Day 55 – Baptism & Temptation – Matthew 3:13-4:16
The baptism of Jesus and his temptation are the opening bookend of his ministry. There are different angles to take here but I’ll just stick with one. Many think about Jesus’ obediently allowing himself to die on the cross. With both the baptism and temptation we see that obedient self-sacrificial actions were the root of his entire ministry. Jesus was without sin, even John did not want to baptize him. But Jesus was baptized. Likewise, options were presented to Jesus to give an easier route to follow. Once again, Jesus chose the hard road. How often do you avoid doing something because it will involve sacrifice?
Little side note: Three of the gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke follow a similar narrative of Jesus’ life. Mark was written first and Matthew and Luke both extensively include Mark. However, material is rewritten (Mark’s Greek was not very good) and both include their own original material. In particular, both have different birth and death narratives. All three are known as the synoptic or seen together gospels. John’s telling of Jesus’ life is very different. The church accepted all four versions, and actually rejected an attempt to fold all four into one.
In Christ,
Randy
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