baptized

Scripture:  Matthew 3:13-17

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Observation:

Jesus enters into the ongoing spiritual practice of John, the desert prophet calling God's people to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. John's wilderness work reminded the people that their covenant relationship with God required an active pursuit of God's justice.  It reminded them of the exodus experience, in which they had to depend on God alone to live.  Baptism was a sign of covenant renewal and a washing away of the dead self enslaved to sin.  This is a new way of returning to God, receiving forgiveness, and renewing one's devotion to practice the faith.  John's way did not involve clergy, priests, temples, or sacrifices.  Only a heart of repentance and the Jordan river. 
Jesus came to be part of the liberation of Israel, God's holy people.  He came to set right a world turned upside down.  Jesus was not himself yet an innovator, but a follower and practitioner in this way of John.  Jesus was part of a longer narrative about God and people that goes back to the Genesis beginning story.  He stands in a tradition of prophets, priests, and kings.  And he participates in the narrative arc of Jewish teaching, customs, and rituals.  He does, however, also participate in this innovative practice of John the baptizer.   Jesus shows us that faithfulness includes both religious tradition and inspired innovation.  Both can draw us closer to God.   Jesus' identity as beloved son of God reminds us of Genesis 22 where Abraham is challenged by God to sacrifice his only beloved son Isaac.
 
Application  


This story is why Christians are baptized.  We follow Jesus into the water.  Jesus' baptism aligns him with the innovative and radical teaching of John the baptizer.  Even Jesus has a teacher.  And place is important too.  A return to wilderness and water, the borders and margins. These are places of subsistence and survival, of danger and detachment.  They are outliers, revolutionaries, spiritual radicals.  Baptism is entry into a relationship with Jesus the radical son of God.  His baptism signifies that Jesus is the son of God, the one who pleases God.  To align ourselves with his way of life is to live a life pleasing to God.  He has come to set right what is wrong in the world.  He will recruit others to work with him. Baptism is belonging to and learning the ways of Jesus---radical teacher of the God-centered life.   

Prayer 
Lord, baptism connects us to you and through you to God, who desires to love us like a parent loves a child.  Help us to accept that we are loved.  Help us to live as you lived, setting out to do what is right.  Amen.