Episode Transcript
CONSECRATE
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
HEAR
Matthew 3:16–17 NIV
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
CONSIDER
Somehow I missed it. I've read those three words hundreds of times and never really caught them. You are wondering, "Which three words?" Since we are reading together, how about you go back and see if you can spot them?
But before we deal with those three words, let's go to the instant replay booth and watch what unfolded just before Jesus was baptized.
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. (Matt. 3:13–15)
Wait! Now there are three more game-changing words. Did you catch them? Yep, "Fulfill all righteousness." But what does that mean? I always thought of righteousness as something like good behavior on steroids. I looked it up. The Greek word is dikaiosuné (pronounced dee-kah-yos-oo'-nay). It turns out it doesn't mean good behavior on steroids. It means the approval of God.
So Jesus gets baptized in order to be approved by God, right? Wrong. Jesus gets baptized because he is approved by God.
And right here—just like that—we witness the miracle of amazing grace. Jesus is not living his life for his Father's approval. He's living his life from his Father's approval.
There is another word associated with working for approval: slavery. And there is another word for working from approval: freedom. I spent too many years working off of the world's calculus. My value and worth = how hard I worked + what others thought of me.
Now, behold, what the gift of God's approval—fulfilling all righteousness—looks like.
And a voice from heaven said, "This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
Jesus gets the performance evaluation before the job even begins. It's because it's not based on his performance, but his deep identity. This is what righteousness looks like and it is the free gift of God for anyone who will follow Jesus. Jesus lives from his Father's approval as a gift. He never works for it. If we are in Jesus the same is true for us. I want this. Don't you want it too?
Now those three words I somehow missed until now.
Heaven was opened.
Last time I checked, it never closed again. Those words of our Father still pour like the rain of the Holy Spirit on every soul who will get into the river with Jesus.
PRAY
Our Father, thank you for the gift of your Son, Jesus—the Messiah, and our Lord. Jesus you are my righteousness and I have no righteousness outside of you. I receive your approval and I release my futile efforts to work for or somehow prove my worthiness. In other words, I receive your freedom and I release my former way of slavery. Come, Holy Spirit, and seal this miracle in me. Let it rain. Indeed, thank you for opening the floodgates of heaven. Praying in Jesus's name, amen.
