Questions

By Matt

I read: Matthew 3-5

Papa's got a brand new bag. To change it up, I'm going to go through the book of Matthew and look at the questions that Jesus asks. That's all. I'm going to stop when Jesus asks a question, write it down, repeat it here, and then think it through on here. I might do a couple questions or a couple chapters, just see how much I end up reading or where I feel like stopping. Keeping it real, keeping it loose.

1. "Will you baptize me?" (Matthew 3:13) - Don't look it up, it's not realyl there. Matthew doesn't record what Jesus really said to John or how the exchange took place, but you know there had to have been a question there. So, I'm counting it. Anyways, John protests, Jesus should be baptizing him! But no, Jesus has bigger plans and responds by saying, "God's work, putthing things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism." Huh. I don't even begin to understand what the significance of all that means. I know that God worked hard to create this salvation plan that he's enacting through Jesus but I don't know why baptism is so integral to it. But, if baptism is that important to Jesus, maybe it should be that important to me.
   
2. "If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?" (Matthew 5:13) - Ah, the infamous salt and light talk. Jesus wants us to be salt, to make things tasty, to all people. I've never tasted salt that has lost its saltiness so I kind of wonder how it tastes, like nothing? Probably. Is it still unhealthy if you eat unsalty salt? I have no idea. But salt here is a good thing, a very good thing. And there's a simple answer to Jesus question: they won't be able to taste our godliness (maybe that's a rhetorical question actually). So, obviously, the message here is: don't lose your saltiness!
3. "If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you?" (Matthew 5:14-15) - Again, I think this one is rhetorical, but still significant. Just like a candle, we have a purpose: to shed light, to illumine the dark places around us so that others might see why we shine so bright. And if we do find ourselves placed under a bucket? Burn all the brighter until that bucket lays in ashes around us.