AIMING TO PLEASE
Matthew 3:13-17
The Baptism of Our Lord, Year A
Analysis by Steven Albertin
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
From Wikimedia Commons
DIAGNOSIS: Failing to Please
Step 1: Initial Diagnosis (External Problem) – Aiming to Please Others
The student quickly raises her hand. She knows the right answer. She wants to let her teacher and everyone else in the class that she is right because she is “aiming to please.” From the first moment we learned to walk and received the cheers of our parents, we are “aiming to please.”
That is the world in which we live. We long for the approval of our significant others. Pleasing those whose approval we value makes life worth living. It gives us a reason to get out of bed in the morning. When we please those around us, we know that we matter
Step 2: Advanced Diagnosis (Internal Problem) – Aiming to Please God
“Aiming to please” is just the way we live. Often, we are able to please. But there are also many times when we do not. In fact, we are never quite able to shed the fear and silence the accusation that we are not able to please. There is always the aching suspicion in the back of our mind that we have not done enough. There is always the fear that lurking behind the demanding coach, the relentless teacher and the ever-critical boss is the perfect and holy God that we can never quite please.
That fear contributed to the great fascination that the public had with that wild-eyed and fire-breathing first century prophet, John the Baptist. John stood in the long tradition of demanding prophets who claimed that the end was near. God was coming to settle the score and set all things right. If you wanted to pass the test, if you aimed to please, then you had better get your act cleaned up . . . and in a hurry!
As John raged and railed in the desert, he must have touched sensitive nerves. Crowds flocked to him in the forsaken landscape of the wilderness seeking to repent to be baptized. As a sign of their commitment to change their lives and clean up their act, they submitted to John’s baptism. It was up to them to repent and change their lives around. When God would finally show up, they were determined to be ready. They were “aiming to please” and were sure they could do it.
Step 3: Final Diagnosis (Eternal Problem) – Failing to Please Anyone
That is why John is so surprised when Jesus shows up asking to be baptized. It was not supposed to be this way. It should have been the other way around. Jesus should baptize John. John’s baptism is for sinners, for those who need to get their act cleaned up and aim to please God. Baptism should not be for Jesus. He is supposed to be the one who is finally going to clean house!
John protests but then finally gives in. It is not clear why he did. Maybe he was scared. Maybe he was aiming to please and feared that if he did not obey Jesus’ request, he would not be pleasing and would be in big trouble.
However, we like John and the crowds cannot escape the pressure to please both those around us AND God. If we always fail and are never measuring up, all of us are in big trouble. We look God in the eye and realize that we are doomed. Standing in God’s presence, we have only our failures and the divine damning accusation.
PROGNOSIS: Pleased With Us
Step 4: Initial Prognosis (Eternal Solution) – God Is Pleased
Yet, Jesus insists that he wants John to baptize him because this is the way “to fulfill all righteousness.” John scratching his head in utter confusion probably wondered, “Fulfill all righteousness?” For John, like all of the prophets who went before him, that meant keeping the rules, submitting to the law and doing everything you are supposed to do. It showed that you are “aiming to please.”
However, when Jesus shows up to be baptized, we see the new kind of righteousness – a righteousness that redeems those who are judged failures, even rightly. Here is a new way to be right with God. It stunned John. It caught him off balance. God declares that God is pleased with Jesus . . . and yet Jesus had done nothing to deserve such an acclamation! Jesus had done nothing to please God. He had not yet performed any miracles, preached any sermons, healed any lepers or turned any water into wine. Yet, Jesus is pleasing to God, so pleasing that he must be the beloved Son of God, which, of course, he is.
This is God being God. Here Jesus shows us that the heart of God is love. Here in the waters of the Jordan Jesus joins every sinner, who came running to John’s baptism, “aiming to please” God. There in the river Jesus confronts the protests of John the Baptist and everyone else in this world who insists that if you want to please God . . . it’s up to you. Eventually such critics would silence such foolishness by nailing Jesus to a cross. But on “the third day,” God raised Jesus from the dead and vindicated everything that Jesus had said and done. The promise cannot be silenced. To all of us who have fallen short of the glory of God and have never been able to shed our failures, Jesus repeats to us what his father said to him that day in the Jordan River: “You are God’s beloved sons and daughters. I am your big brother. In a family like that, you never need to worry about “aiming to please.”
Step 5: Advanced Prognosis (Internal Solution) – We Are Pleased
With that promise ringing in our ears, we are pleased! We can go into the world and face its relentless demands that we must “aim to please” with a quiet confidence and peace. There are still demands on the job. There are still obligations in the family. There are still responsibilities at school. There are still duties in creation. Regardless of how much we “aim to please,” we are never pleasing enough. However, at the font in the splashing of its water, at the table where we touch and taste bread and wine, all righteousness is fulfilled. We hear those same gracious words spoken from the heavens to Jesus: “This is my beloved son, my beloved daughter, with whom I am well pleased.” And we are pleased!
It does not matter if we still have doubts or wonder how God could still love us given the problems we have or the mess this world is in. But it is not about the strength of our faith or your effectiveness at “aiming to please.” Baptism is about what God has done in Jesus Christ. That is once and for all, never to be undone or improved upon. No one or nothing can take that from us.
Step 6: Final Prognosis (External Solution) – Pleasing the World
That changes how we live. Oh, yes, we are still responsible and obligated. We still have duties and jobs. However, none of them owns us. None of them define us. None of them can undo the one opinion that matters, God’s. We look at the cross. We remember our baptism. We eat and drink at the table. We know without a doubt that God is smiling and saying, “With you I am well pleased.” It is our privilege to bring that good news to all those who are “aiming to please,” but can never do it. Upon hearing this good news, at last they can rest too in knowing that they are pleasing to the one whose opinion matters the most.
