David Nasser:
A great piece of art deserves a beautiful frame – but not one so outlandish that it competes for attention. A frame just gives the artwork context – the art is the whole reason the frame exists! Would you be more likely to spend a whole day in a frame shop or in an art museum?
You never want the frame to outdo the art. John the Baptist, though proclaimed great by Jesus himself, was great only because he served as a frame to the greater message. He didn’t skew the story of the coming Messiah to fit his own elaborate agenda or purpose. If you remember your Bible stories, he ended up headless. His whole reason for existing was to relay, at any cost, “Hey, get ready. The real deal is coming!”
John 3:30 says, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Said another way, “He must become greater, I must become less important.” John the Baptist is saying that he’s just an arrow pointing to God the Father.
from Glory Revealed: How the Invisible God Makes Himself Known
