Why was Jesus baptized? Did he even need to be?

From an absolute standpoint, no. He didn’t. But in order to “fulfill all righteousness” it was fitting that he do so. It’s difficult to capture here just how packed with meaning this single episode is in the life of Christ.

Growing up, the imagery of this passage never captured me. Although a couple of my best teenage summers included bailing hay on a friend’s farm, we didn’t use winnowing forks, and we certainly weren’t clearing a threshing floor.

Notice how the Pharisees and Sadducees were only “coming out to where he [John] was baptizing…” Whereas the crowds were “coming out to him…”

As a kid, I heard these words from my dad almost every day. They didn’t mean a whole lot at the time, but years later I finally realized he was talking about identity.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about detachment and surrender. I don’t know about you…

The research is in…ten out of ten people die. It’s one of life’s few guarantees. So why don’t we think about it more often?

Why does Jesus grow up in a seemingly insignificant town in a rural, agricultural part of northern Israel? To note, its population at the time was likely between 300-500 people…

What kind of spirit animates Herod’s Massacre of the Innocents? In Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, Joseph Ratzinger juxtaposes the two kinds of responses (to Jesus) that we see between the Wise Men and Herod. Speaking of religion, he remarks…

Why does Jesus go to Egypt? 

Circumstantially, Herod’s a narcissistic tyrant. So God gives Joseph a heads up to “get outta Dodge!” to save Mary and the child. But why does Matthew include these words? This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet [Hosea], ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son.’ Something bigger (than Herod) is also happening.

After encountering the Christ-child, the magi could have gone back the same way they came. But they didn’t. They had met Truth face to face.

When it comes to encountering the Divine, it’s unsettling. It disrupts us. It shakes us. The difference is how we respond.

Have you ever heard of the connection between the Old Testament Prophet Joel and Matthew’s infancy narrative?

In Joel 2, there’s a picture of the coming of the Day of the Lord as a day of trembling and darkness, but also a day of repentance. 

What does a bird’s eye view of Matthew’s genealogy look like?

How often do you hear the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel and immediately feel the urge to tune out?

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