John continues his rebuke of the Jewish leadership, who have come to him to be baptized, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
John gives seven reasons why the Jewish leadership ought to be earnestly repentant. The first of those reasons is the power of Christ. The second reason John gives is, “whose sandals I am not fit to carry”. The NASB puts it, “I am not fit to remove His sandals.” Scholars have long recognized the poignant nature of John’s self-deprecating comment. John Nolland wrote, “The scale of the status difference between John and the coming agent of God is figured by the image of John’s being unworthy to carry his sandals. Carrying the clothing of another is clearly a servant role. It became a rabbinic image of self-humiliation. Smelly and dirty footwear could be a particularly unpleasant part of the clothing to have to deal with. John inverts an obvious image of humiliation to express graphically the status differential involved.” WS Lewis and HM Booth likewise comment, “Among Jews, Greeks, and Romans alike, this office, that of untying and carrying the shoes of the master of the house or of a guest, was the well-known function of the lowest slave of the household.”
John draws a deliberately sharp contrast, not merely proclaiming that the coming Messiah is more powerful than he, but that He is so holy that John feels unworthy to serve Him in the lowest capacity possible. We should not easily dismiss that. It is something that John – having faithfully fulfilled all that God asked of him – still felt so far beneath even the lowest office in God’s house. Yet if that was true, how much less worthy are the objects of John’s warning – the Pharisees and Sadducees – who have not faithfully executed their divine mandate and instead unfaithfully abused their power?
Later, a different John will see the same One that the Baptist spoke of. He later wrote, “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”” So great is Jesus Christ the Lamb of God, and so worthy of honor.
It is no wonder that John feels unworthy to serve Him. It is rather a very great wonder that God allows us to serve Him in even the most off-hand ways, let alone in direct ministry. Truly, we are privileged far more than John, for we carry something far greater than His sandals. We carry His Name!
The highest form of worship is the worship of unselfish Christian service. The greatest form of praise is the sound of consecrated feet seeking out the lost and helpless.
Billy Graham
APPLICATION: Worship
Consider how God has honoured you. Worship Him accordingly.