Baptism

One of the great sports movies of all time is based on the true story of Notre Dame football player Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, who despite being undersized and having very little athletic ability, worked hard to achieve his dream of suiting up for his favorite team. There is an iconic scene toward the end when Rudy discovers, in his last opportunity to dress for a game and join the team as they run onto the field, that he has been left off the list. Knowing how hard he has worked for so many years and feeling he deserves the opportunity, Rudy's teammates then enter the head coach's office one-by-one and lay their jerseys down to demonstrate that they won't be dressing for the big game unless Rudy does. The coach who didn't care about Rudy's efforts is left with no choice but to dress Rudy so that the rest of his team dresses and plays as well. Those players identified with Rudy to the point they were willing to sacrifice for him. In the same way, Jesus our Messiah came to our world and demonstrated that He was willing to sacrifice for us. However, long before He died on the cross for our sins, He identified with us in other ways - namely baptism and temptation. At Ash Wednesday service last week, we talked about His temptation. This week at Friendship, we will look at His identifying with us in "Baptism", and how God the Father is revealed through it and through our own baptisms. Join us to see how the Savior chose to be like you, so that you could understand the way of salvation!