Today’s Scripture Reading (September
12, 2017): Matthew 3
Actor (and screenwriter)
Kevin Spacey makes this comment about his craft. “Storytelling helps us
understand each other [and] translate the issues of our times” This idea that
the story helps us to communicate ideas in fundamental to good story telling. I
love to read and watch fictional tales. Often fans of documentaries or true stories argue that they want their
diversions to be based on fact. But the
argument misses the point. Good fiction speaks truth to culture. Good fiction
always translates the issues of our times. The first inter-racial kiss on
television happened on “Star Trek: The Original Series.” It purposefully spoke a truth with which culture was already wrestling.
Good fiction always does this – the story is important. All stories, fact-based
or fiction, telling the truth that the author needs his audience to
understand. It is the reason why even a biographer stresses some events while
all but ignoring others. The biographer wants us to arrive at the truth. So all
stories, to some extent, are true.
Jesus seems to have this
kind of interest in the story. He
understood that he was an “actor on the stage,” that everything that he did was
part of the grander story that was being told.
Even the most mundane events could be important to the story. Everything that
happened during his ministry filled in
meaning to those who were watching the story unfold.
And for the story, the
Baptism of Jesus is an important moment. Some have mentioned that there is no
proclamation in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) that specifies that the Messiah had
to be baptized. But this was a necessary
turn in the plot of the story foreshadowing what would happen in the end. The people expected that the Messiah would be
an outside force that would make things right inside of Israel. The Messiah
would restore the nation to a position of prominence among the nations. Of
course, part of the problem with Jesus was that he had no inclination to be that kind of Messiah. God’s plan was for
the Messiah to deal a death blow to sin and restore a right standing between
his creation and himself – independent of the outward political reality in
which the person lived. To deal that blow, Jesus had to stand shoulder to
shoulder with the rest of creation.
So Jesus comes to John
and becomes just another of the many that John would baptize. In this act, he
identifies with the rest of Israel – and takes the first important step toward
fulfilling the will of his Father and being the Messiah that God had intended
him to me.
It is important to note
that Jesus uses the word “righteousness” differently here. Most often “righteousness” indicates a right standing with
God. Jesus had a “right standing” even as
he was being baptized by John for the
repentance of sin. It was not that Jesus needed to be forgiven of his sin and
gain that “right standing,” but that righteousness here takes on an ethical
characteristic. Jesus message to John is that this action is necessary because
it conforms to the will of the Father. And because the Father willed it, John
agrees. And the story begins to speak of a truth
that the people were missing – that the Messiah had come not to restore a more
favorable political reality, but to save the people from themselves, and their
sin.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Mark 1
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