We All Have Baggage

“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”    —Matthew 3:17

In her book, The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom tells the story of riding with her father on a train. Because of something she heard in school, Corrie asked her father what “sexsin” was. Her father did not answer immediately but then asked little Corrie to carry his bag off the train. When she admitted that she could not do so, he said he would not be much of a father to expect her to carry such a heavy load. He told her, “Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you” (26-27).

 

We all have baggage in life. God never intended for us to carry our baggage alone. Much of it is too heavy. Some of our baggage comes from past sins and mistakes, our families’ and our own. Other baggage comes from the abuses that others put upon us. Many spend a lifetime trying to run away from or rid themselves of the effects from the baggage of the past, but it has shaped us into the person we are today. According to God, “We are “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).

Jesus had more baggage than we might realize. Reading the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, we find that Jesus had more skeletons in His closet than most of us. His family history includes prostitution, incest, sibling rivalry, adultery, and murder. If you read carefully, you will find that on His human side, Jesus was not 100% Jewish. Rahab was a harlot from Jericho, probably a Canaanite. Ruth, another of Jesus’ ancestors, was a Moabite (1:1-17). Yet at Jesus’ baptism, God spoke from heaven saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

Another part of our baggage comes from our future. Many of us have had expectations and standards thrust upon us that seem too high to attain. We struggle to achieve what our parents, teachers, coaches, bosses, and spouses demand of us. Here again, Jesus had more expectations than we could ever imagine. The Thompson Chain Reference Bible lists nearly 300 Old Testament prophecies that Jesus would fulfill in His life. According to scientist Peter Stoner, the chances that a man could fulfill just 16 of these Messianic prophecies would be 1 in 10⁴⁵. That would be a 1 with 45 zeroes following it. Mathematically and statistically impossible. (Science Speaks)

Jesus lived victoriously in spite of His baggage by focusing on the present. Jesus kept His eyes on what His Heavenly Father was doing, and then did exactly what He saw. We are told to fix “our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:2). By keeping our eyes on Christ, God will accomplish in our lives what He intended for us to do. The Old Testament scriptures were not so much predictive of what Jesus must accomplish but descriptive of what Jesus would accomplish. Ephesians 2:10 tells us that God is making us into a masterpiece so we will accomplish the good works he planned for us to do. Philippians 1:6 teaches that God “who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

God is doing a work in and through you. Let Him carry the baggage in your life that is too heavy for you to bear. Come to Jesus and find rest. Hear the words of God to Jesus; they apply to you as well. You are His beloved child, and He is well pleased with you. God doesn’t look at your faults and hang-ups but sees you as He created you to be. God loves you. Look to Jesus.