A good plan

There is nothing like a good plan. A plan that works out.  Over Christmas I have had the opportunity to wake up later, to eat chocolate a lot, generally to indulge myself. It has been lovely. It felt rather freeing to have time off, there was no plan. It was great. Of course, this wouldn't be great forever. After all, it is good to respond to an alarm clock, eat more healthy food and know what day of the week it is. 

I was struck by a good plan when I thought about the gospel reading for this Sunday (Matthew 3:13-17).  The reading describes the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. On a side note, when I think of John the Baptist, a name which describes what he did I think of tales of Welsh village life, with Jones the baker and Davies the butcher.  Back to John. We will know he was roughly the same age as Jesus. In the gospel according to Luke (1:39-45) there is the description of a pregnant Mary meeting a pregnant Elizabeth. The mother of Jesus and the mother of John the Baptist met, they were related. The closeness in age of Jesus and John means that they would have been around 30 years old when Jesus was baptised.  The gospel writer Luke provides us with the age of Jesus, at the beginning of His ministry (3:23).

In the gospel reading for Sunday, we see a plan in action. John the Baptist saw Jesus coming to him and asking for baptism. John was surprised and asked Jesus why. It is as if John, knowing how important Jesus was, did not feel worthy of baptising Him. It reminds me of a story of the civil war in America when one captain was bossing his troops around saying that they needed to lift some logs for him. The logs were more like tree trunks but the soldiers carried on. As they were doing this another man came and helped. The captain asked who the man was. The man replied that he was George Washington, the commander-in-chief. Basically, he was much more important than the captain but still willing to help out. For John, Jesus asking for baptism felt like a similar role reversal. Jesus asking to be baptised by John was a complete change of plan from the point of view of John. 

Jesus’ reply is also rather confusing.  His reply was, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.’ Jesus knew the plan and He was sticking to it. The plan to be baptised, which led to the fulfilment of every part of the Trinity being involved. God the Son had God the Spirit descend on Him, whilst God the Father announced that God the Son was His beloved. I could think of lots of difficult discussions and questions about the Trinity.  But, the main thing that sticks for me, is that Jesus was baptised, just like us.  Then the wonderful point is that in doing something just like us, God showed Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

This is an amazing plan. However, for John the Baptist, his plan was thrown by God asking him to do more than he expected.  Yet what a wonderful moment it must have been for him.  It makes sense really. This is because, if God disrupts our plans and we listen to His call there is always a wonderful experience waiting.

This is something that caused Peter, in another of the readings for Sunday  (Acts 10:34-43) to say, of Jesus,

“All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (vs.43)