“Dove Power”
January 11, 2026
Matthew 3:13-17
First Christian Church, Wilmington, NC
David A. Shirey
Matthew says, “Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River to John the Baptist, to be baptized by him.” Why did Jesus do that? I ask because I thought baptism has to do with "forgiveness of sin.” Matthew tells us earlier in this chapter "people were baptized by John in the river Jordan, confessing their sins" (Matthew 3:6). If that’s the case, then why did Jesus come to be baptized? Did he have some sins to confess? Apparently, John was wondering the same thing because the way Matthew tells it, "John would have prevented Jesus," saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”
Jesus explains. He says, “Let it be so now, for it is proper us in this way to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). So, what’s it mean "to fulfill all righteousness"? When you hear the word righteousness, hear the word “right” and think of everyone and everything living in right relationships: individual people in right relationship with other people, groups of people in right relationship with other groups of people, nations in right relationship with other nations, human beings in right relationship with all creatures and all God’s creation: earth, sky, and sea. Righteousness is a relational ideal: personal, social, national, international, and ecological right relationships. Jesus’ baptism had to do with more than forgiveness. It was about for-lifeness. For the rest of my life, he was saying, I will strive to “fulfill all righteousness,” immerse myself in right living, drip with the desire to be right and do right in all my relationships – with God, others and all creation.
And with that, Jesus proceeded to do what? He went down into the muddy ‘ol Jordan. Please note the trajectory of Jesus’ life was from heaven to earth to muddy Jordan. That is, downward. Henri Nouwen said Jesus chose a life of “downward mobility.” He came “not to be served, but to serve” (Mt. 20:28). In the Apostle Paul’s words, “Jesus Christ, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death— even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8). Got that trajectory? From equality with God up there into the muddy Jordan down here. Jesus was no ivory tower God, his head (and nose) in the clouds. Our Lord was a Savior with his sleeves rolled up. Equal parts inspiration and perspiration. And we, his baptized followers, are called to the same – lives of selfless service.
And get this. In order to empower Jesus to live a life of righteous relationships and service, he received the Holy Spirit at his baptism. “Just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove.” The baptistery at the church I served in Columbus, IN, had a sculpted silver dove suspended above the baptistery so that the first thing those who come up out of the waters see is the heavenly-descending dove. The Holy Spirit is God’s gift at baptism for empowering us to live righteous lives. Lord knows we can’t do it by ourselves! It isn’t easy to live life righteously. As G.K. Chesterton put it, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried." To live the life of faith over the long haul requires a power not our own, a power from on high. So it is that in Acts 1:8 the risen Lord promises his followers, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” The Greek word translated “power” is dunamos from which we get the word dynamite. At baptism we pledge to fulfill all righteousness, God help us! And God helps us by sending us power – dynamite from on high.
But ponder this: we receive dynamite power in the form of a dove. Dove power, baby! Does that sound like an oxymoron to you? Do you know what an oxymoron is? A figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear in conjunction: jumbo shrimp, virtual reality, unbiased opinion, plastic silverware, baggy tights, airline food, adult male. Dove power. Do you associate the words dove and power? I don't know about you, but when that sky ripped open above the Jordan and God’s provision for Jesus’ ministry was about to make its appearance – given the stuff Jesus was going to have to address: sin, stubbornness, violence, treachery of every sinister shape imaginable – I’d expect the Holy Spirit to descend in the form of a pitbull, a lion, a dragon, an angel dressed as an MMA cage fighter, ripped and roarin’. But what did God send? A dove.
Let me ask you, is that enough power “to fulfill all righteousness?” To make everything right that has gone wrong? Is dove power enough to defeat sin and death? To defang, dethrone, and defeat the Herods of the world? To pry ruthless Rome’s hands off every little nation’s throat? I think dove and I think “gentle as a dove” and I think gentle isn’t enough “to fulfill all righteousness.” In his letter to the Colossians (3:12), Paul tells Christians to “clothe yourselves with gentleness” but wouldn’t a Kevlar vest be better? Or a suit of armor? Some of us are old enough to remember the Emmy award-winning tv show back in the 80s, Hill Street Blues. Each episode began with roll call at the end of which Sergeant Phil Esterhaus would say to the policemen and women heading out to duty, “Hey, let's be careful out there.” He didn’t say, as Paul did to the Philippians (4:5), “Let your gentleness be known to everyone.” The world’s awash in violence and God’s sending doves delivering dollops of gentleness. Do you think that’s enough?
