We Are Not The King - Luke 3-4

Luke 3:15-17 (ESV)

As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

There is always a temptation in the heart of mankind to claim their own deity.   One poet concluded his poem (Invictus) it this way:

I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.

In the above lines from Luke we see the crowd circling John the Baptist to give him their permission to claim deity.   They are wondering if he is the Christ, their Messiah. Others who came before John the Baptist (and Jesus. for that matter) did claim they were the Christ.  Three or four other men staked claim to being the Christ before John or Jesus were even on the scene.   The crowd desperately wanted a Messiah.   John had his chance.  But John understood what he was sent to do.  His purpose was to bear witness of Jesus.  He was to be the one who herald Jesus’ coming (which he does in the next few verses).   John knew his position in God’s Kingdom; and it was not the King.  He was not the One; he was just one.  He makes the point of telling us that he is not only NOT the Messiah, he is not even worthy to untie the sandal laces of the Messiah.  It is too bad that today’s ministry leaders are not that sensitive to their real position in the Kingdom.   We would do well to read these verses on a regular basis.  John the Baptist lived this verse out:

Romans 12:3 (ESV)

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

The writer of the Gospel of John would record this comment from John the Baptist:

John 3:30 (ESV)

He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John, the Gospel writer would also record these words from Jesus:

John 13:16 (ESV)

Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

John the Baptist knew that he was not the Christ.  We are the servants of Christ and unworthy to tie His sandals.  When we forget that we pretend to be the masters of our own souls.