Today we close out our sermon series on selection Sundays with the story of the selection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It may seem odd to talk about Jesus having been selected by God. After all, Jesus is God. That’s what we mean when we talk about the trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Not only that, but Jesus—God the Son—was with God the Father from the beginning of time. That’s what John means when he says “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. “ Jesus, God the Son, was with God the Father at the creation. So, how can we talk about Jesus having been selected by God?
Well, what we’re talking about is Jesus when he was on earth. Now, while Jesus was on earth, he was still God the Son. He was still fully divine. But he was also fully human. Jesus was as human as you and I are. He ate, he slept, he laughed, he cried, he did all the things we do and felt all the things we feel. Because of that, it’s appropriate to say that Jesus, being fully human, needed to be selected by God just like we all do. It’s also appropriate to say that Jesus needed to respond to that selection, just like we all do.
In our story today, we heard about the role John the Baptizer played in Jesus’ selection. John the Baptizer, also called John the Baptist, was the one sent by God to prepare the way for Jesus. He’d been selected by God, too. What he was selected to do was let people know the Savior, Jesus was coming. He was trying to prepare the way, to get people ready for what was going to happen. One of the ways he did that was through baptizing people.
In our Bible reading, we hear what happened when John saw Jesus coming to be baptized. He saw the Holy Spirit come onto Jesus and instantly knew this was the Son of God, the Savior he’d been told to prepare the way for. He instantly said so, and said so to anyone who’d listen.
As we’ve looked at various selection stories in the Bible, we’ve mostly focused on God’s role in selecting us and how we learn of that selection. We’ve talked about how, in the case of Moses and Joshua, God came to where they were and told them what they were supposed to do. In Isaiah’s case, God brought Isaiah to where God was but still talked to him directly, telling him what he was supposed to do. With Paul, God the Son talked to him, but did not give him a specific task. Instead, Paul was filled with God the Holy Spirit, and followed where the Holy Spirit led him.
When we look at Jesus’ selection story, though, we learn that there’s another aspect to our selection. Obviously, God still plays an important role. God is the one doing the selecting and letting us know what to do. When we look at Jesus’ selection, and when we look at John the Baptizer’s role in it, though, we see something else. We see that other people also play a role in our selection. John the Baptizer was the one who proclaimed, for everyone to hear, that Jesus was the Savior, the Son of God.
What that did was two things. One of them is that it gave Jesus credibility. It let people know, without Jesus having to tell them, exactly who Jesus was. It may sound strange to say that Jesus needed someone to give him credibility, but remember, at this time, Jesus had not started his ministry yet. People thought of him as just an ordinary guy. There had been no miracles, no healing, none of that sort of thing yet. Jesus had not acquired any disciples yet. Nobody was following Jesus at this point and he’d not given them any reason to. If Jesus had gone around telling people he was the divine Son of God, nobody would’ve believed him. In fact, they’d have probably thought he was nuts.
John the Baptizer, though, was someone who was well-known. Now, some people thought he was nuts, too. After all, he was the guy who was out in the wilderness eating locusts. Still, there were quite a few people who believed him. He’d attracted quite a following by then. In fact, we’re told that, for two of John’s followers, John’s statement about Jesus was all they needed to hear. They immediately turned and followed Jesus.
I think there’s something else John’s statement did, though. John statement did not just let other people know who Jesus was. I think John’s statement also confirmed to Jesus who Jesus was and what he was supposed to do.
Now, again, that may sound like a strange thing to say. After all, we’re talking about Jesus, the Savior, the divine Son of God. How could Jesus not have known who he was and what he was supposed to do?
Well, I think he did know. Here’s the thing, though. If you think about all the selection stories we’ve looked at in this series, there’s one thing the people who were selected had in common. Each of them was scared. Tbey were scared of what they were called to do. They were scared of how people would react to them. They were scared of whether they actually had the ability to do it. They were scared of what would happen to them if they tried.
It seems to me that Jesus was probably scared, too. Again, while Jesus walked the earth, he felt all the things we feel. One of the things we feel is fear. In fact, that’s one of the biggest things we feel. Jesus would not have been fully human if he had not felt fear, too. What do we need when we’re scared? We need encouragement. So, when Jesus was scared of doing what he’d been selected to do, he needed some encouragement, just like we do. He needed to hear someone, someone who he trusted and wbo believed in him, tell him that he really had been selected for this job, and that he really could do it.
As we think of what we’ve been selected for, and as we follow where the Holy Spirit leads us, that’s what we need, too. We need to have our selection confirmed by others. We need to hear someone, someone we trust, someone who believes in us, tell us we really have been selected, and that we really can do what we’ve been selected by God to do it.
We all have times when we struggle with our selection by God. We all struggle with having the courage to actually fully commit ourselves to God. We struggle with having the confidence to do what we’ve been selected to do. Whether it’s a lack of trust in God, a lack of belief in ourselves, or something else, we struggle with actually going all the way with God and doing what God has selected us to do.
That’s why God puts other people in our lives. Remember back in Genesis, where God says it’s not good for humans to be alone? This is one of the reasons why. It was not just a coincidence that John the Baptizer was part of Jesus’ life. God the Father put John the Baptizer in Jesus’ life for reasons. God puts other people in our lives for reasons. God puts us in other people’s lives for reasons, too.
We cannot do what we were selected by God to do by ourselves. Even Jesus did not try to do what he came to earth to do by himself. Before he did any ministry on earth, Jesus received confirmation of his selection by John the Baptizer. Then, still before he did any ministry on earth, Jesus went and found some friends, the disciples, to travel with him and to help him. It was not until Jesus had done that that Jesus actually started his earthly ministry.
You and I have been selected by God to do something. No matter who we are, no matter what stage of life we’re in, we’ve been selected by God to do something. But we have not been selected to do it by ourselves. We need other people. We need other people to confirm our selection to us, to encourage us, and to help us as we do what we’ve been selected to do.
God has put other people in our lives for reasons. Since God has done that, let’s listen to them. Let’s get encouragement and help from them. Then, let’s go out and do whatever it is that God has selected us to do.
God puts people in our lives to do that. In the years before I decided to become a pastor, I had several people tell me they thought I should do it. The first time or two I heard it, I sloughed it off. But I kept hearing it. I heard it from people who had no reason to say it other than that they were serious about it. The actual selection still came from God, but these people who God had put in my life were the ones who helped me come to really hear the selection, really understand the selection, and really believe that I could do what I needed to do to accept that selection.
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