Jn 3:22-30
22Jesus and his disciples went into the region of Judea, where he spent some time with them baptizing. 23John was also baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was an abundance of water there, and people came to be baptized, 24for John had not yet been imprisoned. 25Now a dispute arose between the disciples of John and a Jew about ceremonial washings. 26So they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and everyone is coming to him.” 27John answered and said, “No one can receive anything except what has been given him from heaven. 28You yourselves can testify that I said [that] I am not the Messiah, but that I was sent before him. 29The one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man, who stands and listens for him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made complete. 30He must increase; I must decrease.”
BEST MAN: “Best man” translates the Greek ho philos tou nymphiou, literally “the friend of the bridegroom,” representing the shoshben of Jewish life. At a Jewish wedding, the groom is attended to by his relatives and friends, “the sons of the bridechamber” (Mk 2:19), and by one friend in particular. Earlier in the Gospel, Mary and Jesus were invited to a wedding at Cana because they were shosbenim of the married couple (Jn 2:1). In that world, Mary would naturally be concerned with the lack of wine as this would bring shame to the clan of which she and Jesus were members.
John the Baptist here is expressing his perception of how he stands in relation to Jesus. He identifies Jesus as “the Messiah,” the central figure in God’s saving work. Jesus is the bridegroom who calls the community, his bride, to the joy of God’s kingdom, as symbolized by the wedding. John’s own role as the “friend of the bridegroom” is ancillary and without meaning without Jesus. But this role is an important one. John the Baptist is the model of the apostle Paul who tells the Corinthian Christians: “I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Cor 11:2).