Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him.
Matthew 3:13-15
Imagine that; John tried to talk his way out of baptizing Jesus. Jesus traveled all the way from Galilee to the Jordan river for John to baptize Him. In one way it demonstrates his humility, but in another, conveys how John missed the bigger picture.
Jesus came to the world as a man, to live amongst mankind in order to save men and women from eternal punishment.
As such, He needed to be baptized by a man worthy of such a responsibility to “fulfill all righteousness.”
A few years ago I received a call from a friend about providing some business services for his organization. What they needed wasn’t necessarily my specialty and I wanting to manage expectations, told them they may want to get someone else.
But my friend had already shared my background with the team and they felt comfortable with me delivering on the request. So I got started, provided a proposal and a final report. It went great and I later would use that case as a reference example for years to come.
Like John, I focused on the wrong thing. Sometimes we get caught up on talking ourselves out of what we think is a harmful situation and nearly talk ourselves out of a helpful one.
We have to avoid placing too much faith in fear and too small a force in our faith. Be blessed!
This is part 3 of the John the Baptist series.
