“Jesus 101: No Need”
Matthew 3:1-17
It must have been quite the scene. First, consider the location: the Desert. It’s not where an up and coming preacher should try to build his new church! Second, there was John the Baptist who was quite a sight! “John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.” He was certainly no candidate for a fashion or cultural magazine! Third, there was the issue of his fiery demeanor and speech (7-10): “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? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not 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 does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.” This is certainly not the way to win friends and influence people! Fourth, his message was blunt (2): “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” This was no way to appeal to his Jewish audience! No good Jew would be baptized! Gentiles could be – after all, they were dirty and unclean so to become a Christian the Jews knew they were in need of cleansing. But not the Jews themselves; they did not need it – they were of Abraham! They were secure. Yet, fifth, the people were responding in droves (5-6): “People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” Finally, in the midst of all this strangeness, Jesus came to be baptized by John. And that just didn’t make sense to this radical, faithful prophet.
After all, JESUS HAD NO NEED TO BE BAPTIZED: “But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Baptism was for those who needed to repent, those who sinned. Since Jesus was the Messiah, the one from God, certainly he was not a sinner! He did not need to be baptized. Additionally, according to John (11): Jesus would be the giver of the real, true baptism: “"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.””
So WHY WAS HE BAPTIZED? The key to the answer is in verse 15: “Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented.” Jesus was baptized in order to fulfill all righteousness - in order TO PUT THINGS RIGHT WITH GOD. Jesus was baptized to identify with our humanity so He could be the sacrifice to pay the price for our redemption – to purchase our salvation. This was a voluntary, deliberate act of self-identification with sinful people – Jesus, who gave up His glory to come to earth, now stoops even lower to take the full shame and guilt of humanity upon Himself. He was emphatically declaring His oneness with us, even in our sin and weakness. Here’s what it means: HE BECAME WHAT WE ARE. At His birth Jesus showed us that God was no longer ‘out there’, totally other, radically different from humankind; He took up our flesh. Now at His baptism Jesus showed us that God loved us so much that He was willing to be like us at our lowest point of existence, in our lostness, under the weight of sin, separated from the divine blessings.
Certainly this was significant for Jesus. Think for a moment – how readily do you associate with “weird” or “different” people or ‘unclean’ people? There was once an elementary-aged girl who knew someone just like that. She even called this boy, a classmate, ‘the ugliest kid in class.’ She said his teeth were often unbrushed, his hair usually messy, and his odor always unfavorable. She added, “No one in the class can stand him.” She was asked, “What if you became his friend?” “Oh no. Then everyone would gag at me, too.” This little gal knew the world’s philosophy: it’s hard to fly with the eagles if we waddle with the ducks! But, praise God, Jesus did not buy into that philosophy. He did not distance Himself from us – He stood with us; He was willing to waddle with the ducks! It was a sign of complete solidarity with us. He became what we are.
Alice Walker, in her novel The Color Purple, developed a main character named Celie. She had a son who was raised by her sister, a missionary in Africa. The son fell in love with a girl whom he wanted to marry and bring back to America. But she refused his proposal. She was afraid she might be rejected in America, since her face had the scars left by her tribal initiation ceremony. She feared that in the U.S. her husband might find other women more attractive and desert her. So to assure her of his love he promised to share whatever fate befell her. Then, to show the depth of his love, the young man had marks identical to hers cut into his own face. Fully identifying with her scars was proof of his undying love. So in baptism Jesus took upon Himself our sin scars; He made them His very own. It proves the wonderful love of God! God loves us so much that, in Jesus, He became what we are. The One who would ‘save his people from their sins’ (1:21) had now begun to bear the sin which would lead to Calvary…Isaiah 53:4-6: “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows…he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” Jesus had no need to be baptized – but out of undying love for us, He was.
Therefore, praise God, WE HAVE NO NEED. Can you grasp that? Do you believe that? “Oh yes,” you say. “But what about…I really need this…We all have needs.” Not really – not if we truly grasp what Jesus has done for us. Consider Jesus: He not only became what we are to identify with us in our sinfulness, but also HE BECAME WHAT WE ARE TO MAKE US WHAT HE IS – a child of God, one with the Father. What more could we possibly need?
