Jesus Leads the Way

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:13-17)

What do you do when you’re making a new beginning in your life? Do you take a bath, put on new clothes, take a new name, move to a new place, learn a new language? For refugees and immigrants, all of the above may be true. In so many ways, they are starting their lives over, the minute they arrive in America. And many choose to do it by reaching for what is new.

Jesus does much the same. He is about to start his public ministry—a new life where he will be preaching about God, healing sick people, caring for the poor, and forgiving those who have done wrong. At the end of his ministry, he will give his own life up to rescue human beings from the power of evil and death. And then he will rise from the dead to give us all new life.

Faced with this new life, what does Jesus do? He takes a bath. And not any bath—Jesus gets baptized, just as every Christian does at the beginning of his or her new life with God. Jesus is already clean—he has never done anything wrong, and he doesn’t need to have his sins washed away. But he gets baptized anyway because he always leads the way—going before us into the new life God gives. Jesus is our Leader and our Savior—and he will walk with us through every new challenge we face, until the day he takes us home to be with him forever.

Lord, bless both us and our immigrant neighbors, and give us all new life through your Son Jesus. Amen. 

By Dr. Kari Vo