Dunked

Mark spoke from Matthew 3 about Jesus' baptism. John is announcing the arrival of the kingdom. People were coming to John and realigning their hearts toward God by getting baptised. Then Jesus comes - the one who was going to immerse people in the Kingdom of God. Baptising with fire and with the Holy Spirit The one John has been waiting for was right there!

Have you ever told Jesus he has the wrong story? We think it is supposed to go one way. And it just doesn't. Jesus is telling a different story. Jesus is stepping into the story of Israel. Into the story of humanity. He is fulfilling the story.

Jesus goes into the water as Israel did. He is going to go into the desert as Israel did. Except he is going to stay faithful to God the whole way.

Baptism is like being dunked by your brothers. It's humiliating to be dunked. The creator of the stars is stepping into this story and allowing himself to be brought under and be brought up. He allowed everyone to believe a story about him that wasn't true - that he needed to repent. He is fully identifying with humanity. Then ‘the heavens were opened’ and Jesus sees the Holy Spirit descending on him in the form of a dove. He is empowered for what is ahead of him.

And then he hears: "This is my son, my beloved one... I'm really delighted with him." When we humble ourselves to die to ourselves we are raised up, we are vindicated by God in his time, in his way.

None of us want to go through the humbling in order to be raised up. We would rather demand our rights, our fair share. Its puzzling to John - the way Jesus did things. The way of the kingdom of God is through submission. There was something different about this Way. Jesus chose the path of humility. It’s not weak, it’s confronting!

Baptism is the laying down of our lives. I am buried with Christ and I'm raised up with him. We are surrendering!

Those words are for us to when we are in him. You are my beloved daughter / son. I'm delighted in you. We can hang on that kind of identity.

We do not survive our life without knowing who we are. We cannot lay down our lives consistently without knowing who we are.

God calls us to lay down our lives. There needs to be a turning in our hearts toward Jesus and a surrender. That's a real thing.

For God so loved the world that he gave his beloved Son, that whoever puts their confidence in him will not live a dysfunctional, destructive life but will have a life worth living forever.

This life worth living forever begins with surrender and is sustained through humility.