Keep Working On Love

There is an amusing story of a woman who one day decided to read the New Testament and investigate the claims of Christianity. Several months later she was baptized. Immediately following the ritual she said enthusiastically, “I could feel the Holy Spirit descend on me. I’m glad I’ve finally got religion. I can see things differently now, including that uncle of mine whom I hated with a passion. Once I vowed I would never go to his funeral. But now I’ll be happy to go to his funeral anytime.”

At the point of Jesus’ baptism, He is about thirty years old and we know very little about Him. At age twelve He appeared for a brief flash in the Temple for what today would be a Bar Mitzvah. It is eighteen years later when he again appears: at the River Jordan where John is baptizing, and preaching about the Kingdom. Jesus says to John in effect, “Here I am, baptize Me, I want to…