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February 26, 2017
Discovering Jesus: The Baptism Of Jesus
Matthew 3: 13-17
Today I’m beginning a series that will continue through Easter Sunday, April 16, called “Discovering Jesus.” We’ll be looking at the places we can discover Jesus maybe for the first time in your life, and maybe once again for veteran observers.
Discovering Jesus. Where can we discover this God-man? Like those who first discovered Jesus, we’ll discover him together in his baptism, then in his wilderness temptation, in his teachings, in his miracles, in his power over death, in his triumphal entry to Jerusalem and his triumphal exit from the grave that could not hold him.
I often plan to wear this what’s called anALB – a traditional covering, a form of a robe which could have been found on many people back in Jesus day and is worn sometimes especially by folks in ministry even today. I’ll be wearing this as, Lord willing, I hope to give you a sense of what was happening in each of those events I listed before by putting myself, and I pray you as well, at the scene…..looking at the scenes through the eyes of anyone who would have been there some 2,000 years ago.
We begin with the baptism of Jesus, reading Matthew 3: 13 – 17.Page 1009.
It wasn’t like any other day. Any other day I would have been off tending the marketplace. I was a dealer in ordinary things -- household things like pots. Pots you could carry vegetables in, pots you could carry water in, pots you could carry just about anything in. But not today. It’s not that I didn’t need the money if anyone came to my shop, but there’s been such a stir in the city about a man out in the countryside who’s got some powerful preaching going on and folks aren’t shopping so much as they are gawking at this stranger.
Standing sometimes in the middle of the dirty Jordan River, this guy has come on the scene and he’s not quite like any other guy most folks have met – unless you’ve met someone who seems to be just a little bit off. What do I mean by that? Well, this guy isn’t wearing normal clothes – not like what I’m wearing today – my shopkeeper robe.
He’s showing up in clothes made of CAMEL’S HAIR – and anybody who’s spent any time near a camel, you know they aren’t the sweetest smelling animal Yahweh created.
No, this guy’s wearing camel’s hair or camel’s skins for clothes, and he’s also got an interesting diet they say. Now I like a bit of lamb and some broiled fish now and then and treats like pomegranates, and olives, grapes, figs, and, of course, bread. But here’s this guy out on the countryside and they say this guy eats wild honey – well, that’s ok; but get this, he also eats LOCUSTS. Yea, bugs - locusts – yuck!
So this guy, they call him John, John the Baptizer, is out there at the Jordan River attracting some good sized crowds, and they say he’s a pretty powerful preacher. Now I’ve been to synagogue lots of times, and I’d be hard pressed to say any of those guys are powerful preachers. They teach the law but honestly, I barely remember anything my preacher ever says – you know what I mean? ((Yea, I thought I wasn’t the only one to forget a message about the moment it’s over.))
But this John guy – with wild honey and locust breath – is preaching in the Desert of Judea at the Jordan getting people’s attention as he’s telling folks to “REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” That’s his main message = “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Some folks are saying, “Where? I don’t see any kingdom unless you’re talking about Herod’s Kingdom….but the Kingdom of Heaven” What’s that?
He’s then talking about the prophets, like Isaiah, who said, “A voice of one calling in the desert, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” I guess that’s what he’s doing – preparing the way.
This John guy must be something else, because I hear folks are coming and confessing their sins and are getting baptized by him in the yucky waters of the Jordan. I’m thinking you’ve got to take a bath after getting in that river!
But that’s what folks are doing – listening to this John preach – confessing their sins and then getting baptized.
So here I am. Yep, there’s this funny looking guy and, oh no, here come the bosses of the temple…here comes the guys called the Pharisees and the Sadducees. A Pharisee is like the spiritual fathers of your modern day Judiasm. They’re the keeper of the keys…..well, the keepers of the laws….and boy do they love their laws. There’s laws for this and laws for that. Laws about what you can eat, when you can eat, how you eat. And that’s not all….actually I heard it once that there’s like 365 negative commands and 248 positivelaws. Now I don’t know about you but it’s enough to make your head spin. But here they are. Why are they here? I’ll bet they’re up to no good. Oh yea, they don’t like it when folks turn to someone else to get their teaching. And the Sadducees – well they were just about as bad. But look at this…..here they are.
Now I can hear John and oh boy is he giving them an earful. He’s not talking to the crowds any more. He’s fingerpointing the Sadducees and the Pharisees, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees and every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is gonna be cut down and thrown into the fire.’
Yikes – he’s got ‘em by the short hairs now…….Oh my goodness, but he’s not done yet. ‘I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
I’m not sure but it sounds like this John guy is telling the Pharisees and Sadducees they’re gonna get what’s coming. My mom used to give me that, you know……give me what’s coming when I sassed her or didn’t do my chores or…..well, you get the picture. This John guy sounds like there’s a fire coming and it’s gonna do a lot more than keep these temple guys warm for the winter.
That was interesting. Remember this John guy said it’s really sort of “not all about me?” Yea, he said there’s somebody still coming.
Oh, now the crowd’s asking him a question. They want to know what they should do? I wonder what he’ll say.
“The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.” Now that’s nice, but look at this, here’s some tax collectors (phooey)…..tax collectors. It must be getting closer to April 15 – or is it 18th this year?
They’re asking, “What should we DO?” Oh, this ought to be good.
“Don’t collect any more than you are required to.” Yea, that’ll be the day when my taxes go down.
Oh, here come some soldiers. “What should we do?” “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely – be content with your pay.”
Yea – you tell ‘em John. Get in their grill – let ‘em have it.
