus we pray that you would take that throne and you would bring about your Kingdom.
May it begin with us.
Amen.
