This is all about solidarity. This is all about being one with the people of God. This is not about separation. This is about relating to and being one with…
John’s Baptism implied a hierarchical relationship, from the top down.
The baptizer is senior to the baptizee.
The dunker is senior to the dunkee.
John is seen as being the “Holy man.”
“The righteous one” – out there in the wilderness. The wild man. Either self-appointed or God appointed, it didn’t really matter – because he was “that” unique.
And even John himself recognizes this in Matthew’s gospel, and says that – Jesus should instead baptize him.
John knew that he should be “subordinate” to Jesus.
Matthew drums this into our heads by saying that “John kept preventing him” – or John “would have prevented him” but obviously John was not persuasive enough.
Jesus was the more determined of the two.
It is almost a comical moment down there in the Jordan River, as if we could overhear their conversation…
“You first.”
“No, You first.”
“No you, first.”
In my strange mind, I hear some random guy on shore – “Yell out” – “Well someone get baptized we don’t have all day…the sun is hot and we are tired of waiting…” “And, we are getting hungry!”
So, John gives in and baptizes Jesus.
John was right of course.
After all, baptism was for “sinners.”
And if that indeed were the case…what was this guy – Jesus – doing here?
It should all be reversed.
Something was up.
What John needs is to be baptized by Jesus — with “the Holy Spirit and with “Fire from heaven.” With some kind of huge pyrotechnic display from above…
Fire, smoke, ashes and sizzling heat – that could toast a man like a marshmallow on the end of a stick…
And instead what he gets…is Jesus succumbing and being baptized – confessing his sins…
As if he were just another Zachariah or a Matthais…
Which simply means to point out from the beginning how John totally misunderstood the nature of God’s mission…
God’s reign will not be about John’s fiery images of judgment for sinners…but rather, about God’s full immersion into the trials and tribulations of his people.
God is with us.
God identifies with us.
God understands…what we are going through.
Jesus stood in line with sinners.
Jesus walked with sinners. He talked with sinners.
Jesus ate with sinners.
Jesus stood under the hot sun with sinners. And Jesus sweated side by side and right along with sinners.
Jesus’ entire mission was not about the punishment of sinners, but rather about his identification with them.
John simply got it wrong. So did a lot of other people.
Jesus’ solidarity with sinners is, in God’s upside-down, topsey turvey way, the superior position.
It is not top down. It is bottom up. It is the first will be last and the last will be first.
It is the exact opposite of what you would expect.
Jesus saw John as a partner in his ministry and in his mission…neither a superior or an inferior.
That is not how God sees us. He sees as his own. As belonging to him…
“You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them.
It shall not be so, among you. Whoever wishes to be great among you, must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you – must be your slave…
As Mark tells us, “Just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for all.”
From the beginning…
From the baptism on… Jesus came to be one with us and to be like us and to live among us — as God’s own people.
God understands you – more than you realize.
He gets us – he really truly get us. And, more importantly, he loves us.