Today’s Podcast
Today’s Scriptures
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Isaiah 1-6
see the whole year’s plan here
Matthew 3:15
Jesus: It will be right, true, and faithful to God’s chosen path for you to cleanse Me with your hands in the Jordan River.
Today’s Devotional
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
Have you ever thought about those first words of Jesus recorded in the first gospel? Why wouldn’t He say something about His mission? Why wouldn’t He affirm John’s proclamation that He is God’s Son? Why wouldn’t Jesus use the opportunity to give a message of encouragement, a call to repentance, or some special revelation to the crowd gathered by the Jordan River that day? It was His perfect opportunity to set everyone right from the very start.
Instead, Jesus chose to share with his cousin, John a very special message designed just for him, but one that also speaks volumes to each of us. Listen to those words again as translated in The Voice, “It will be right, true, and faithful to God’s chosen path for you to cleanse Me with your hands in the Jordan River.”
What was the point of Jesus submitting to John’s baptism? From these words, it wasn’t for Jesus, but for John. Paul tells us Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for us because he lived life without falling to the temptations to which we so easily succumb. He was blameless before His Father. Faultless. Spotless. Without blemish. Sinless. He did not need cleansing or repentance to stand before His Father as a righteous individual.
What Jesus told John and us, though, is you have a mission. Your mission from the Father is to proclaim His word and to baptize, ritually cleanse through this outward sign of inward repentance that they will follow the will of God. Jesus went through the ritual of baptism to announce to the rest of the world He would follow the will of God. But He also told John through His actions, “You’re doing the job God gave you to do. Don’t stop. Keep it up. Even though I’ve arrived and part of your mission is to announce My coming, you mission isn’t over. Keep preaching the importance of repentance and the individual, outward proclamation of that repentance through baptism.”
I think Jesus has the same message for each of us. God has a chosen path for me and a chosen path for you. They look different. He has given each of us different skills, talents, experiences, and desires that direct us on the path He laid out for us. He did that because we are interdependent creatures. Some people like to think they are independent. They are not. No one knows enough or is skilled enough to enjoy life alone. Neither does God want us to be completely dependent. God created us to need each other. He created us to live in community and use the different skills He gave each of us so we can enjoy life in community. We corrupted His plan with that first sin in the Garden of Eden, but Jesus came to bring us back into alignment with God’s perfect plan.
Jesus also told John to cleanse Him with his own hands. I think that tells us to stay engaged. Don’t let anyone else do the job God gives me to do. I can only begin to imagine the blessing John received in baptizing God’s Son. I think about how I felt officiating at my children’s weddings and some of my grandchildren’s dedications, but those must pale in comparison to what John felt that day. But that was the mission God gave John.
When we carry out God’s plan for our life, though, we will have those John moments. I’ve had them praying with someone at an altar and watching them experience the forgiveness of their sins for the first time in their life. Sometimes that altar is in a church. Sometimes it’s at a chair in a home or a table in a coffee shop. Sometimes it was by a truck on a battlefield. But every time, the experience is overwhelming.
God gives each of us missions to perform. How appropriate for Jesus’ first recorded words in this first gospel of the New Testament to be directed to each of us, saying, “Get on with the work I’ve given you to do. No one else will do your job for you.”
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.