Westerners are so individualistic that we tend to miss out on the corporateness and community centeredness of the Bible. We read everything through the eyes of our rugged individuality. Though individuality has brought many blessings to our nation, it has also left us bereft of a great deal of understanding and knowledge. We are biblically poorer and less literate, because we refuse to see the corporate and community nature of the Scriptures.
Let’s put aside our individual tendencies and think corporately through today’s passage. Try to lay aside the urge to think in terms of ‘Me’, or ‘I’. Think about corporate Israel throughout the Old Testament. Israel was often called God’s Son. The nation was the beloved Son of God. It was only together, as a corporate body, that the Son of God existed. But that nation continued to rebel against God. The Son continued to spurn the Father’s love and to turn away with a stiff neck and hard heart. God put up with the nation’s rebellion for many centuries until He, in anger and wrath, sent them into exile.
From within that corporate body came a smaller group that would replace the Son image. The remnant from within exile and beyond it would be the Son of God. Together this smaller group would form the true Israel and would be loved and blessed by God as a father loves and blesses his son. But even this smaller group rejected God and spurned His love. Even this smaller group proved to be stiff necked and rebellious.
As Jesus comes to be baptised by John, we need to remember that Jesus has nothing to repent of. If we think in terms of rugged individualism we have a glaring problem - how can the Son of God, the perfect one, the one without sin, submit willing to a baptism of repentance when He has nothing to repent of?? Corporately, we make headway and can understand the situation. This baptism of repentance is effectively one man representing the true Israel. He is the one, the only one, that embodies all that God expected of His Son. As the corporate head of the nation He submits to a baptism of repentance on behalf of the nation, so that He can bring blessing to the nation and beyond them, to the entire world. He submits to the baptism so that He can call true Israel to Himself, an Israel that consists of Jews and Gentiles throughout the entire world.
And of course God confirms the Sonship of Jesus. As He emerges from the Baptism, the heavens open up and a voice is heard proclaiming, ‘This is my Son whom I love. with Him I am well pleased.’ Christ is vindicated as the true Israel, the true son of God who will bring forth the blessings promised by God to all the families of the earth. He is the one who will put God’s plan of salvation into effect and allow people to come to the Lord in repentance and faith.
But for this to happen, Jesus must walk the path of those who deserve the wrath of God. Jesus must bear upon Himself, as the true Israel, the punishment that the nation deserved for rejecting God. He must wear the punishment of the Gentiles for turning their back on God if they too are to be included in the New Israel. Thus we see Jesus submitting humbly and obediently to death - even death on a cross! He willingly goes to Jerusalem knowing that He’ll be falsely tried and executed. He willingly prays to God, ‘Not my will but thine be done!’. He willingly, even joyously, offers Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the world.
Prayer:-
- Spend time praising God for His once-for-all sacrifice. Put on some Christian praise music and sing praises to God. Spend time thanking God for His salvation, Jesus for His work at Calvary and the Holy Spirit for bringing to the Good News to you.
- Pray that your church would have opportunity to preach to thousands this season the good news that Jesus is the one who saves us from our sins and opens the door to eternal life.
No comments:
Post a Comment