Summary

(Matthew 3:13-17)

As a people of faith who say we believe in God, and who are at least trying to follow Christ – we long to know that who we are, and what we are doing, is actually somehow God’s will, or that we are at least pleasing God! Is that true for you? Have you ever really thought about that? How would we know when we are in fact pleasing God?

I love the raw honesty of that famous prayer of Thomas Merton’s where he confesses how difficult it is for him to know God’s will[i].

But I suspect that we are not always quite as ignorant about God’s will as we like to pretend.

I suspect that most of us DO actually have some very real sense of what God wants of us – what our ‘good & Godly living’ probably looks like… It’s a life where we get to care a little less about ourselves and a little more about others! It’s a life where we know our God-given task is to draw closer to God by looking both inward and then reaching outwards: looking inwards by caring for ourselves & one another, and outwards by caring for all people and all creation, especially the most hurting and marginalised…

In a recent blog post Brian McLaren describes God’s will for us. He writes how, in our faith communities, we know we need people who are trained in, validated for, and encouraged to do all sorts of KNOWN things:  to make home and hospital visits; to do hospice work and jail ministry; support immigrants and refugees; help with soup kitchens or food pantries; offer counselling couples before, during, and after marriage; share child development resources with families; offer ministries of emotional, sexual, and relational healing; help with financial counseling; helping to build low-cost housing; take care of the elderly; running thrift centers…

All of that we know is God’s good work through us – but what we don’t always know is whether it is what God wants US to be doing. How do we know when it’s something given to US to do and not just a good idea? 

And so we revisit our reading from Matthew…

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 

Remember what John the Baptist was doing at that time? He was entirely consumed by pointing to Christ and by preparing people to acknowledge and receive him. And so that’s where we are told Jesus chose to reveal himself! By identifying himself with John’s good work Jesus was signalling his most profound approval – the alignment of himself – with what John was doing. Asking to be baptized was his endorsement of what John was doing. I think He still does that. Whenever, wherever people are doing things that reflect Christ’s character – acts of loving justice, mercy compassion, care – they are pointing to Christ – and is where Christ himself is being baptized.

14 John would have prevented him, saying, NO! “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” And I think that THAT is also typical of our reaction!

It’s as if we don’t WANT Jesus to come to where we are! We want instead to be elevated to where He is! What? You come to me to be baptized? NEVER! I must surely come to you! Kind of like Peter’s objection when Jesus was wanting to wash his feet[ii]… I wonder how we do that?

15 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. Jesus insists that THIS IS how it works – how HE works! If we are to engage Christ in any meaningful way in our lives we must engage him where we are – recognizing him in our contexts – or else we may miss him altogether! He chooses NOT to be somewhere any loftier than where we are getting on with doing things in his name. The real miracle – like so many healed blind in the Gospels – is us getting to have our eyes opened enough actually to see him as he is – right here where he is…

16 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. 17 And