January 22, 2026 | Be Connected
Getting Cleansed by Jesus
Scripture: John 3:22-26(NIV)
22 After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. 23 Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized. 24 (This was before John was put in prison.) 25 An argument developed between some of John’s disciples and a certain Jew over the matter of ceremonial washing. 26 They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan—the one you testified about—look, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.”
Devotional
About thirty years ago I went to West Lafayette with some guys from my church to attend a Purdue football game. We walked past the 92,000 square foot football indoor practice facility. I asked the men from my church, “When are you going to build me one of these?” One of them piped up, “We you start drawing 50,000 people on a Sunday.” Wise guys.
Their comments point to a flawed formula for humanity: achieve more, receive more. John’s disciples seemed to be zeroing in on this concept. Jesus and His disciples were outpacing John and his disciples on the baptism head count. You can almost hear John’s friends: “We’re losing our people. We’re losing our influence. We’re losing our mojo.”
Added to this, John’s disciples were in an argument with somebody over ceremonial washing. These purification rites were important to the Pharisees and other religious leaders. Just recently Jesus had turned water into wine, using “six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing” (John 2:6). While Jesus was using the waters of purification rites for His first miracle, apparently John was being challenged for baptizing in a way that the religious leaders disapproved.
Perhaps to cover for this tension, John’s disciples pointed out that Jesus’ disciples were doing the same thing, even to a greater degree. Whether it was tension with a religious leader or jealousy toward Jesus’ followers, the disciples of John missed the main point. It’s all about Jesus!
By the way, Joel Osteen is the pastor of a church in Houston with 45,000 attendees. They bought him a sports complex.
