November 23, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Peter replied, ‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

(Acts 2.38)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

For most of Christendom, baptism is understood and practiced as immersion. Following the call of John the Baptizer who stood in the Jordan River and called for those who would believe in the coming of the Messiah, even Jesus entered the water of an eddying pool of the river. He would be baptized there. John did not lift water from the river and pour it over His head. He pushed Him under the surface to be immersed in “the water of life” to do as Jesus requested, “…to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3.15) What a significant act of obedience and thanksgiving! We know that John wanted to defer to Jesus for the hope of baptism. He recognized His cousin as the Messiah calling Him “The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Such recognition was significant. It represented the transformation of the prophetic message. No longer was the hope of the Messiah still set as some time in the future. Now, with their gathering in the river together, prophecy had come alive. They were living in the days of the Messiah whose reign would forever change the course of history. John, still feeling unworthy to even loosen Jesus’ sandals (an indication of the host washing the feet of his guest), accepted the role of anointing the King of kings just as Samuel had anointed David in the days of Saul. You recognize now in this comparison that the moment when Samuel and David were together in the company of his father and brothers, it was a foreshadowing of living prophecy. The past and the present were melding together. Saul was still king but proven to be unworthy to the task of leading Israel toward God. His agenda was survival in the world. He desired to interpret his call to leadership by the people to be of political and military prominence. It was anything but godly spiritualism. Saul consorted with the witches of the land, just as the other kings of the nations surrounding Israel. The people had received just what they asked for- “a king like all others.” It is a story for us in every generation since that humankind without God does not make wise choices and good decisions the greatest majority of the time. God allowed the lesson to be learned but had other plans in mind. Plans for which the nation of Israel would be thankful and the nations around her would be fearful. Sadly, their thanksgiving was all too often transient. Their forays into the world for the sake of the world and not the kingdom of God were more and more frequent. Every part of their culture and people were more influenced by the ways of the world instead of the ways of God. Maybe their believe that the ways of God which were greater than their own ways and the thoughts of God which were higher than their own thoughts were nice goals but unattainable. (reference Isaiah 55.9) There in the waters of the Jordan on the day of Jesus’ baptism, John and others watching or hearing of it in the days to follow, the people were learning something different. It would see something for which they could give real thanks.

What was that? It was an immersion into righteousness. It wasn’t a righteousness wrought by an abundance of offerings or a commitment to works and doing as those who interpreted and enforced the Law commanded. It was a righteousness which naturally exists within the heart and mind and soul of creation itself. It is a righteousness which the maker of Heaven and earth invested into creation and inspired that same creation to come alive and live. That is the story of both creation stories found in Genesis (chapter one by the priests serving God in worship and chapter two by the judges who served God with the Law.) Creation is “God-breathed” and a tangible reflection of the very Word of God as Paul mentions to his mentee Timothy useful for “teaching, rebuking, correction and training in the ways of righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3.16) That “Word made flesh” which is the identity used by the beloved disciple John to describe Jesus fulfills the very truth of righteousness as God intended and intends for it to be. The “word” which created all things being, in the words of Paul, “preeminent,” (Colossians 1.25f and Ephesians 1.21f) meaning before all things, was not literally “before” all things. Jesus, Immanuel, stood in the midst of Heaven and earth in the waters of the Jordan submitting to be baptized. His baptism was the sign of His acceptance of the will of God to represent the goodness of humanity and their futility in sin. Jesus made it possible to not become free of sin upon His own works save for the work of the cross. He abstained from sin Himself but allowed Himself to become the “scapegoat” of Israel and the whole world. See the pattern of this thought as immediately following baptism, He went out to the desert places as was the scapegoat taken representing the removal of sins from the people. It was all symbolism on the part of the priests and judges of Israel. It was all real on the part of Jesus. “He who knew no sin became sin for us all that we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5.21.) Jesus immersed Himself into the life of the people of God so that they might recognize the choice was still theirs to be God’s people. If Jesus had not done so, then going to the cross would have been meaningless and without purpose. He wouldn’t even have gone to the cross. If He did, it would be only to let Himself down from it and submit to the will of the people who believed that is exactly what the Messiah would do. (Words reflected by the impenitent thief; Matthew 27.40) Doing so would have been unrighteous and an abomination to God. It was something Jesus could not do because it would then “divide the house of God and thus it could not stand.” Jesus was about immersing Himself in the unity of the Godhead (Father, Son and Holy Spirit). Such unity showed the obedience of “faith, hope and love” between all three.

Mighty ones of God, we are called to be equally immersed in righteousness and this true thanksgiving. We are not called to return to the “waters” of our birth but to seek spiritual rebirth. Yes, we need the waters of forgiveness to wash away the sin we put on daily as a comfort and purposeful garment to be worn in the world. We should instead put on the garment of righteousness like the full armor of God so that wherever we are, the “Word of God,” who is Christ the Lord, is present, visible and inviting. What is it inviting to? It is the invitation to “live in the world but not of it.” This is what Jesus did so that those who are made in His image can know how to do the same. Thanks be to God for this lesson and opportunity. Let us give thanks in this season of thanksgiving to become a living prophecy and make the truth of God’s mercy and love known. Let us not fill our bellies and fall asleep. Let us be filled with the Holy Spirit of God and rise up to do His will and not our own.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.