Why Men Like to Fix Things

       Part of the humorous byplay in the movie “White Men Can’t Jump” occurs between Woody Harrelson and his girlfriend.  Don’t take this as a movie recommendation and say “Dave said I should rent it.”  It’s not all that good as a whole and the language is very colorful. But the movie has its moments. 

       In one scene, Harrelson’s girlfriend announces: “I’m thirsty.”  Harrelson stands up and says amiably, “I’ll get you a glass of water.”

        She lays down her copy of “Cosmopolitan” and begins to lecture: “I don’t want you to get me a glass of water.  I want you to feel what I’m feeling.  I want you to say, ‘Oh, that’s hard.  I’ve been thirsty before.  I know what that feels like.’”

       “Why is it,” she asks, “that men always want to fix things?”

        Good question.  Maybe because we’re so good at it.  I can say that when over 140 women are away at their retreat. 

        We’re also good at logical leaps.

       Now it’s a pretty good leap to get from Woody Harrelson and his girlfriend to the Gospel of Matthew and Jesus being baptized in the Jordan River .  The leap can be made.  Just don’t try this at home.  I am a professional.

        The leap can be made – for in Matthew’s account of the baptism of Jesus we learn a lot about what it means to have a God who experiences what we experience – who shares our pain and laughs with our joys.

       Part of the reason that Jesus came among us was to experience our life.  This is important for our confidence in prayer.  As the letter to the Hebrews tells us, ‘We do not have a great High Priest (Jesus) who is unable to sympathize with our weakness but one who has been tempted in all things, just as we are – yet without sinning. Therefore, we are told, we can with confidence approach the throne of grace.”  In Philippians 2, Paul writes of how Jesus “emptied himself” of the attributes and powers of being God in order to become Emmanuel – God with us.

       Jesus identifies Himself with us.  We see this in His baptism. 

       We need to be simply surprised that Jesus got baptized at all.  John the Baptist was blown away.  Baptism is for sinners – not for the sinless one.  John the Baptist had announced Jesus as a baptizer with spirit and fire – not as a recipient of baptism.

       Dale Bruner suggests that this is as if “one were to announce the coming of a great preacher at a series of evangelistic meetings, and one night this preacher arrives – not at the platform but at the altar, not at the podium but at the penitent’s bench, not to preach but to kneel.”

       Bruner points out that receiving baptism is Jesus’ first adult act in the gospel.  This is the first miracle – the miracle of Jesus’ humility.  The first thing Jesus does is to come down with us.  His whole life will be like this.  It is well known that Jesus ended his life on a cross between two thieves.  It deserves to be as well known that Jesus began his ministry in a river among repentant sinners.  Jesus stays at our level, identifying Himself with us at every point.  When John the Baptist tries to stop him, Jesus says in effect, “This is exactly where I need to be – this is what I came to do.”

       In thinking about Jesus’ baptism and what it teaches, I have tried to come up with an analogy of what it means for God to place himself at our level in order to touch us.

       I thought, for example, of how I might lower myself onto the floor next to my dog in order to teach her to stay or roll over.  Sometimes words aren’t enough.  “Show me” actions are needed.

       But me getting on the floor with my dog is not the same as Jesus becoming human and being baptized at the Jordan River . There are two profound differences that make my dog analogy pretty pathetic.

       First, when I get down onto the floor with my dog I do not actually become a dog the way God became a human being – beginning as a baby laid in a manger.  I might try to act like a dog in order to communicate a point but Katie, my Australian Shepherd mix, isn’t fooled for a minute.  She may pretend to be fooled but that’s just because dogs are more polite that cats.  A cat wouldn’t even bother to pretend.  But in her dog heart, Katie realizes that I really don’t have a clue.

       Jesus, however, was not pretending.  He wasn’t playing a part.  He really did become a human being.  In the words of John’s gospel, “The word (Jesus) became flesh and lived among us.”

       The second reason my man-becomes-dog analogy breaks down is that the moral gap is totally absent.  By this I mean that even if I were somehow able to transform myself into a dog, I would not be morally polluted by the experience.  This is because there is nothing wrong with my dog.  She is not broken, twisted, or stained.  She acts like God meant dogs to act.

       But when Jesus came to the river, He identified Himself – not with perfect people but with flawed, broken and stained people – not with some kind of ideal humanity but with people like us.  He bore our sin.

       In Jesus’ baptism – His act of identification and sharing our pain, I am reminded of the life of Father Damien who ministered for years at the Hawaiian Leper Colony on Molokai .  Father Damien experienced some success for years with those miserable, doomed people.  But his preaching and ministry took on a new urgency and meaning to the people once he contracted leprosy himself – once he was able to preach with the words, “We Lepers.”

       This is what God has done in Jesus Christ – “We human beings.”

       That’s important.

       However, finally, Jesus can do more and does more than just relate to our pain.  He can do more than say, “We lepers.”  He can say to lepers – moral lepers, emotional lepers, and physical lepers, “Be healed.”  And we are healed.  Jesus can heal our pain.  Jesus can open our prisons and remove the stain from our lives.

       Relating is important.  We need to be understood.  But if I am in pain, if I am thirsty, what I finally want is glass of water.  And, Jesus doesn’t just say to us, ‘Gee, that’s hard.  I’ve been thirsty before.  I know what that feels like.’”  Jesus brings us water.  He says, “If anyone is thirsty, come to Me and drink.  Whoever believes in me,” Jesus tells us, “From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.”  We receive life and we become life givers.

       That’s the good news for a New Year.  You are entering it with a Lord and Savior who shares your pain – who knows where you hurt – and who also has the power to make it right. Jesus knows what it is like for you to be you.  He identified himself with your need when he was baptized.  And now, here at his table, He invites you to come and share His life.  “If anyone is thirsty,” Jesus says to us, “Come to Me and drink.”