"Do I REALLY want to be like Jesus?"

Do I really want to be like Jesus?

That's the question we need to ask ourselves, after listening to this challenging Gospel passage from Matthew 3. We Christians, of course, are always saying that we want to be like the Lord. For us, Jesus is not only the Creator of the universe and the Savior of the world, he's also supposed to be our model for living--and we happily acknowledge that. Those of us who take our faith seriously, take the words of Jesus seriously: the Jesus who once said, "As I have done, so you must do;" the Jesus who said, "follow me;" the Jesus who said, "love one another as I have loved you." True Christians want to be like Jesus not only because it's right, but also because the Lord himself has commanded us to follow his example in our lives.

Which brings us to this famous scene from Scripture: John the Baptist is baptizing sinners in the Jordan River as they publicly confess their sins. Then all of a sudden, his cousin Jesus approaches and John catches sight of him. What's wrong with this picture? Well, John knew instantaneously what was wrong--his cousin did not possess the prerequisite for his baptism! His cousin had nothing to confess; he was not a sinner! His cousin was the Messiah, the Anointed, the Son of God, the Word made flesh. And so John does the logical thing that any one of us would have done in his position: he objects! "Cousin, why are you here? This makes no sense. I should be baptized by you, yet you come to me! I'm the one with sins on my soul--not you!" Jesus answers by saying, "Give in for now. We must do this if we would fulfill all of God's demands." In other words, "I'm doing this because it's part of the heavenly Father's perfect plan; so please, do to me what you have done to everybody else--baptize me." Here we see the incredible humility of Jesus Christ. Think about it--although he was perfectly pure and holy and just and loving and righteous, he was willing to be identified with these people at the Jordan River, many of whom had probably committed the seven deadly sins and then some! Let's be honest about it: in this situation, Jesus had every right to say, "I will not do it. I will not submit to this baptism--because I don't need to! I haven't done anything that requires repentance. Why should I lower myself in this way? Other people will see me approaching my cousin John and they'll say, 'Look at Joseph's son. We thought he was pretty special, but it turns out that he's just like the rest of us.' But that's not true! I'm not like the rest of them. I'm better than they are--much, much better than they are." So why did Jesus do this? Why did he humble himself and submit to a baptism that he had no need of? He did it as a sign of what he would do three years later on Holy Thursday and Good Friday: when he allowed himself to be beaten and whipped and spat upon and nailed to a Cross for sins that he was not guilty of! As Isaiah prophesied in chapter 53, verse 12 of his book, our Lord was "counted among the wicked" during his Passion. And thank God he was! If he had not been willing to be so intimately associated with us, then we would all go to hell someday--no questions asked! So it can be rightly said that our salvation is rooted in the humility of God--in the humility of God's Son.

Do I really want to be like Jesus?

Do you see why that is such a challenging question? It's because being like Jesus means that when it's God's will we must be willing to voluntarily humble ourselves--even when strict justice doesn't require that we do! Let me give you some concrete, everyday examples of what I'm getting at:

How about this one?: Taking the first step in being reconciled with another person. We have a conflict with somebody: a family member, a co-worker, a close friend, perhaps. We don't speak to that person for a period of time. We want to be reconciled, and yet there's a little voice inside of us that says: "But I didn't start it. It wasn't my fault that this happened. I didn't do anything wrong. Why should I be the first one to reach out to try to make amends?" The Jesus who went down to the Jordan that day to see John the Baptist would be willing to reach out first if he discerned that it was his heavenly Father's will--even though strict justice would dictate that the other person make the initial overture.

Do I really want to be like Jesus?

Here's one for the teens: Are you willing to associate with the person in your class who's the least popular--perhaps the person who always gets picked on? That's something you don't have to do, but would you be willing to do it anyway-- knowing that you might be ridiculed because of it? The Jesus who humbled himself at the Jordan and identified himself with sinners would gladly associate with such a person.

Do I really want to be like Jesus?

Here's one for the small children: Would you be willing to clean up a mess in your home that you didn't make? Imagine that your brother or sister made the mess in the living room and your parents asked you to straighten it out--would you be willing to do it? The humble Jesus would.

Do I really want to be like Jesus?