fulfilling all righteousness

This past Sunday many churches celebrated Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3:13-17). Jesus told John that he should be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness”. As I read this passage, I wondered: didn’t Jesus need to die and rise again before everything would be fulfilled? How could a single act like his baptism fulfill ALL righteousness?

But Jesus was human and bound by time/space. He wasn’t saying that this single act was the sum total of all righteousness. He was just doing what he needed to do at the time. And that was enough.

I need to learn to live in the moment and do what God is asking me to do now without worrying about what God will want me to do later or trying to come up with a grand unified plan of everything that I or Grace Community needs to do. There are times when my brain becomes exhausted with trying to come up with a more comprehensive strategic plan. Sometimes I’m paralyzed simply by knowing that there is so much for me to do. I sit, dazed, and try to get my brain around the whole map. But there are times when simply taking the next step is “fulfilling all righteousness”.