Find Your Spiritual Duo!

Duo relationship are cool! Yep! Duo relationships are those relationships that fit like hand - in - glove. You know, those made to complement one another. Did you know that Jesus had a duo relationship?

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In Matthew 3:13-15 Jesus had come down from Galilee to be baptized in the Jordan River by His cousin, John the Baptist. These three verses are actually an affectionate cousin-to-cousin dialogue that has John the Baptist a bit dismayed.

John the Baptist was probably the closest person to Jesus in His earthly life. John the Baptist was essentially His "duo". How?

Their lives intersected from the womb! While still in his mother Elizabeth's womb, John leapt for joy at the sound of Mary's voice while she, pregnant with the Son of God, approached Elizabeth her cousin. Even in utero, John affirmed the Lordship of Christ. John was conceived by God the Father to prepare the world, after 400 years of silence, to lay the foundation and declare the arrival of His holy Son. Even John's lifestyle was set apart; as he was taught by God the Father in the wilderness...alone. John was taught by God Almighty to know how to set the stage for God's Son, Jesus...John's cousin.

So when the time came for Jesus to be baptized, both men fully understood their roles and hierarchies. So much so that John shirks at the idea of baptizing Jesus. John recognized his own need for a repentant heart toward the One who knew no sin. He responds that Jesus should be baptizing him.

Jesus encourages John to baptize Him by explaining that Jesus Himself is submitting in righteousness to be baptized in accordance with His Father's will. Jesus soothes His cousin's bewildered heart by encouraging him to permit this beautiful, sacred, incongruence of roles appointed in heaven between the two of them for the Father's glory.

They were 6 months apart. They had both known the loss of their earthly fathers. They were both set aside by God to do what no one else on earth would do.

This duo - dialogue in Matthew chapter 3 between Jesus and John the Baptist was quite personal, and quite ordained by the loving Father, who authored close relationships before time began. That dialogue forever changed the world, as it was the commissioning of Jesus' 3-year ministry before dying for our sins. A ministry that was ushered in by the obedience of John the Baptist and commissioned... stamped...by the auditory affirmation of God the Father by saying, immediately after the baptism of Jesus, "This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased." From this baptism came salvation and the baptism you and I know of today.

My brothers and sisters, find your spiritual duo. Someone who God sends, who God prepares, so that with the Holy Spirit as your guide, the two of you, with repentant hearts and willful obedience to honor the Father and glorify the Son, can forever change the world!

-This inaugural post is dedicated to my sister duo in Christ.