One On One: 100 Days With Jesus--Ministry YearsSample

Water: The One who identifies with us

All the fanfare that came with His birth 30 years ago settled down, and Jesus grew up in Nazareth, a quiet 100 miles from Jerusalem. How Jesus knew when it was time to go public, no one knows.

Maybe Jesus knew His time had come when rumors spread that in the desert, John was preaching about the coming kingdom of God. Or maybe Jesus’ spiritual hearing was so keen He heard His Father whisper, “now.” So, at just the right time and for the last time, Jesus pulled the door shut to His shop and set off to see John. 

Down in Judea where the Jordan River met the wilderness, John “the Baptizer” was   making quite a ruckus about how people should relate to God. “Your Jewish-ness isn’t your ticket to heaven,” he preached. “Only an honest turn from sin will open your heart to God. Only then will you be ready for the Messiah.” 

As he described what this Messiah will be and do and say, the religious in the crowd got hotter and the repentant in the crowd got in the water, asking to be baptized. Down into the water as a picture of washing away their sin, then raised face-first from the rushing current with eyes focused on their new life in God. 

One day from out of the crowd on the shore, Jesus Himself stepped into the water.   When John saw Him there, he shouted to everyone, “Here He is! The One who will take away your sin. He’s the One I’ve been telling you about; He’s the Passover Lamb of God!” 

Then Jesus asked John for an unexplainable thing—to be baptized, too. John objected, “You? You don’t need to repent!” but the Lord insisted. “Let it be this way . . .” 

The picture became clearer with the years; just as Jesus would someday die for us   so we could be forgiven, Jesus came out of the water, a Savior. Right on mission, He did what His Father asked. He who had never and would never sin, obeyed as if He was a sinner so we could be treated as if we were not. 

When Jesus’ face emerged out of the water, eyes towards the sky, His Father did a   beautiful thing—He broke into time and space with a message for His Son. John   later told anyone who would listen, “When I saw the Spirit descend like a dove and land on Jesus . . . we heard this voice out of the blue say, “My Son, I am so delighted in You and what You are doing.’ I knew, I just knew. Jesus is the One.” 

Jesus heard from His Father what every son needs from His dad. Affirmation. After   30 years away, the sound of His Father’s voice must have felt a little like heaven for Him. 

And that’s good—because Jesus would cover a lot of ground before He would see heaven again.

Tomorrow: One on one with Jesus in the desert