Jesus, as we remember your baptism this morning and reflect on your work in this world, guide us into our place in your redemption of the world. Amen.
This morning is the day in the church calendar when we remember the baptism of Jesus. We began the liturgical year of the church back in November, with the first Sunday of Advent being the first Sunday of the new Christian year. And it is appropriate that we begin the Christian year with the birth of Christ and the beginning of his life. Without the incarnation, without God taking the first steps to come down to earth and meet us in our stubbornness, our brokenness, and our restlessness, we wouldn’t have a Christian year to begin. The birth God in our world changed everything.
But there are other days and events in the Christian calendar that changed everything as well. This morning, we celebrate the baptism of Jesus and the beginning of his public ministry, the day when he is first revealed to those around him as the Son of God. Another day that changed everything. The first act of Jesus was to leave Galilee, travel to the Jordan River where John was baptizing people, and be baptized himself.
Let’s read together Matthew 3, beginning in verse 13.
The Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Answering, Jesus said, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteous action.” Then John consented.
Having been baptized, Jesus immediately came up out of the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my son, the beloved one, with him I am well pleased.”
This is an interesting first act of Jesus. He could have done anything, gone over to the temple to talk with the leaders of his day, begin teaching in the desert himself, or challenge the political rulers. He did none of those things. Instead, Jesus leaves Nazareth, walks south past the sea of Galilee out to meet John, who is making quite a stir of his own in the desert, baptizing people for the repentance of their sins and challenging them to live holy lives in anticipation of Christ’s coming into their lives.
And John has more than a few hesitations about baptizing Christ. Just before this, John has promised that one will come after him “who is more powerful than [John], whose sandals [he is] not worthy to carry.” This one “will baptize…with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” The moment Jesus arrives at the river, John seems to know that Jesus is this one who comes to bring justice on the earth. Who is he to baptize the chosen one of God?
I can only imagine what John felt like, but I remember back to a time in seminary when I was in a class, studying the book of John. It’s a memory that normally comes up in Lent, around the time of Easter, but as I thought of John’s reaction to Jesus’ request for baptism, I couldn’t help but think of this story here too. It was close to the end of the semester, and we had been studying the gospel of John together for several months. The professor was very deliberate in his teaching, bringing a candle to class and turning off the lights as we read the Scripture, so that we would have a better understanding of the first readers of John, hiding because of persecution. We left the classroom to read in locations that would evoke images of the events in the gospel. But the day that really stands out in my mind is the day we studied Jesus washing the disciple’s feet. Our professor removed his suit jacket, poured water into a basin, gathered a towel, and one by one, knelt at each student’s feet, washing them carefully and then praying over each student. I vividly remember understanding how Peter felt that day, as I thought that this tenured Duke professor, at the top of his field of study, had very little place kneeling on the floor to wash my feet. I should be washing his instead.
This morning, I imagine that John felt very similar as Jesus came to him for baptism. Here was God’s anointed, standing before him, submitting himself to John for baptism, because it was necessary for the righteous action of God to be fulfilled. John knew that he was called to live in submission to Jesus, to glorify and prepare the way for this man standing in front of him. How could he possibly be the one to baptize Jesus?
Yet, Jesus convinces John that this baptism is necessary. Can you imagine his response when Jesus comes up from the water? If he had ANY doubts that Jesus was the one he was proclaiming, they would have been instantly squashed upon seeing the heavens open up and the Holy Spirit descend upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and upon hearing the voice from the heavens proclaim that Jesus is God’s Son. He must have wondered how in the world he had been chosen to baptize Jesus.
As I think of John, and consider his hesitation, I am struck by Jesus’ steadfast knowledge of what was necessary. When John hesitates, Jesus reassures him that it is right for Jesus to be baptized by John. Jesus says, “It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteous action.” John consents, and we are left with a puzzle and a clue. Why is it that Jesus needs to be baptized? If John is baptizing for repentance, and Jesus is sinless, why does he need to repent? Jesus comes to fulfill the law, but the law doesn’t require baptism. What righteous action needs to be fulfilled?
As I pondered over this question, wondering why Jesus came to be baptized in the first place, I suddenly realized that Jesus’ response to John also raises an answer to the question that it provokes. Jesus doesn’t tell John that he needs to repent, that he had sins to confess, or that he is worried he will be cut off from the Father. His answer is not about himself. Instead, his answer is about what is necessary, about what it is right for God himself to do. He is fulfilling the right action of God, the action of taking upon himself the history of humanity and redeeming it all in himself. The right action of defeating the powers that have bound his children since the fall. Jesus is fulfilling the redemption of his people, accomplishing the task set before him by the Father.
