Standing In The Stream

Matthew 23:24 (NIV)

24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

That’s what fundamentalism always does. It majors in the minors and minors in the majors. It claims to know and possess the only meaning of a scripture text, and exalts itself for knowing and possessing the only truth, but it misses the meaning entirely.

So Jesus taught in the temples, but he validates that God does not have to be found in the temple and indeed often will not be! But second, and maybe more important, is that Jesus sees his need to slip into that stream of God’s grace himself. He does not stand beyond it, insisting that others do what he has not done. He, like every one of those people in the crowd, sees his need for God, knows he needs what God has, knows that his place is in that flow, in the stream. Jesus, like you and me, needs to receive what God has to give. John doesn’t get it at the moment, but Jesus says,

Matthew 3:15 (MSG)

15 …"Do it. God's work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism." So John did it.

I love what Jesus says. “God is up to something here, John. Get out of the way and let it happen.” So John, in his incredible humility, gets out of the way and lets it happen. Notice that when John baptizes Jesus, that’s all he’s doing. He’s not DOING anything special – he’s just getting out of the way. Ever think about that? Maybe when you’re out there exercising your gift, doing what you are called to do, you’re not so much doing something in those moments as you are getting out of the way and allowing the stream to flow! Do it. God is up to something – do you want to be part of it or not? If so, then do it.

Jesus needs to do this. And we begin to see why when he comes up out of the water, for at that moment

Matthew 3:16-17 (MSG)

16 … the skies opened up and he saw God's Spirit—it looked like a dove—descending and landing on him.

17 And along with the Spirit, a voice: "This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life."

I checked all the instances of this account in scripture and nowhere is it stated that anyone except Jesus saw this, and my guess is that Jesus probably was the only one who saw it. This event was not in order for God to confirm to the people who Jesus was. God did that later through Christ’s healings and teachings. This event was between Jesus and God, where God confirmed to Jesus who Jesus was. This is where Jesus came to understand his identity – God’s Son, chosen and marked by God’s love, and the delight of God’s life. And it was out of this understanding of himself as God’s dearly loved child that Jesus – breaking company with all spiritual teachers who had ever come before him – called God Abba – Daddy.

Without that understanding of who he was, Jesus could no more accomplish the work God had given him than you can accomplish your work without that same understanding. And you know what? Most of us don’t have it. And you can’t make God give it to you – you have to simply receive it, and being able to receive it is a grace, and a gift, and one that we can only pray for. It comes in God’s way and on God’s terms and in God’s time – it’s simply not up to us. All we can do is what Jesus did -- get in the stream and allow God to descend, listen for him to speak, knowing that you will surely hear these words just as Jesus did. As it was for Jesus, so it must be for you. Jesus was 30 years old before it happened for him. You might be 30 or 40 or 50 before it happens for you. But at some point you will need to know what Jesus came to know on that day – that you too are God’s child, chosen and marked by God’s love, and the delight of God’s life. Until you come to know that, you are experiencing God around the edges. Once you come to know it, you begin to experience God at the center, and yourself in the center of God. And I assure you, that’s when the whole world begins to change.