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This Gospel describes the early beginnings of Jesus ministry. The death of John the Baptist seems to be the trigger for Jesus, and he begins by inviting people to join him in his mission. There are two points I want to draw your attention to. In most cases one would expect the disciples to ask Jesus, but we have it the other way around. Jesus is asking them. It is noteworthy that Jesus is asking them so early in his ministry.

Most of the disciples as far as we can tell were invited by Jesus for particular reasons, reasons that we can not be sure of. We do know that its not because they were particularly good or that they had achieved any special accomplishment. It is noteworthy to mention that we don’t have any record of Jesus inviting any of the Pharisees.

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The lesson for us is not to get alarmed if we have periods of doubt or question aspects of our faith. As pointed out, these are signs of an adult faith. I invite you to see doubts as an invitation to explore, to be curious, to question and be motivated to resolve the doubt. The sad part is that so many people just hold the tension and do little or nothing with their doubts. Some people are worried that their faith is weak and are reluctant to do anything or seek help. This is probably the worst possible choice. Check out the podcast about Disbelieving Thomas published on March 31, 2024. St. Thomas and his doubt experience can provide insight into understanding those periods of doubt in our own faith journey. John the Baptist’s faith life will be a source of spiritual hope for you.

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Today’s edition focuses on the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. This is only recorded direct episode of Jesus interacting with John the Baptist. To give you some context, John was inviting people to the Jordan River for a spiritual cleansing. This spiritual cleansing has been referred to as Baptism. John the Baptist was not the first to use this model of using water to wash away sin. There are many examples in Scripture of special rituals used to described spiritual washing. Two examples from the Hebrew Testament are Ezekiel 36:25 “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness.” From Isaiah 1:16 we have “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes.” From the New Testament we have Hebrews 10:22, “Our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” There are others but you get the point. This raises the question, why did Jesus request a spiritual practise that was used to wash away sin when Jesus did not sin?

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