Matthew 3:13-17 (NLT)
Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?”
But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” So John agreed to baptize him.
After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”
Matthew 3:15: “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” This is the first sentence that Jesus said when he began his public ministry.
The Greek word “hemin” really meant to include the listeners. What does Jesus mean? John the Baptist, or even all who heard him, must do this baptism in order to carry out any God’s required mission?
Yes. Jesus didn’t just talk about himself, or his own baptism, or his own plan to carry out God’s mission. He includes John the Baptist, and all who follows him, everybody has a part in this: to join Jesus’ project, to build the Kingdom of God, to write the story of our God’s experiences, to encourage one another, to strive to make God’s love and goodness shown to the world.
See, Jesus meant for all of us to be purpose-driven. He changed our relationship with God. You and me isn’t just an individual worshipper from far away, but a participant of His Kingdom. We are not to passively sit around, watching how God would do things in the world. We are to actively bring His values and passions to the world. Jesus clearly said it at His baptism, which is also our joint baptism and mission.
In Gospel, “we/us” is a major theme. Time and again, Bible would like us to remember, what a wonderful thing God had done for us in Christ, and how we all have related to Jesus—identify with him, be part of his body, and how important it is to seek unity in Christ. – Jesus died and resurrected for all of us.
Of course, we all committed to follow Jesus, didn’t we? One individual shouldn’t try to exclude another in Jesus. For God accepts each of us, and Jesus identifies with each of us. Oh, this is so hard.
It is hard to follow Jesus, for we tend to exclude those that are different from ourselves. We found all kinds of excuses to refuse others—different race, skin color, doctrines, social status, powers, position, language, lifestyles… We tend to separate ourselves from all those different people!
We have to remember, all different branches and denominations, we tend to defame, even vilify each other, for we didn’t pay attention to God’s value of unity. He prayed for all his disciples so hard.
Maybe as Jesus’ followers, we have to examine our own bias: To whom do I try to exclude as “they/them”? Maybe we all need to stand with Jesus in the Jordan River, hearing him said it again: “we must carry out all that God requires.”
Only then, God may show His face to the world, and say: This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy. Dear God, help us!
This devotional is inspired from Skip Moen's Greek Biblical meditaion, I translated to Chinese 8 years ago.
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