The Adventures of Jesus Christ
Episodes from the Life of Jesus for Young Readers
by Vincent Cheung
[ Contents ]

Chapter 8. Jesus and the Spirit
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN FOR 30 YEARS?

After years of living a quiet life, as a person unknown to most people, Jesus was now about 30 years old. The time had finally come for him to begin his ministry, the special work that God had sent him to do. But before he started preaching, healing, and doing other things, he went to find John the Baptist.

John was still busy preaching and baptizing people by the Jordan River, telling them to turn from their sins and get ready for the Savior. One day, as John was baptizing people, Jesus came to the river. When John saw Him, he was surprised. Jesus did not need to repent because he had never sinned.

John said to Jesus, “I am the one who should be baptized by you, so why have you come to me instead?” Although John was baptizing anyone who came to him, he realized that Jesus did not need to be baptized. Jesus was more holy than John, so if anyone should be baptized, Jesus should have been the one to baptize John.

The people who came to John listened to John and were helped by him. But Jesus did not need John to remind him about God. Jesus had the most intimate relationship with God. He did not have any sin, and did not need to repent. John himself needed Jesus to help him and teach him. Naturally, John felt inferior and unworthy to baptize Jesus.

But Jesus answered, “Let it be this way for now. We should do everything the proper way.” Even though Jesus was perfect, and he did not need the symbolic act of repentance and cleansing, he came as a man to identify with humanity, to be one with the people he came to save.

He came to join with humanity, to take the side of humanity, and to do things as the representative of humanity. So he willingly went through the same things that ordinary humans would need to do. John’s ministry came from God and was designed by God. Jesus decided to follow along God’s plan and way of doing things.

So John agreed, and he baptized Jesus in the river. When Jesus came up out of the water, something extraordinary happened. Heaven opened, and the Spirit of God came down on Jesus like a dove and stayed on him. At this moment a voice came from heaven and said, “This is my Son, whom I love. I am very pleased with him.”

It was the voice of God the Father, telling the world that Jesus was his beloved Son and that the ministry of Jesus had God’s stamp of approval. While Jesus was without sin, he chose to be baptized by John as a sign of his identification with sinners and his willingness to humble himself before God. It was a public declaration of his obedience to the Father and his acceptance of the mission he had been given.

The baptism also marked the beginning of his ministry. It was a symbolic act of cleansing and renewal, signifying that Jesus was ready to fulfill his role as the Messiah and Savior of the world. After all these years, Jesus was moving into his role as the Christ. He was the hero that God promised long ago, the hero that the prophets predicted over and over again for hundreds of years.

Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he was about to begin teaching about God, healing the sick, and performing all kinds of miracles. He was about to lead people to God in a much more powerful way than any of the prophets in the past. The prophets talked about a hero that God promised to send, and Jesus was this hero. The prophets talked about the kingdom that God would bring to the earth, and Jesus would be the one who would bring this kingdom. He was the king, and John had just announced him to the world.