As we read the prophets, we can’t help but see Jesus written across the pages of their words. In chapter 42, Isaiah declares:
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.
This is what God the LORD says – he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth with all that springs from it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: “I the LORD have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.
“I am the LORD; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols. See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declare; before they spring into being I announce them to you.
If there is any doubt that the prophet is speaking of Christ, we need only turn to Jesus’ own words for affirmation. In the synagogue, Jesus took the scroll of Isaiah, and read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” When John’s followers come to Jesus asking, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus tells them, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”
Jesus is called by the Father and sent out into the world for a specific purpose. Repeatedly, God shows Isaiah that Jesus, the one on whom God’s Spirit rests, will establish justice on the earth. And when Jesus has been sent out, the Lord promises that he will make Jesus a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to (and this should sound familiar) “open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” For a people who understand captivity, for a people who are bound in sin, and who so often fail to see that there is bright light shining all around us, this is truly Good News. God has come, and taken it upon himself to deliver and redeem creation.
But this morning, as we remember the baptism of Christ, let us not think for a moment that the work of God in the world lets us off the hook and frees us of any responsibility. We have been called by the Father in the name of the Son and the power of the Spirit, to be sent out by the Father for the work of God. Paul reminds us that “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body” (1 Cor). Christ is “the head of the body, the church” (Col 1:18) and our lives “are now hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3) because “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death[.] We were…buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life...” and we will “be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Rom 6: 3-5).
Because we live in Christ, because we are part of his body, we are called and sent to continue the work that Christ began, as we live and act in the power of the Holy Spirit. That can be a frightening prospect, considering that Jesus is sent to establish justice on earth, be a covenant for the people, a light for the Gentiles, and to open the eyes of the blind and release the captives. No small tasks for those of us who now live in Christ, yet, our participation in the body of Christ means that the Father’s charge to the Son is now also the Trinity’s charge to us.
Where are there people around you who live in darkness, who are unable to see the light of the glory of Christ and live without hope? What injustices surround you and require that you take a stand for justice? What people around you live in literal or figurative captivity? A friend of mine, Rachel, has been meeting weekly with a young man in prison for a year and a half now. This young man is incarcerated for murdering his parents and siblings. While there is some measure of mental disease, he is certainly coherent in their conversations, but he is a man without hope or knowledge of God who has spent many long days in solitary confinement. At times, his cell is searched and everything, letters or photos from the outside world, any personal object, including any object which brings hope, is taken from him never to be returned. There is often little reason given for the various punishments this man endures at the hands of his guards, except for their ability to use their position of power to remind him that he is nothing. Into this place, Rachel has steadfastly prayed with and cried with this young man, proclaiming the light, forgiveness, and transformation of Jesus Christ. She is quite literally taking a stand against injustice and proclaiming the release of God from the internal captivities which bind this young man, even as he lives out his days in physical confinement.
Rachel is living out the call of God to live in the power of the Holy Spirit and continue the work of Christ. Where are you faithfully living out the call of God to establish justice, be a light in darkness, open the eyes of the blind, and release the captives? Where in your life are you acting like the statues of the four people – one with hands over his eyes, one with hands over his ears, one with hands over his mouth, and one sitting on his hands – pretending you don’t see or hear the call of God and trying to ignore his call to speak or act the hope of God?
It is no accident that the baptism of Jesus comes at the beginning of the year. This is a time when we evaluate our lives and determine if there are things that need to be changed in the coming year. People everywhere are making New Year’s resolutions to change the way they look or the way they act. The baptism of Jesus offers us an opportunity to do something different, to remember his baptism and remember or anticipate our own, knowing that as we participate in the life of Christ we participate in his baptism which draws us into his body and connects us with his plans and purposes for the world. As we live in Christ, we are drawn into his ministry, establishing justice, caring for the broken, living as a light for those around us who walk in darkness, opening the eyes of the blind, and proclaiming release for the captives. As we live in Christ as part of his body, we too are sent by the Father in the name of Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
This morning, we are going to close with a special service to either remember or anticipate your own baptism as we remember the baptism of Christ. This service is a time to affirm the covenant of baptism and seek the ways in which God is sending you into the world to continue the ministry of Christ in the world through the power of the Spirit. After the liturgy, please come forward to either station as you are ready. The altar is also open if you would like to kneel with the Lord. You don’t have to be baptized to participate in this act of worship, nor do you have to be a member of this church or any church. If you are open to how God might call and empower you to continue his work, you are welcome.
