Commissioned for a Mission

 “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.’”   - Matthew 3:14

 It’s not the first time that someone would have prevented Jesus from doing something.  Remember the time Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”  Peter boldly affirmed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”  Jesus then went on to explain that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer, be rejected, be killed and on the third day rise.  Upon hearing it, Peter literally stood in his path blocking the road saying “God forbid it, and I forbid it too!”  - Mark       8:27-33

 Often Jesus did not act like people expected, and the same was true when Jesus came to John at the Jordan River to be baptized.   John somehow recognized Jesus as God’s messiah. Since John and Jesus were cousins, it only seems logical that they would have known each other as children.  John would have heard the stories about his cousin’s birth, what the angel said and all the events around it.  After all Mary visited Elizabeth, John’s mother, when she got the angel’s astounding news about the child she was carrying. 

 But John was confused. Why would Jesus, if he was the messiah of God, come to him to be baptized?  “John would have prevented him saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’”  - Matthew 3:14

 We are accustomed to our leaders and heroes, for the most part, being cloistered behind closed doors.  From the President to the Pope, from pop stars to professional athletes, our heroes and leaders are relatively inaccessible.  When they do come out from behind closed doors we will go to all sorts of lengths, if we can, to see them, hear them, and touch them.  How proud we are if we can say we saw some famous person, or even better yet, shook their hand or retrieved their autograph.  We expect our leaders and heroes to be inaccessible and perhaps occasionally be available, usually in a controlled situation.  But coming out from behind private and protective walls is more the exception than the rule.  As a rule, politicians only come out from behind their walls when they need votes; pop stars to be praised by their fans; athletes to sign autographs, some reluctantly; the Pope when he gives a speech or sermon.  Then, as quickly as they appeared they are whisked away. 

 But here comes Jesus walking toward John along the banks of the Jordan River.  Apparently Jesus is prepared to strip down to his skivvies to be baptized by John.  A good question is, “Why would Jesus desire to be baptized?” 

 Jesus baptism was his commissioning.  Think about it.  At a commissioning, and we do it around here often enough, (teachers, peer ministers, mission trips, etc) you are given an identity and a mission.  That’s exactly what happened at Jesus’ baptism.  I will say three things about it.

 First, at His baptism Jesus’ IDENTITY is confirmed.  Between his birth and eventual emergence some 30 years later we know very little about Jesus, other than one story in Luke 2 about when he was twelve years old.  30 years later he emerges, and he shows up on Jordan’s banks to be baptized by John.  In the throes of the spiritual experience of His baptism, he hears a voice from heaven say, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

This was the moment of commissioning.  In the water of baptism His identity is sealed. In the water of His baptism he began his journey, a journey that would ultimately take him to Jerusalem on a mission that would be fulfilled on a cross.   

Second, at his baptism His MISSION is confirmed.  If you are commissioned for something, you not only have been given a new identity, but you also have been given a mission.  Jesus mission is buried away in the phrase “to fulfill all righteousness.”  It’s a difficult phrase, but a part of what it means is this.  John’s baptism was a baptism for the repentance of sins.  So we ask, why should Jesus be baptized?   Was he sinful?  If so, it raises a whole new set of questions.  We need to turn to Paul for just a brief moment to gain some insight.  Paul, in 2 Corinthians 5:21, says, “For our sake God made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

You see, it is right here that we get a first glimpse of Jesus’ ultimate mission; to take the sins of the world into himself: so completely, so comprehensively, so wholly and so absolutely that your sins and my sins become his - so that we might be declared and deemed righteous before God’s very eyes and receive the gift of salvation. 

Regarding the voice from heaven, this wasn’t the only time Jesus heard that voice.  There was the time that Jesus took Peter, James and John up on the mountain to pray.  You remember the story.  While they were there, Jesus clothes shined like the sun and he was transfigured before their very eyes.  Peter was sure it was the moment of consummation when Jesus would call upon armies of angels to usher in God’s righteous kingdom, and then, boom, the voice:  “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”  - Matthew 17:5

From that moment on Jesus began his steady journey toward Jerusalem and the cross.  Once again Jesus didn’t act like people expected.  They expected the messiah would rule from the protected fortress of a mountaintop.  But instead, he came down the mountain with the disciples stumbling behind and he headed towards the cross.    It seems as if at critical moments in Jesus ministry, when the temptation existed to run away and hide behind a protective barrier, as his disciples would have had him do, he hears the voice, and Jesus is empowered to plunge right back into the mire and muck of everyday human life and head toward that cross, and our salvation, which was his mission.  He would not be deterred.

Third, it is at His baptism we see the IMMINENT God.   Perhaps very few people really recognized him for who he was because he just didn’t behave like a normal messiah, leader or hero – or any respectable God.  They just didn’t expect it.  Just think if you were to find the President roaming around the aisles of King Soopers, or walking the streets of Colfax Avenue, or arriving unannounced with his cabinet heads at the unemployment office, or sitting in the Chacuzzi at the health club?  You would say, “There is something very wrong with this picture?”  It is not how we expect the President to behave!

Jesus makes God imminent!  Most of the time when we think of God we think of God in His heaven, removed, behind a barrier, untouchable, distant, far away, and transcendent – certainly not available for autographs. 

But in Jesus, God is imminent.  God is not far away and distant. God is not removed and sequestered behind an impenetrable barrier, or living in a fortress or on a mountaintop.  God is loose in the world in Jesus Christ.  God is in the world.  He walks our streets.  He’s in our hospital rooms and nursing homes.  He’s sitting next to our death beds.  He’s on the beaches, littered streets and destroyed villages of South Asia. 

The Spirit of the risen Christ is present in the world.  He first came to you in the waters of your baptism.  In baptism He gave you and identity and purpose.  He quite literally gets in your face in the bread and wine of communion. He’s present in the words of scripture and the proclaimed Word.   He comes to you in the faces of the suffering, needy, hungry, sick and dying.  He says, “I will meet you there.  I am there!”

God is not hiding behind closed doors, or protected by fortress walls, or hanging out in highest heaven. 

-          It is we who are doing the hiding, protecting and hanging out! 

-          It is we who hide behind walls of fear and cowardice, afraid to follow the Lord Jesus. 

-          It is we who withdraw from Him when he calls upon us to surrender our hatreds, prejudices and grudges for compassion, forgiveness, love and a thirst for justice.

-          It is we who sequester ourselves from Him in our fortresses of self-indulgence, especially when he challenges us to share and sacrifice for others. 

-          It is we who turn our backs in indifference to Him when he comes to us in the faces of the lowly and the least. 

-          It is we who distance ourselves from Him when times are tough and things get rough, thinking we deserve better.

-          It is we, not Him who retreat to our places of security – and then of course when we get there we say, “Where is God?”  - when all along He is right in front of our faces, out there in the world, still suffering with  those who suffer; still grieving with those in sorrow; still dying with the dying – waiting for you and me to bring comfort, hope and compassion.  

In your baptism you have been given a new identity and mission.  You have been commissioned for a mission.  I only know one thing.  If you do choose to take seriously the commissioning of your baptism, you like him, might just begin to show up in places that people least expect; and not so much the places where you want to go, but where you are needed.  But if you go there long enough, after a while a miracle will occur -the places where you want to go and where you are needed will become the same place, and you will realize that you are finally at home.