I’ll tell you what I think. I think most of us think of gentleness as a weak word. Soft. Fragile. Ineffectual. Think again! Think of Jesus. Think of Jesus, who said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart” (Mt 11:29). Think of Jesus who said “The meek - the gentle - “shall inherit the earth.” Think of Jesus on his Palm Sunday ride into Jerusalem. Matthew 21:5 can be translated “See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey.” Did Jesus not face the full spectrum of sin’s deceit and destructiveness throughout his ministry? Think of the violence he faced in word and deed – the caustic criticism he received, the angry words spoken against him, the lashes he received from the Roman soldiers, the cross on which he died. And what was it God equipped him with to arm him for battle and stand up to such assault? The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.
Hear me when I say there is in fact strength in gentleness. In an essay several years ago in Christian Century magazine, Craig Barnes, then President of Princeton Theological Seminary, recalled a wedding he did when the groom, whom he described as “a burly, muscular lineman for his college football team” spoke his vows to the bride and then added a vow no one saw coming: “I will always be gentle with you.[1]” Barnes says we think of gentleness as a weak or fragile thing. Far from it, he says. To be gentle doesn’t mean to be a shrinking violet, a doormat who sits quietly by as others walk all over them. To the contrary! Gentleness is a virtue exercised by people of real strength who are secure enough in themselves that they act toward others not in a domineering way that may come with the power of their position, gender, or physical strength. Rather, secure in their strength, they treat others with dignity, respect, gentleness. Don’t be deceived by those who fill the air with the bluster of their bruising words, who go through life throwing elbows, crushing those who stand in the way of their arrogant, unprincipled ambition. Bullies are in fact weak people bereft of both self-control and self-esteem who live out a fantasy of self-importance and strength at the expense of others. It’s a façade! It’s the truly strong person who, confident that his or her identity is rooted in God and that God’s purposes will be achieved in God’s ways, is able to exercise gentleness and self-control in all they say and do. It’s no coincidence the final two fruits of the Spirit according to the Apostle Paul are what? Quote: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Gal 5:23) There is a God-ordained strength in gentleness.
St. Francis de Sales said, “Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.”
Gandhi, a gentle man who liberated his nation without violence said, “Harshness is conquered by gentleness, hatred by love, lethargy by zeal and darkness by light.”
Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lewis, Andy Young, Ralph Abernathy and company crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in the face of fire hoses, police dogs baring their fangs, and billy clubs thrashing the air. But that army of gentle people (Is that an oxymoron?) made it all the way to Montgomery and to Washington D.C. in the name of civil rights, voting rights, and the basic human rights of dignity, decency and equality. Behold the strength of gentleness.
I’ll never forget the question Franciscan friar and author Richard Rohr raised at a conference I attended a few summers ago in Chautauqua, NY. A gentle man, he asked the question so innocently it cut through my defenses and has stayed with me. Haunted me. He asked, “Why are there so many mean Christians?” – people who may wear a cross on their lapel or as an ornament on a necklace but whose words wound, whose demeanor darkens a room, whose actions harm others. Why are there so many mean Christians? As I pondered that question, I heard the Spirit’s whisper ask me, David, are you rooted deeply enough in the fruit of the Holy Spirit to have enough self-control to be gentle? When you’re aggravated by someone, angered by what they’ve said or done, are you more apt to exude something sweet or sour? Will others be blessed by you or bit, blistered, bruised? Will what comes out of you be fruit of the Spirit or fraught with spite? Are you motivated and animated by dove power or your own unrestrained impulses? Are you motivated and animated by righteousness or wrath?
Matthew tells us “Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River to John the Baptist, to be baptized by him.” John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” Jesus said, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” And when he came up out of the water, he saw the Spirit of God descending as a [gentle] dove.”
Have you been baptized?
Do you desire “to fulfill all righteousness?”
Will you aspire in these mean-spirited, violent times to live with a Holy-Spirited, dove-powered gentleness?
Why aren’t there more gentle Christians?
Why don’t you be one of them?
[1] “Choosing Gentleness,” M. Craig Barnes, Christian Century, December 6, 2007, p. 35.