Now he’s talking about this guy who he said is coming. I wonder who he’s talking about?
Well, I guess I’ll have to come back later…..gotta go earn some money to keep up with the tax collectors.
((So our friend does come back the next day. And the crowd is getting bigger and bigger.))
Now here comes an interesting group. Ok, there’s the baptizer and a few folks in the water. Wait, there’s some stirring in the crowd…. a guy, not by himself mind you…..there’s this guy like with a small band of followers coming down to the Jordan today. Who is he? What’s he doing here? He’s different.
Ah, now I see that John guy again. What’s he saying? He’s talking to the guy with the following. They both look to be about 30 years old. I’ve never seen this guy. Oh my goodness. Now I remember, there was a lady in my shop yesterday telling folks about this man called Jesus who has some followers traveling with him. Jesus of Nazareth she said. Yea. I remember that. Could this be this Jesus?
Oh, John’s talking again. What’s he saying to this guy?
“Wait a minute, Jesus of Nazareth, I’m not the one who should baptize you. You should be baptizing me. You don’t have any sins to confess. I know who you are. You’re the very Son of the Most High God. I’m not worthy to even tie your sandals, much less baptize you.”
What did Jesus just say? “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all RIGHTEOUSNESS.”
So this John sees Jesus and says Jesus shouldn’t be coming to him. He thinks it should be the other way around. What was it I remember John saying? “After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
But there he is. What’s this? This Jesus is going out to John in the water. And yep, there he goes…..under the water……John is baptizing him. Wow. What a sight!
What’s this now? Jesus is looking up into the sky. Look, there’s a dove coming down from up in the heavens. Wow. And I’m hearing something else, but I can’t quite make it out…..what’s that sound?
((Friends, that sound that maybe our friend didn’t hear is clearly recorded now for us to hear.
The sound was the very voice of God, the Father. And what did the Father say?
“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” You are my Son.
“
What a moment!That sound! And that dove was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It was….well……could it have been, I guess maybe…. it was that Holy Spirit John was talking about.
That noise from the heavens. That dove. This guy Jesus being baptized in the dirty waters of the Jordan River by John. What a scene. I’ll never forget it.
How did we get to this point? Well, let me take you back friends, the boy Jesus grew up in Nazareth in Galilee, a city that, due to its geographic location, was a multicultural environment. Although the population of the area was mostly Jewish, there were also Gentiles living among them. Roman soldiers were stationed in Galilee since its people were prone to revolt against them. Jesus lived among the people, surrounded by brothers and sisters and working at his trade of carpentry, like his earthly father, until he became 30. At that age, Jesus left Nazareth and came to that Jordan River. Who was this John? This John’s mother was Elizabeth. She’s the woman Jesus’ mother, Mary, went to be with when Mary found out she was pregnant – and a virgin no less. This John is Jesus cousin. No doubt they knew each other. Most likely their paths had crossed before as kids.
Jesus came to the Jordon on his own. No one made him go. And remember he was God the Son. He was the sinless one….not like you or me or even John…..Jesus had never sinned. He needed neither repentance nor baptism as a sign of his readiness for the coming of the kingdom. He was the one who was bringing in the kingdom, God’s decisive solution for the problem of evil.But by being baptized with sinners, Jesus declared that he was casting his lot with them…..with you and me. This public identification of Jesus with sinners like us at the beginning of his ministry was a foreshadowing of what was to come. Jesus went into the Jordan…..like into the waters of death….the death he would experience…..Jesus’ death on a cross when, at the close of his ministry, that identification would become total.
Jesus the Christ of God’s baptism was a preview of his crucifixion. We may not fully get it but Jesus understood the relationship between his baptism and his death. Several times after his baptism, Jesus referred to that expected death as another baptism for him.
Jesus’ baptism also provided the occasion to make it clear that he was no ordinary sinner seeking forgiveness.
As expressed by Gilbert Bilezikian in a great book called “Christianity 101” he writes, “When Jesus presented himself to John as a candidate, John knew right away that Jesus was different from the rest of his followers …the rest of those who came for forgiveness and to be baptized…….
John recognized Jesus as the future sin-bearer for all of humanity when John called Jesus “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” in John’s recorded Gospel. John finally consented to baptize Jesus only after Jesus convinced him that this was the way to accomplish God’s will…..to fulfill all righteousness.
And remember what happened when Jesus was baptized? That was a perfect picture of what church folk call the Trinity. God the Father was there in the voice. God the Son was there in the flesh. And God the Holy Spirit came as well. A voice as of the Father’s recognized Jesus as His Son, while the Holy Spirit came upon him in the manner of a dove. And of course, Jesus, was right there.
Even in this baptism moment Jesus showed he had come into this world not to be served, which would have been his legitimate right, but to serve…. and to eventually give his life for many.
You see loved ones, it’s the very nature of God to be a servant. God is love….and love isn’t about feelings or emotions….love in the Bible, God’s word, is about giving of one’s self. In this moment of baptism we see that Jesus is the perfect servant sent by the Father, but he was and remains equal to Him. Jesus was and is also servant to humans, but He is also Lord over us.
Jesus came to be baptized to identify with you and with me. He didn’t need to do it….but he loved the people then and continues to love you and me today that he did whatever it took and continues to do whatever it takes to bring you into his kingdom.
I pray you will make this perfect God-man ----- Jesus the Christ, Lord of your life. Let him baptize you with the Holy Spirit of God – and live the life God designed for you from the beginning – a life of freedom in him – a life of fullness in the Father – a life of service to each other in Jesus’ name.