“Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’”
The evangelist Matthew must have been a lawyer; he so often seems to be marshalling supporting arguments, citing precedents (all those quotes from the prophets…) and anticipating objections. So he alone of the Gospel writers, in telling the story of Jesus’ baptism, informs us that John was uncomfortable having Jesus submit to his ritual of repentance. After all, by the time Matthew is writing, Jesus is already risen and ascended, worshiped as the sinless Son of God. Matthew needs to get out in front of those who would question why Jesus should have undergone John’s baptism.
So here John objects to what he perceives as a role reversal, the lesser baptizing the greater. “But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then he consented.”
Jesus recognizes that, if he is to share fully in our humanity, he needs to undergo this rite of cleansing and so sanctify it. He willingly submits to this ritual, as later he willingly submits to a corrupt trial and unjust sentence and hideous death. Over and over again Jesus submits – and so subverts the sin and death from which he came to free us. Indeed, his Incarnation itself – God taking on the limitations of human flesh and nature, of boundedness in time and space – is submission, freely submitting in order to set others free.
So I was somewhat appalled to read this week that the Church of England is experimenting with a new baptismal rite that dispenses with the word “submit,” so as not to cause pain to any who have been forced to submit to power. While I recognize the issue, it seems a gross over-reaction to take out of play a word that conveys such a central aspect of being a Christ follower. (These same rites also remove the ancient language of “sin” and the “devil”… that’s a rant for another day!)
I submit that learning the art of voluntary submission is at the heart of following Christ. It is central to the kind of self-emptying love Jesus taught and demonstrated. In following Him, we voluntarily submit our prerogatives, our priorities, our time and resources, our wills, to the cause of self-giving love that heals and transforms the people around us. We might go so far as to say that is the work of spiritual growth – learning to gradually submit ourselves to the love of God, overwhelming as that can be.
Today I invite you to ask yourself where in your life you submit – voluntarily, or not. Not all submission is life-giving… yet in choosing to submit, we can often give life.
And where do you sense yourself hanging on to avoid submitting? What might be asked of you?
To trust more? To give more? To spend time with someone difficult? To change careers?
Ask Jesus to show you where He might be inviting you to submit more of yourself, your agenda, to His.
How do you respond? Our “yes” sometimes takes awhile…
Jesus does not ask of us anything he has not already done – perhaps that’s why he chose to go into the water that day, the sinless one undergoing a baptism for repentance.
It was the beginning of his taking on the burden of our repentance.
It was the beginning of everything, of life for us, there in that water.
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