Saturday, Day 4: Matthew 3
After providing only minimal
information about Jesus’ early history – his conception and his escape into
Egypt – Matthew jumps straight into telling us about Jesus and John the Baptist
at the age of +-30. John was just 6 months older than Jesus,
and was the one selected to be Jesus’ forerunner – to prepare the way for Jesus’
entry into ministry – so perhaps John was 31 by then, but if so, barely.
John fulfilled Isaiah’s
prophecy, as Matthew reports in Matthew 3:3. Letting us know the fulfillment of prophecies was obviously
a big deal to Matthew. He is
like a lawyer laying out his case.
The description of John the
Baptist creates a vivid visual.
John wore a garment of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his
waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
The honey sounds pretty good, but locusts sound disgusting, even if they are dried and covered in chocolate!
And I once had a camel hair coat.
It was beautiful, but rough and itchy! I see him with a full beard and long, somewhat unkempt
hair. Bronzed by his outside
living, burly, buff. A man’s man
to the nth degree.
Yet, he was the one chosen
to preach about the One who was to come and prepare the way. And preach he did! He was very direct, and more than a
little caustic in his presentation at times. He called the religious leaders a brood of vipers. But when Jesus came to him to be
baptized he humbly replied, “I need to be baptized by you….” And he would not
have consented, except that Jesus reminded him it must be so.
Matthew 3:16 & 17
records, “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water,
and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am
well pleased.”
God has spoken those words
to me on only one occasion, and it happened during a Singspiration I had worked
very hard to prepare. Out of a
very large congregation, less than 10 people showed up to share in the joy of
singing together; but during the service, after we had sung our songs of praise
and worship and were having a quiet time of enjoying the palpable presence of
the Lord that pervaded the room, God spoke to me and said “I am well pleased.” It touched me to the core. Our praise was not shared with
many people, yet every person who was there came because they truly wanted to
be there, and God showed up in quiet power, glory, and majesty, His presence
filling the room and our hearts, and though we didn’t want the moment to end,
we carried that presence with us as we went our separate ways. It is one of my most memorable and
unforgettable experiences. It was
a glimpse of what Heaven will feel like.
Jesus’ baptism was Jesus’ inauguration
into ministry: the beginning of the
three years he would walk on earth, teach, heal, interact, love and be loved in
the flesh. God with skin
on!
Humor for today:
Our
youngest granddaughter is a hoot.
She has come up with some real choice bits of perspective, often leaving
us in stitches.
One such
time was when she and her next-older sister stayed the night with us, and the
girls slept in our walk-in closet so we’d be close by.
In the
morning – right after brushing his teeth & rinsing his mouth out with
mouthwash – my husband peeked in
to see if they were awake yet, and the older of the two was, so he quietly
knelt down beside her and gave her a kiss on the cheek. When he did, she commented, “Papa, your
breath smells good.”
With that
the youngest one popped her eyes open and said, “Let me smell.” So, he leaned
over and blew a little puff of air her way, to which she replied, “You smell
like cookieness.”
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