Matt. 3:13-17
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
“A Sign Of Who We Are To Be”
Jesus baptism was uniquely different from all other baptisms. For Jesus knew no sin.
It identified who he was and what he was all about.
A suffering servant who “ will bring froth justice to the nations.”
A humble servant who “will not cry or lift up his voice...”
A gentle servant, “going about doing good and healing all who were oppressed...”
Baptism is not so much about what we get as it is a sign of who we are to become.
It is a sign that we are to be something more then we humanly want to be.
Being loved and loving is a wonderful thing; it is also a most difficult thing for then I can never just do what I want to do.
To be baptized is to live so others say, “If only there were more people like you...”
“A Brother Of The Sinful”
Jesus did not come to John to be baptized by him in order to be identified with John and his ministry. He didn’t come to be baptized in order to demonstrate that He was a religious man. He came to be baptized by John - and insisted on it! - in order to be identified with sinners. Real flesh and blood human beings who were struggling with the passions of life - you and me!
By his baptism Jesus - “who knew no sin” ; “who was like us in all ways except without sin” - chooses sides.
“He chooses to be identified with the sinful crowd, with the insiders who are really outsiders, rather than with the self-righteous Pharisees and Sadducees. He does not surrender his identify as the sinless one, but he makes an identification with sinners. He accepts their corruption, their sinfulness as his own. He is, In Bonhoeffer’s memorable phrase, ‘The Man For Others.’” (Proclamation 2A Epiphany, p. 17)
God has chosen to be on our side and sent His Son to so identify with us that there can be no mistake about it. In his Baptism Jesus boldly lets the world know where he stands and where God stands too!
He came to show and tell us about a God who’s compassion is greater than his anger - always; who is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love”.
Psalm 103:8
His baptism marked him for a ministry of mercy - which is our ministry too.
We who claim the name of Jesus, and are baptized into his name, are not called to be “censors of sinners” but “brothers and sisters with Jesus of the sinful”.
So it is in the Kingdom of Heaven!
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