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Good human relationships are based on mutual respect, mutual trust and mutual need.  This is true of husbands and wives, parents and children, employers and employees, friend and friend.  It is true even of our relationship with Jesus.

This truth, as strange as it may seem, is clearly indicated all through the New Testament.  One such example is the feast we celebrate today – the baptism of Jesus.  It was crowned with divine approval.  But it was also accomplished by human hands.  Jesus was baptized but it was done by a man – John the Baptist.  John, at first, was reluctant to do this incredible thing.  He said to Jesus, “I should be baptized by you, yet you come to me.”  And Jesus replied, “We must do this if would fulfill all of God’s demands.”  That sentence strongly suggests that neither man could do the will of God without the cooperation of the other.  John needed Jesus and Jesus needed John.

If we read the story of His life, it may surprise us how often Jesus needed the help of people.  He entered this world as a newborn infant who needed someone to take care of Him.  He grew from babyhood to manhood, and He needed someone to feed, guide and teach Him.  At the outset of His ministry, He gather around Him a group of twelve men whom He needed to help Him with His work.

He needed a woman of Samaria to give Him a drink of water.  He deeded a peasant boy to help Him feed five thousand hungry people.  He needed a man from Cyrene to help Him with His cross.

Have you ever considered how something inside us responds to those who need us?  Picture yourself in bed at night, sound asleep.  Then suddenly the silence is shattered by a voice crying for help.  I doubt that    anything would wake us up more quickly and more completely than that.  However selfish we may be, there is something within us that is deeply touched by a cry for help.  When we are needed and know it, most of us  respond.

There is no doubt that Jesus is the teacher and we are the students, that He is the master and we are the servants, that He is the strong and we are the weak.  We need Him. That we admit.  But He also needs us.  By His own admission, without the help of John the Baptist, He could not have fulfilled all of God’s demands.  He could not baptize Himself; He needed John.  And there are some things today that He cannot do with your help and mine.  I remember a little poem that goes something like this:

 

“He has no hands but your hands to do His work today.                  

He has no feet but your Feet to guide folk in His way.                   

He has no lips but your lips to tell them how He died.                         

He has no love but your love to bring them to His side.”

 

He is the Christ who needs us.  How will you respond today?