<p>5:35 - see on Mt. 3:11.</p><p><i>He was the lamp that burns and shines, and you were willing to rejoice for a period in his light</i>- John's message was hard hitting, critical of his audience, and demanding radical repentance. And masses of people rejoiced in it. They liked the hard line, and were joyfully proud that they had apparently responded to it. But they had not come to total commitment to the Lord Jesus, so their apparent repentance was merely a psychological experience of no lasting value. There is true repentance, and surface level repentance. We must perceive the allusion here to the prologue. John &ldquo;was not the light&rdquo; in the sense that he was not Jesus personally (Jn. 1:8 RV); but he was in another sense &ldquo;a burning and shining light&rdquo; (Jn. 5:35) in that he like us was &ldquo;the light of the world&rdquo; on account of his connection with Jesus. We too are to be the light of the world insofar as we are in Christ, who is the light of the world. Yet it could be said that the Jews rejoiced in the light of John the Baptist, but would not come to the true light, of the Lord Jesus.&nbsp;</p><p>&quot;You were willing to rejoice for a period&quot; sounds like John's version of the parable of the sower, where the seed is sown but some enthusiastically respond &quot;with joy&quot; only for a while and then fall away (Mt. 13:20). The sower parable therefore had an immediate reference to the lack of lasting response to John's ministry.</p>