Welcome to Day 18 of Journey to the Cross, a 40-day devotional in preparation for Easter Sunday. Today we continue to look at some places along Jesus’s journey to the cross. Three of the Gospels record Jesus’s baptism, but let’s look at Matthew’s version in chapter 3.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?” Jesus answered him, “Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John allowed him to be baptized. When Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”

Matthew 3:13-17

Looming large on the horizon north of Galilee stands Mount Hermon. Its snow-capped peak rises 9,323 feet above sea level. Runoff from the mountain flows through the Sea of Galilee to the Jordan River. The Jordan flows down to the Dead Sea, the lowest point on land. The Dead Sea borders Israel, the West Bank and Jordan. It’s 420 meters below sea level. The water flows down, down, down.

Jesus said in John 6:38, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.” He came down from heaven, born as a true human being. He was and is true God from all eternity, but Jesus came down into the Jordan River as He was baptized to begin His public ministry. He was baptized in the Jordan, as He explained to John, to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus came down, down, down.

In Jesus, God came down with mercy for you. Continuing in John 6, Jesus said, “This is the will of him who sent me: that I should lose none of those he has given me but should raise them up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Just as the Jordan River still today flows downward to the lowest place on land, God’s mercy continually flows down to us. His mercy reaches to the lowest places in your life. It touches you at your lowest points and heals your deepest hurts. No place is too low for God’s mercy. As Desperation Band sang,

Mercy is falling, is falling, is falling. Mercy, it falls like the sweet spring rain.
Mercy is falling, is falling all over me.

Today as you pray, ask the Lord to send His mercy down to you, and receive His mercy that falls like the sweet spring rain.

Thank you for joining me for Day 18. Come back tomorrow as we look at Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness.