Sunday 12th January – Baptism of Jesus A

MATTHEW 3:13-17
The Baptiser’s wilderness call to repentance
cast a wide net:
by some accounts
all of Jerusalem turned out
and folk from all Judea.
Matthew mentions none of these
but only a Galilean,
Jesus by name.
Mystifying to the Baptiser,
who protested but obliged;
and later, to the Church,
an embarrassment,
a scandal:
why would one, said to be born
without sin
need baptism for the forgiveness of sin?
Why not?
He was, after all,
one of us.
        © Jeff Shrowder, 2014.
  More for Baptism of Jesus A …