Given by Jude Johnson January 12 2020
Today, we are examining the jump in Matthew from Jesus’s family running from Herod after being warned by the three kings to Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River. This is a span of thirty years. At the river, John and Jesus go back and forth about who will do what. Jesus tells John that John will baptize him. After coming up from the water, a voice is heard by all. It says “This is my son with whom I am well pleased”. What is God proud of? What happened during the thirty year period of Jesus growing up? He was probably a normal child doing what all children do as they grow. There is meaning in Jesus going through almost thirty years of human life before his three years of ministry. While we will never know the specifics, what is important is that God was pleased. A dove descends signaling a new beginning in Jesus’s life. He does not become an entirely new person though. He spent thirty years becoming who he is, becoming human. It gave him true understanding of what we needed in order to be saved. He understand what needed to be done to transform society. In becoming, Jesus was already enough in the eyes of God. Like Jesus, we are enough as we live in God’s way. We have value. We are enough just being who we are in community with each other and with God. We are enough!
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