John the Baptist seemed, to the watching world, a crazy man. Unkempt. Unshaven. He ate who knows what – locusts, bugs, wild honey (maybe even the camel whose skin he wore as a coat). He called people names, telling them that they needed to turn back and get right with God.
The Baptiser attracted a following, though. And people came from miles around to see the spectacle of a man swt on fire for God, burning from the inside out with a message he absolutely had to deliver.
John’s cousin Jesus had lived a quiet life. He burst onto the scene 30 years or so before, but hadn't yet lived up to all that potential. (How do you live up to your potential when a chorus of angels shows up at your birth and announces that you're the One who will bring peace on earth? The bar was set pretty high.) Jesus hadn't done much to confirm John's suspicions that the angels might have been right.
Still, there had always been something about Jesus. There was that time in the Temple when He was 12 – when He confounded the brightest religious scholars of the day with His insights. But after that, He seemed content to stay in Nazareth, working with His dad, providing for their family.
Until now.
Now here He is, all of a sudden, demanding that John baptise Him. John’s dumbfounded, just like his dad had been all those years ago. (Lk 1.5-25)
“Me? Baptise You? You must be kidding! If anything, You should baptise me.”
“Just do it, okay, John? It’ll make sense later.”
Down He goes. Up He comes. Something comes out of the sky like a bird. It lands right on Him, and then a Voice from nowhere says something probably no one besides Jesus could really understand.
And then He’s gone, into the wilderness by Himself for 40 full days. Not eating. Fasting. Praying. Thinking.
The wilderness had long been thought of as a place of testing. It certainly is for Jesus. There in the sparse, dry countryside He faces down the devil, proving that God and His Word are more than a match for the most evil forces in our world. Not once but three times, Jesus uses the book of Deuteronomy to fend off the evil one’s attacks.
Satan leaves, a defeated enemy. He’s down but he’s not out – not yet, at least. He’s got a plan, and he’s content to bide his time. Jesus has won this round, but will He have what it takes when the pressure gets a little more intense?
Prayer
Father, out of Your glorious workmanship You have created each of Your people for good works, and You prepared these beforehand so that we would walk in them and find fulfilment in them. Life without You would have its transitory joys and setbacks, but none of this would have any enduring meaning in a godless world. You are the true Source of meaning and of purpose and of hope in this life, because You have made it clear that we live in a soul-forming world that is preparing us for our eternal citizenship in heaven. Therefore I will rejoice in hope, knowing that both the joys and setbacks of this life are part of a much larger whole, and that nothing in heaven or on earth can thwart Your purposes. You have invited me to participate in a grand and glorious drama that will conclude with the death of death itself.
In Jesus’s name, Amen.
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