A Repenting God

Gospel: Matthew 3: 13-17

Jesus presents himself to John for baptism, for a ritual of repentance for sin.  John is shocked by this and protests, but Jesus insists.  This gesture is not a mere show.  Jesus comes to repent.  This may seem shocking to us until we remember that there are various places in the Old Testament where it states God repented of the evil he had done or intended.  

Parents feel a sense of failure in themselves when their children fail.  They ask what more they could have done or do in order to have their children succeed.  Parents would gladly take the place of their child in the event of serious illness or death.  And is this not what we see in the gestures of Jesus at the Jordan River and throughout his life? Does he not in fact come to take our place in dying as any parent would for a child?

When a relationship is broken someone has to make the first step in repairing the relationship.  God makes that first step by entering the Jordan in a posture of repentance in the person of Jesus. We human beings are the ones who should be making the gesture, but we do not.  We are the ones who should be abandoned to our many failures, but we are not.  God comes to save - again, and again, and again.  What, then, is our response to this great love?