Who has God created us to be?

     Tomorrow we celebrate Epiphany, the manifestation of Christ as the savior to all nations.  It is an action-packed day, and in some places it is a three-fold celebration: the epiphany of the magi and the adoration of Christ, the manifestation of Christ as the savior to all people, and some celebrate the baptism of Jesus on this day.  We will celebrate the baptism of Jesus on Sunday morning.
     The gospel text comes from Matthew 3.13-16 and is the Matthean account of Jesus' baptism.  The question has been asked: Why did Jesus need to be baptized?  If baptism is for the forgiveness of sins and Jesus was sinless then why did he need to be baptized?  Well, according to Jesus it is to fulfill all righteousness (v. 15). 
Oh.  Well that clears it up!
    To fulfill all righteousness?  Righteousness is a theme in Matthew, beginning with the birth of Jesus when we find out that Joseph was a 'righteous man' (1.19).  Jesus talks frequently about righteousness - but what is it? This is how a professor of mine explained it to me: Righteousness is like a mango tree.  Mango trees exist to make mangoes for people to eat.  If a mango tree doesn't do what it is created to do, then it is unrighteous.  If a mango tree produced an apple for instance, it would be unrighteous.  If a mango tree didn't produce any fruit, it would be unrighteous.  A righteous mango tree is a mango tree that produces the most gorgeous, juicy, and delicious orange mangoes.  So that when you are biting into that juicy, delicious mango, the only thought you have is: that is a righteous mango tree.
    So righteousness is being who you were created to be.  Jesus was created to be the savior of the nations, the light of the world, the righteousness of all people, the all in all.  Jesus had to be baptized because he took on all of our sins.  Because we can't be righteous (who God created us to be) by ourselves, we have to use Jesus' righteousness as our own.  In baptism we are united with Christ, our sins are washed away, and his righteousness becomes our righteousness. 
    In the waters of baptism (which is a one-time event but an every day occurrence) we are made righteous so that we can be who God created us to be.  So this week's text leaves me wondering: who has God created us to be?