Jesus Baptizes Baptism: Bible reading for January 3

 Today the Bible readings are:

Genesis 5:1-7:24
Matthew 3:7-4:11
Psalm 3:1-8
Proverbs 1:10-19

And the thing that jumped out at me is when Jesus is baptized. Now, before I get to what jumped, let me say that it's pretty amazing to think of Jesus being baptized. Because when you or I are baptized, it means we are being cleansed of our sins and becoming new, sin-free people. But Jesus, of course, was already sin-free. So why was He baptized? Well, I thought about this once and in my prayer time I realized that Jesus was actually baptizing baptism. He was changing the process, which John was using to bring people to repentance and help them prepare for the Messiah, into something brand new. Like He did with most of the things He did in His life. And Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI, said the same thing in his book Jesus of Nazareth.

But what jumped out at me was when John says, "I need to be baptized by YOU, and You're coming to me??" And I realized that this was true throughout Jesus's life. His mother needed to be born again through Jesus, yet Jesus was born by her. His adopted father Joseph needed to learn wisdom and truth from Him, yet He learned so much from Joseph. Throughout Jesus's amazing life, He continually put Himself into a place of weakness in order for God's strength to be made perfect.

And of course He does the same thing in our lives. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. So next time you're feeling weak... give it to Jesus. His strength will be perfected in your life in that moment.

God, thanks for teaching us even in little phrases from the Bible that are "just part of the story."