In accepting John’s baptism, Jesus was allying Himself with the race of men He had come to lead up, and out, as King.  He was allying Himself with them where they were.  It was not the path always trodden by man in climbing to a throne.  But it was the true path of fellowship with them in their needs.  He was getting hold of hands, that He might be their leader up to the highlands of a new life.  He steps to their level.  He would lift from below.  He would get by the side of the man lowest down.  It was clear evidence at the start that He was the true Messiah, the King.  He was their Brother.  He would get down alongside, and pull up with them side by side out of the ditch of sticky mud up to good footing.

And mark keenly—­and the heart glows a bit at the thought—­the point He chooses for getting into that contact with His brothers.  It is the point where they are turning from sin.  John’s baptism meant turning from sin.  It is at that point that Jesus comes forward.  A man can always be live-sure of Jesus meeting him there, close up, with outstretched hand.  He is waiting eagerly, and steps up quickly to a man’s side as in his heart he turns from sin.

But there’s more yet.  Read in the after light cast upon it there is much more.  This was the voluntary path away from the kingdom.  It was the beginning of all that came after.  The road up the hill of the cross not far away led out of those waters.  This was the starting point.  Jesus calmly turned His face for the time being—­a long time it has proved—­away from the promised Kingdom of His Father and toward the planned cross of Satan.

It meant much, for it was the first step into the path marked out.  What the Father had chosen for Him, He now chooses out for Himself.  So every bit of service, every plan, must be twice chosen: by God for a man; by the man for himself as from God.  He entered eagerly, for this was His Father’s plan.  That itself was enough for Jesus.  But, too, it was the path where His needy brothers were.  That would quicken His pace.  It was the road wherein He would meet the enemy.  And with a fresh prayer in His heart and a quiet confidence in His eye He steps into the road with that calmness that strong purpose gives.

As it proved there was danger here for Him.  This was not the way approved by man’s established ideals for starting a kingdom.  He was driving straight across the carefully marked out roads of man’s usage.  He was disregarding the “No trespassing” signs.  There was danger here.  A man cutting a new path right across old ones meets stubborn undergrowth, and ugly thorn hedges.  Jesus struck the thorns early, and right along to the last getting sharper.  And they tore His face badly, as He cut the way through for His brothers.

Yes, there were dangers as He pushed His way through the undergrowth down to the water.  Poison ivy thick, and fanged snakes darting guiltily aside from fear even while wanting to strike in, tangled, gnarly roots hugging the ground close, and bad odors and gases, and the light obscured—­dangers thick!  And these Jordan waters prove chill and roily.  His stepping in stirs the mud.  The storm winds sweep down the valley.  A bit of a hill up above to the west casts a long sinister shadow out over the water.