Jesus was Chosen to Be What You Cannot Be so that You Can Be Like Him!

Water is vital for life. Water both keeps you alive and allows you to live. Water keeps you alive in that it allows your body to function and carry out all kinds of involuntary activities. Water also allows you to live because it allows you to think, speak and move. Water is vital for life; without water you cannot survive.

Toward the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, he had question about water for the chief priests and elders of the Jewish people. Jesus had come to the Temple in Jerusalem and finding the temple courts full of people buying and selling, he overturned their tables. The next day, the chief priests and elders of the people wanted to know by what authority he did these things, and we hear his reply in Matthew 21, 24 Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. 25 John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?” They could not reply with either response because they had rejected John the Baptist so they could not say he was from heaven, and they were afraid of the people because they believed John was a prophet, so they could not say he was from human origin, 27 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” Then he said, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things. The reason the chief priests and elders of the people rejected John the Baptist and questioned Jesus is because they did not believe in Jesus as the promised Messiah in Hebrew or Christ in Greek. Instead, they held to the false belief in their own ability to be righteous or good.

A similar show down had occurred just before Jesus began his public ministry. In Matthew 3, many of the Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptized by John the Baptist, 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” The Pharisees and Sadducees believed in their own ability to be righteous or good, so John did not baptize them. Instead, he warned them that their false believe in their own efforts to keep God’s law would only bring the wrath of God. Their belief in themselves would be like holding a cup under a facet in the display aisle at the hardware store, which is not connected to water, and act like the cup was filling up with drinkable water. Pretend water is not water and if you try to survive on it, you will die. The same is true for anyone who puts their hope in their own keeping of God’s law, is unrepentant and does not trust in Jesus as we hear in Romans 2, 5 But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

John the Baptist’s preaching and baptizing centered on repentance. John the Baptist’s focus on repentance meant he taught that we are sinful and unable to save ourselves. He also taught that God’s response to our sinfulness was the forgiveness and righteousness of the promised Messiah or Christ, both meaning the Anointed or Chosen One, who is Jesus. John recognized his own sins, need to repent and need for Jesus, which is why he reacted the way he did when Jesus came to be baptized by him. John’s reaction is recorded in our Gospel reading from Matthew 3, 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” John knew Jesus did not need baptism, forgiveness or to repent, but Jesus had come to do the will of his Father in heaven. His baptism would begin his public ministry by revealing him as the Messiah, the Christ, the Chosen one as promised by the prophet Isaiah in our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 42, 42 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.”

Jesus’ ministry or his service was to save us by taking away our sins and giving us righteousness. When John the Baptist hesitated to baptize Jesus:

15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Matthew 3:15-17

With God the Father speaking his approval of his Son, Jesus, the Chosen One from heaven and the Holy Spirit descending on him, Jesus fulfilled the words of Isaiah 42 confirming publicly that he was the Messiah. And, in our New Testament reading from Acts 10, Peter summarized what Jesus did while at the home of a Roman centurion named Cornelius:

37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.

Acts 10:37-38

Peter’s words to Cornelius, a Gentile, further proved Jesus as the Chosen One prophesied in Isaiah 42:

6 “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, 7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”

Isaiah 42:6-7

Jesus came to save both Jews and Gentiles. He came to free us from the captivity of sin, death, the devil and hell with the gift of his righteousness. Jesus’ baptism was the will of God and confirmed him as the one who would listen and obey God’s will even to the point of suffering and dying on the cross. Jesus died for all those times we have not obeyed the will of God, all those times we have been unrepentant and ignorantly or arrogantly denied that we are sinners deserving punishment in hell. Through Jesus, we are truly free from dungeons of darkness and washed clean to live in his wonderful light.

When we are convicted of our sins like John the Baptist, Jesus’ baptism reveals he made us to be like him. John hesitated to baptize Jesus recognizing his own sins and Jesus’ lack of sin, but Jesus came to take away our sins making us righteous like him. When you are convicted by your sins, the only place to look is Jesus. You have peace with God through Jesus as we heard in our New Testament reading from Acts 10:

34 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35 but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. 36 You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.”

Acts 10:34-36

You fit the description of someone accepted by God because through faith you fear him and do what is right. In other words, you are repentant. Repentance is sorrow over sin, trust in Jesus’ forgiveness and the desire to serve God in righteousness. Repentance rests on what Jesus has done. Without Jesus, there is only a vicious cycle of feeling guilty for doing bad things and trying to do good things that ends in a life unfulfilled, unrighteous, sinful, hopeless and bound for hell. With Jesus, repentance has its power in Jesus’ forgiveness and perfect life that are yours, and the Holy Spirit’s gift of faith which takes hold of his forgiveness and righteousness also filling us with the desire and ability to live righteously. The life of a Christian is constant repentance; there is no such this as an unrepentant Christian.

Trying to fill a cup from an empty well is impossible. Pretending an empty cup is full of water leads to death, and when the pretend water is your attempt at a good and righteous life without faith in Jesus it ends in eternal death in hell. Water is vital for life; water both keeps you alive and allows you to live. Spiritually the waters of baptism allow you to live and to thrive. Through baptism you are connected to Jesus’ forgives and given the gift of faith by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness and make it clear that he was the promised Messiah, Christ, the Anointed and Chosen One. He saved us by taking away our sins and giving us his righteousness. He is the guarantee of a home in heaven. So each day we are hopeful because heaven is our future, we are filled with purpose as we serve God in whatever role we play whether child or adult, single or married, 1,500 or 5,000 square foot home, stay at home parent or traveler for international business, we are not swayed by the worries of the world like sickness, war or keeping up with social trends because our identity and security are founded on Jesus who always stays the same. We have peace in our lives because we have peace with God through Jesus who was chosen to be what you cannot be so that you can be like him. Amen.