Regal Lord

Jn 1:27   He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.
      
We live in an age when equality is all-important, but it is largely equality of opportunity, and when equality is being stressed it is because there is a recognition that, for whatever reason, there is an inequality to be redressed. We’re keen, in theory at least, to put everyone on a level playing field. But then in the United Kingdom we have one of the few surviving monarchies of the world and we do still have Lords and Earls and Dukes and so on – but we’re rather uncomfortable with them. There is a smack of privilege here and we feel, “Why should they have wealth and lands and so on, simply because of birth?”
   
And then we come to the kingdom of God where truly all men are equal (it’s only in worldly expressions of the church that we find status and position) and in Jesus’ words, the highest status is that of servant (Mt 20:26) and it is clear that Jesus sees himself as just such a servant. With that in mind, it is challenging therefore, to consider these words from John the Baptist about Jesus. John, you will remember, is a prophet, and prophets see things more clearly than most of us. In this sentence John paints a brief picture of the practice of the great having their servant undo their sandals when they came in, in preparation for their dusty feet to be washed. It was the most lowly servant in the household who would do the foot washing, and John now says that he’s not even worthy to be the lowest of servants for Jesus.
   
John was seen as a powerful, important spiritual figure. He was somewhat awesome, a prophet of the Old Testament sort, the last of that sort, slightly scary, and people looked up to him, yet he says the difference between he and Jesus is so great that he’s not even worthy enough to do the most menial of tasks for Jesus. Understand that this is not John putting himself down but him elevating Jesus. The crowd had been asking him if he were the Christ or the new Elijah or simply God’s Prophet, and he denies all these things and says, I simply baptize with water, an easy thing (implied). I’m a nobody in comparison to the one who is already here in your midst, he goes on.
   
John the Baptist, the prophet, realized something about Jesus that hardly anyone else yet realised. The Gospel writer, John, has already been describing Jesus in some very dramatic ways, but it’s taken him a lifetime to come to this realisation. Only slowly had he realised the significance of what the Baptist was saying. If this Jesus is so great that an ordinary servant was not worthy to wash his feet, he is on the level of royalty, he is a ruler of great nobility, we might say. John the Baptist caught the sense of this in his spirit, though possibly not fully in his understanding.
    
Psalm 2 catches something of this as God speaks of His anointed one (v.2), His king (v.6) that he has installed in Jerusalem, His begotten Son (v.7), and warns nations to pay him homage (v.12). Jesus, as we’ve seen in the recent meditations is great, really great, because of who he is. Even before he heals the multitudes, raises people from the dead, walks on water and so on, he is great because of who he is. He does all these things because of who he is. He doesn’t become great because he does these things; he already is great. John has caught a glimpse of this, and seeks to convey it so that we might believe, but this is a challenge to the pride in every one, that doesn’t like to submit to others. He is Lord, so bow before him, this servant King!