Does It Matter?

John was preaching a universal baptism of repentance and forgiveness.  Cleansing of the soul by cleansing the body in a dirty river. I think we all understand why we need that dip in the river.  (I could use that help four or five times a day.)  But why was it necessary for Jesus to be baptized by John?

There have been many answers suggested for that question.  The one I liked best was to please his mother.  Others include transforming himself from fully human to fully divine, identifying himself fully and completely with sinful humanity, foreshadowing his acceptance of death, reenenacting Israel crossing the Jordan into the Promised Land, instituting a sacrament as He did with Communuion and the Last Supper, and finally as a beginning - to mark the close of his "childhood" and the beginning of a wandering ministry.

Looking at all those reasons put me into brain lock.  So many different perspectives, reasons, sources, outcomes.  I can see validity in each of the explanations I have found so far.  Contemplating and considering each has given a deeper and more defined understanding of my own faith and beliefs.  Life is messy, dirty, just like the desert and the river, but God was there and is here.

Then MY question popped up in the mdist of pondering.  Does it matter?  What difference does it make to my faith and actions to understand why Jesus was baptized?  The bottom line is that God is there when things are pretty and nice and going the way I want, and God is there when things are messy, disappointing, overwhelming and seem disastrous.  The challenge is to remember and accept that.   I thought of it like the time when we were at our wits end and a friend brought dinner for us.  Did I really need to know what the friend's motivation was, or was it simply enough to accept the gift and be grateful?