Reflection on Matthew 3:13-17

She entered the waters of the small, waterfall fed pool knowing each thing that needed to be washed away. 

Seeing her reflection as she felt with her feet for the steps below, she saw the woman who was once staying afloat by moving from couch to couch, bed to bed, in a quick succession of relationships that all left her worse off rather than better. 

As she put her hand in the hand of the pastor, which was offered to steady her in the stream of the flowing pool, she saw upon her hand the burn marks; leftovers from past indiscretions introduced into her body.  She felt a slight urge to pull back her hand and hide, but the pastor did not seem to care about the scarred surface.  He did not seem to even notice.  After-all, today was not about the past.  Today was about the future. 

Kneeling down into the waters, feeling the line of the water move up her gown and slightly covering her shoulders, she gave the pastor a slight nod, indicating that it was time.  He smiled. 

She held her breath as the pastor shouted, “I baptize you in the name of the Father…”  The water had suddenly enveloped her head.  Soon after she had reopened her eyes and she was soon gazing across the top of the waters.

 “And of the Son,” the pastor continued, and she felt the enveloping waters surround her once again.  She had forgotten to take another breath and she felt panicked for just a moment, a very long moment, in which she was sure the pastor was about to deprive her of her God given promise of air. 

It is weird though, somehow beyond the panic she was OK with the thought of death.  She was OK with it all being over.  There was certainly a lot in her life that needed to be over.  But, it was not over.  Soon she was staring into the eyes of the pastor once again.

“And of the Holy Spirit,” he announced once more.  She was ready this time, having spit out some water and taken another deep breath.  This last time she felt comfortable under the water, like it was somehow wrapped warmly around her by the hands of God.

She was soon standing once again, looking up at the hundreds of people who were looking on from all sides.  There was a slight moment of silence while the pastor poured some oil from a pitcher and rubbed it through her hair and then placed a little on her forehead, making the sign of the cross.  The silence was quickly shattered as hundreds of people raised their voices to the heavens and sang an angelic-like song, “You have put on Christ, in him you have been baptized!  Alleluia, Alleluia!”

A woman from the church who had been her friend from the minute she walked into the church doors that first day, all disheveled and alone, wrapped a towel around her, hugged her close and whispered, “Today is the first day.”

“Today is the first day.”

First days are powerful things.  In the first moments of life you are placed into your parent’s arms, and that action sets the tone for all life: the first day. 

The first day of kindergarten, the teacher smiles, takes you by the hand, shows you to your seat with your name carefully written on a tag, and that welcome sets the tone for the rest of the school year: the first day. 

And, when the waters of baptism wash away the stains of the past and fill you with the Spirit of a new life, you are given a new future: the first day.

Before Jesus’ ministry begins, before he heals anyone from their disease, before he teaches anyone a single lesson, before he forgives anyone their trespasses, and before Jesus utters much more than a single sentence, the waters fall down his face and the Holy Spirit descends like a dove.  For Jesus too, the waters were the first day of a new way of living…of a new life and a new ministry. 

Do you know what help you move through those first days of new life?  Being named. 

On my first day on this earth, I was named “Jira.”  It was the name of my father’s boss.  Perhaps, my Dad wanted a raise.  I do not know.  But, what I do know is that in Hebrew my name means “will provide” and is associated with what God provides.  I think that my parents had high hopes for me.  In some parts of the world my name means “enlightened one.” Oooooo!  In some African nations it means “related by blood.”  Now, before you start thinking that these aggrandizing definitions have gone to my head; just be aware that in Japanese “Jira” means “Godzilla.”  So, there is that.

“Jesus” of course is the Greek version of the Hebrew name, “Joshua” which means, “God’s salvation.”  That seems fitting enough considering the rest of Jesus’ story.  However, that is not the name that Jesus is given at his baptism.  At Jesus’ baptism, at the new start, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry God shouts down a new name.  It is the name that will shape all of those healings, and is reflected in those teachings to love your neighbors and even your enemies.  It is the name that Jesus bears to the cross as he dies for the sins of the world. 

When Jesus stands up from the waters, the heavens tear open and a voice declares, “"This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." 

“The Beloved;” that is the name Jesus is given as he sets out in his ministry. 

“The Beloved,” is the name that God uses to define Jesus.  It is the name that is dried permanently onto his very being after he emerges from the waters. 

“The Beloved” is the name that Jesus bears to all he encounters throughout his ministry.  Wherever he goes Jesus loves, and Jesus is love.  Love is who Jesus is. 

It makes me think of that short, short phrase from 1 John 4:16 in the Bible.  It is one of those confirmation phrases that boys choose to memorize because it is easy to memorize.  “God is love.”  Since God is love, then Jesus’ ministry naturally will be about “love.”

The verse continues: “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God.”  So that is cool.  Not only is Jesus all about love, but so too are all those who show love.  You too, when you were baptized, were given the name, “Beloved.”  You too had the start of your new life with God christened by love.

What would you do if today was your first day of a new life like that woman who was baptized?  What would you do if today you were given the name, “Beloved.” 

Perhaps, you would walk from those baptismal waters, wrapped in the arms of someone who loves you, and decide to be a nurse to teens who (like you) struggle through all their relationships.  That was what that baptized woman’s new life looked like as a baptized child of God.  That was her new beginning. 

What would you do if you were she?  Perhaps, you would do any number of things or go any number of places where love would lead, like a partner who knows you better than yourself. 

Of course, you do not have to be baptized again in order to live that new life.  Once is enough.  As one of Jesus’ baptized people, God gives you the chance to have that new life this day, and every day.  The name, “Beloved” has been permanently dried into your skin, a mark on your forehead that forever remembers God’s promise of forgiveness and new life every morning. 

In Christ every day is a new day.  Every morning’s splash of refreshing water on the face is a new start…a new opportunity to live as one of God’s “Beloved.”