I bought Ricky Scaggs’ latest CD a couple of weeks ago on iTunes. I bought it thinking it would be more of his classic bluegrass style of music . . . but it wasn’t . . . it was very different . . . very good . . . and, very engaging. There isn’t a track I don’t enjoy listening to . . . again and again. A line from one of the songs came to mind this morning as I was reading in the first chapter of John’s gospel . . . “Take a second, and make God first” . . .

The Pharisees had sent some priests and Levites to the wilderness to check out the “John baptizing in the Jordan” movement (John 1:19). Their questions were pretty simple, “Who are you? What are you doing?” They knew he was John the desert-dwelling, animal skin wearing, locust eating eccentric. They knew he preached repentance. They knew he baptized. But what they wanted to know was if he was Elijah incarnate . . . a new prophet come on the scene after 400 years of no prophets. John said he wasn’t Elijah but that he was a voice crying in the wilderness . . . preparing  for Messiah’s coming on the scene . . . as Isaiah had foretold (John 1:23, Isa. 40:3).

John went before Jesus . . . Jesus came after John . . . and John took a second to make Him first . . .

“It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.” (John 1:27 NKJV)

Or, as Peterson paraphrases it in the MESSAGE, “He comes after me, but He is not in second place to me. I’m not even worthy to hold His coat for Him.”

And I’m struck by the humility of this one of whom Jesus said, “”Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist.” (Matt. 11:11). John’s calling was an unmistakable one . . . ask his dad . . . talk to his mom . . . check out Luke 1. His calling was a huge calling . . . breaking 400 years of silence by God to usher in Messiah’s entrance . . . to be a voice where there had not been a voice for so long. And the response from the masses was favorable . . . they were ready for a word from God . . . they came . . . they heeded . . . they repented . . . they were baptized. John was amassing quite the following . . . his ministry was realizing a measure of “success” . . . this one who had lived so long alone in the desert now had a number of disciples who sought to follow him . . . and now, he even had emissaries from the big cheeses in Jerusalem coming to check him out. Pretty heady stuff . . . they wanted to know about him . . . and he, true to his calling, took a second and made Jesus first. He may have been the “before” but it was all about Him who would come after.

John was about Jesus. The life he lived, the message he preached, the ministry he performed . . . all of it intended to open the way for the one worthy to be owned as Master. John’s presence and power may have been impressive to those whose hearts were ready to repent, but John never lost sight that he was but a servant . . . and the lowliest of servants . . . not even worthy to untie the straps on the Master’s dust covered sandals. In a couple of chapters I’m going to be reading another great John-ism, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30) . . . it was Jesus who John wanted to be seen . . . and encountered . . . and known. John, the before, never wanted to detract from the One who came after.

And I’m challenged to check myself. Am I maintaining an attitude that continually puts Him first . . . do I verbalize regularly that I’m but a sinner saved by grace seeking to live for the Author of my salvation (Heb. 5:9) . . . am I battling the hydra of pride that tempts me to think of myself more highly than I ought and instead rejoice that I am but a servant, content to be a doorkeeper in His courts that I might be near Him (Psalm 84:10) . . . do I regularly take a second and make God first? Oh, that I might model John . . . who though he went before . . . knew it was all about the One to come after . . . for His glory alone . . . amen.