the point of christs' story. is there one?

So as I was reading this week for my class on the book of Matthew, I was repeatedly reading about Jesus and the people he was encountering, at least from what the author of Matthew was depicting and it started to make me wonder something. What is it exactly that we are to get/understand from the story of Christ? I mean I have essentially narrowed it down to two options. If there are others our there, please by all means, send them my way, I'd love to hear them and discuss them. I'll even treat you to coffee and we can talk about it.

1 | Are the stories of Christ to give us background information on this man and how he lived his life and we are to tell others about what he did. A small percentage of what Jesus did with his life here on earth is recounted by the authors and is for our retelling of the books Matthew through John to other people, believers and non-believers of Christ. That is one option.

2 | Are we as "christians" supposed to go out into the world and repeat what he did. Meaning learn from what Christ did and do it?

Well I guess we could say both are acceptable answers right? But then my confusion comes in when I think about what we are doing with our churches. As I have been reading Stanley Hauerwas' commentary on Matthew I started thinking about how Jesus rarely spent time with other people who were like him. (Yeah I get Jesus is God, but I mean, what I think we would consider today as Christians) I mean those people that were in the temple and "church" were the Pharisee's, Teachers of the law,  and Priests, right? Yet the stories we get when Jesus interacts with them is rebuking them or telling them they are wrong for what they say and do. He spends more (most of his) time with people who do not yet believe him or have rejected him. This includes both his disciples and then the large crowds that hear him and learn from him. After he gets done speaking he tells them to leave and tell others about God.

I fail at this EVERYDAY. I spend time with people mostly like me in my faith. Not all are like me, but the majority are. So my pondering is asking what is the point of Jesus. If we are truly to do as Christ did, then why do we spend so much time focused on church and not on the things outside of the church. The people outside of the church. Our big Christian focus for the week is Sunday to help teach those who come to church, yet, if we look at our churches, the vast majority are people who already believe in Jesus and claim to follow him, myself included. So what are we doing? Jesus came for the sick, not the healthy. The sick are not in the churches. Tim Keller says in The Prodigal God, the church is filled with elder sons, the younger sons are not in the church. If that is true, which I think it is, then what are we doing with our focused attention to Sundays? Are we just waiting for the younger ones to come to the church? I don't think that is happening.

Just some thoughts.

baptism. why?

we talked about in my Matthew for Theology class about Matthew 3 and the theology behind it. I couldn't get passed the idea and question of why is baptism really needed and important. I know some would say because it is the way to salvation - which doesn't entirely make sense to me. Some might say because Jesus was baptized. But as Matthew records John the Baptist saying that He baptizes with water for repentance. Why would Jesus need to be baptized for repentance? So that doesn't make sense. Matthew talks more in depth about the baptism than any other Gospel, but every Gospel at least references it, ie....Mark and Luke talk about it only in a verse or two whereas John recounts the baptism, but not in present tense. So Jesus in Matthew 3 talks about needing to fulfill all righteousness. Is this to fulfill the prophecies? Is it to emphasize his humanity? I get that Jesus was recorded by Matthew in chapter 28 to go make disciples, baptizing them.......

But still the question remains WHY? John was baptizing people before Jesus was baptized, but who told John to baptize people and why?

Lastly where do we get the form of baptisms? As a lutheran it was sprinkling water on the baby's head at a very young age. In the BGC (Converge Worldwide) it is full submersion, but where does that come from? In Matthew 3 (v16) it talks about Jesus coming up out of the water.....does it mean walking out of the water or coming up from being submerged. I feel like the author could have easily made this more clear. Why was it not stated clearly?

I don't know. I feel like I should just say because "it takes away my sins and Jesus told me to do so" but I feel it's good to ask the question as to the significance and where it derives from.