We certainly HAVE NO NEED: TO DESPAIR. In Jesus we have hope. Just as He came down to identify with us, Jesus’ baptism symbolized the fact that we are identified with Jesus - in His death and resurrection. His death became our death and His resurrection our resurrection. As Paul wrote the Corinthian Church about the resurrection (I Cor. 15:20-24, 51-52): “But the fact is that Christ has been raised from the dead. He has become the first of a great harvest of those who will be raised to life again. So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, Adam, now the resurrection from the dead has begun through another man, Christ. Everyone dies because all of us are related to Adam, the first man. But all who are related to Christ, the other man, will be given new life…But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die.” We have no need to despair for we have hope! In Focus on the Family, April 1988, there was a story about Jeremy (the names have been changed for the sake of privacy), a terminally ill student, who was twelve years old and still in the second grade. He couldn't learn, made unusual noises, and often drooled. To most kids he was an object of humor; to his teacher, Jeremy was an exasperatingly difficult student. One year, Miss Miller gave an assignment before Easter that required all of the students to take an empty plastic egg and bring it back the next day with something in the egg that represented new life. The teacher planned to call Jeremy's parents that night and explain the assignment so that Jeremy would do what she asked, but several emergencies prevented her from calling. When she opened the nineteen eggs with the children, the first one had a flower in it, and the teacher affirmed the fact that a flower represents new life. The second egg contained a butterfly, which everyone agreed signified new life. A third egg with a moss-covered rock demonstrated new life as well. To the chagrin of Miss Miller, the fourth egg was empty. She quickly guessed it was Jeremy's egg and laid it down without comment. Jeremy piped up, "Miss Miller, aren't you going to talk about my egg?" Flustered, she said, "Jeremy, your egg is empty." He looked softly into her eyes and replied, "Yes, but Jesus' tomb was empty, too!" Miss Miller later spent the recess period crying with a softened heart. Three months later when Jeremy died, his theology was represented by nineteen plastic eggs on his casket--all of which were empty. We have no need to despair.
Because Jesus was baptized we also have NO NEED FOR SELF-RELIANCE. Our relationship with God does not rest on us but on Him. We do not need to rely on ourselves for our security. We need not worry about making enough money, doing enough good, pleasing enough people, or making a good enough impression on God; because Jesus committed Himself to us, we are secure. To put it in Scriptural terminology, “Underneath are the everlasting arms.” Listen to John 10:27-30: “My sheep recognize my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. So no one can take them from me. The Father and I are one." During the first half of the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge, twenty men fell from the work to their death or serious injury. Finally they stopped construction and built a giant net under the area, so that if anyone else fell they would be caught. During the rest of the construction, only eight men fell, and all were uninjured. Not only did the net make them safer, it made them feel more secure and more confident, and thus less likely to fall. Jesus has taken on the burden of our security and we are safe.
Then, too, since Jesus became like us to carry the weight of our sin, we have NO NEED TO COVER OURSELVES. We can quit trying so hard to pay for our own sins, quit trying so hard to prove our worth to God and others. We have forgiveness; our standing with God is securely set; Jesus’ baptism was the first step in putting things right with God. In fact, ever since Genesis God has been working out His plan to free us from our broken relationship with Him. Taking our punishment and death was Jesus’ reason for becoming like us.
Through His death we could be like Him – one with the Father. It’s a tragedy that so many people try to cover their guilt. Multitudes try to drown it in alcohol, drugs, sex, and the fun life – get intoxicated and numb, hoping they won’t feel the guilt and shame. Others deny their guilt and pretend that it just doesn’t exist – or that at least they’re not as bad as others. Many more try to deflect or redirect guilt by blaming someone or something else – such as family, boss, environment, circumstances, or whatever. But Karl Menninger, the famous psychiatrist, once said that if he could convince the patients in his psychiatric hospitals that their sins were forgiven, 75% of them could walk out the next day. So John, in his first Epistle, wrote (I John 1:9 - 2:1-2): “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if you do sin, there is someone to plead for you before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who pleases God completely. He is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes away not only our sins but the sins of all the world.”
In the movie, The Mission, a mercenary named Captain Mendoza captured Indians and sold them as slaves, and also killed his own brother in a duel. Eventually he began to feel remorse over his life and in talking with a priest said there was no penance harsh enough to make up for all he had done. The Priest suggested that the Captain accompany him to an Indian village on the top of the mountain. When they were ready to go the priest took a large net filled with heavy armor and weapons and tied it to the shoulders of the Captain. He was to carry this up the steep, slick bluff that was adjacent to a mammoth waterfall. Because of this heavy burden the Captain many times lost his footing and fell. Even the men who accompanied the Captain began to feel his burden and pain, even to the point where they told the priest they thought he had suffered enough. The priest replied, “The Captain himself doesn’t think he’s had enough.” When they finally reached the village, the Chief of the Indians, fully aware of what the Captain had done to their brothers, took out his knife and severed the rope that bound the heavy load to the Captain’s shoulders. When the burden fell off, the Captain cried with sobs of relief and with gratitude for the mercy and grace extended by the very people against whom he had committed such atrocities. Are you dragging around a burden of guilt, bent down under the weight of sin? Jesus became what we are to make us what He is. “…the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
While it would be easy to sit back and rejoice in what Jesus has done for us, His baptism also reminds us that we have NO NEED TO RELAX – we have work to do. Jesus’ baptism was the beginning of His public ministry – from that moment on He was about His Father’s business in a new, more intense way. Remember the net placed under the workers at the Golden Gate Bridge? Not only were the workers freed from death, but they also improved their work efficiency by twenty-five percent. Security frees us from worry and releases us to live freely and victoriously. In our baptism we commit our lives in service to Christ. We are not to be relaxed in our service but more intense. Paul, in fact, wrote it this way (I Cor. 15:55-58): “How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord! So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord's work, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.” With no need we are free to give ourselves fully to serving Jesus. I invite you to do so.
