Mt 3:13-17

13 January 2008

Baptism of the Lord

“In the Water”

            “Dearest Jesus, we are here, / Gladly Your command obeying. / With this child we now draw near / In response to Your own saying / That to You it shall be given / As a child and heir of heaven.”  That’s the first stanza of the hymn, “Dearest Jesus, We are Here,” which I want us to sing following the renewal of our baptismal covenant.

            Just so you know:  we aren’t baptizing a child today, or an adult, for that matter.  What we are doing is remembering together our baptism, both as individuals and as a community.  The covenant of baptism is with God and with each other.  We’re reminded that remembering our baptism isn’t, as “the literal minded might reply, that he or she was baptized as an infant,” and can’t recall the event.[1]

            It’s like Moses in the book of Deuteronomy, addressing those born after the exodus, telling them that they were slaves in Egypt.  He’s speaking of the nation of Israel; it has shaped their identity.  In the same way, “we remember not just our own baptism, but that of Jesus.”  Still, as a community, we do have our own stories, so here’s a little bit of mine.

            I was baptized in August 1986.  (I’m one of those who can recall the event!)  However, exactly one year earlier to the date, I had an experience while praying and reading Isaiah 55 that I’ve sometimes thought of as my moment of conversion, my Damascus road experience.  I was all by myself, in my bedroom at about 2am, when it seemed that I had been plunged into an ocean of love.  A sense of peace was instilled in me, a feeling that remains up to this day.

            During the following year, on a couple of occasions, my mom told me that I should be baptized.  I didn’t see the need in it.  When I asked why baptism is so important, her answer didn’t satisfy me.  (I should add “at the time.”  I think I now get what she was saying.)

She said we should be baptized as a public demonstration of our faith—and because Jesus was baptized.  Plus, she added that curious phrase in verse 15 of our gospel text:  it was important “to fulfill all righteousness.”  Whatever that means!

Anyway, I figured I really didn’t need the church; I could embark on a spiritual journey all by myself—thank you very much!  However, as the year went on, I began to see that I was resisting God’s purposes.  I also made an amazing discovery: I should help others and let them help me!  (Completely stunning!)  As a result, after submitting to the waters of baptism, I felt like a weight had been lifted from me.  I now identified with the church, the body of Christ.

I don’t know; maybe I was starting to get a handle on this thing called baptism!

Besides the passion, the events of Holy Week, there are very few incidents that appear in all four gospels.  One of them is the baptism of the Lord.  But there’s something else.  Of the four gospels, Matthew is the only one to note opposition on John’s part to baptizing Jesus.

John the Baptist is at the Jordan River when Jesus shows up.  But then we hear in verse 14, “John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’”  It’s not too hard to understand John’s reluctance.  Earlier in the chapter, his message is summarized as follows:  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near”—or “the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (v. 2).

John the Baptist has the same prescription for everyone.  Rich or poor, male or female, religious leader or lowest of the low, like the prophet he is, John calls everyone to repent.  Repentance isn’t about moaning and groaning and feeling bad; it’s about thinking in a whole new way.  It’s about letting your worldview undergo a 180 degree turn.

So when Jesus shows up for baptism, the one John believes is the Messiah, he wonders, what is it about him that needs such a radical conversion?  As he says, “I need to be baptized by you.”  And let me tell you, John the Baptist isn’t one to fool around; he means business.

That’s underlined by Daniel Clendenin in his weekly webzine, Journey with Jesus. [2]  “Whereas his father was a priest in the Jerusalem temple, John fled the comforts and corruptions of the city for the loneliness of the desert.  There he dressed in animal skins and ate insects and wild honey…Contrary to what we might have expected from such [a severe] man with an austere message, the Gospels say that people flocked to John.”

It would have been easy to stay out there and have your little thing in the wilderness, but that’s not how it turned out.  “Instead of cooperation, accommodation, or resignation, John challenged [the] religious and political powers with his anti-establishment message of ‘protest and renewal.’  By joining John the Baptizer’s fringe movement, Jesus did [the same thing].”

Jesus shows his true colors by approaching John for baptism.  “No wonder that after this radical rupture with his family, and conventional society, by identifying with the desert troublemaker, eventually Jesus’ own family tried to apprehend him.  The village of Nazareth tried to kill him as a deranged crackpot.”

Some people think that Jesus wants John to baptize him in order to set an example.  He may not have any sin to turn from, but it’s important to show the way.  As I suggested before, that’s something my mom was taught—and I believe there’s truth in it, as well.

Others say it’s a question of public relations.  Jesus wants to be seen doing the right thing.  That’s a little different from setting an example.  It’s not that he’s sneaky or insincere, but he wants to demonstrate his solidarity with the people.  He wants to show that he’s accessible; he’s approachable.  He’s not the kind of guy to give you his cell phone number, and then never turn the thing on!

There’s another possibility as to why Jesus seeks baptism from John, one I find especially Christlike, so to speak.  Australian pastor Bruce Prewer puts it this way:  “Maybe Jesus did not see himself as beyond the need for repentance.”[3]

Again, it’s not that Jesus himself is a sinner.  But if we really believe what we say in the creed, that Jesus is truly human, then he obviously identifies with his fellow human beings.  “He [is] content to be classed along with tax collectors, pagan soldiers, and other sinners.  Maybe he [feels] an acute need to share the baptism of repentance.

“Truly good people are unaware of their own goodness.”[4]  Their unassuming nature keeps them from being aware of it.  Think of the time when the rich young man comes to Jesus and asks, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus responds, “Why do you call me good?  No one is good but God alone” (Mk 10:17-18).

Prewer concludes, “Jesus was baptized along beside the common human herd, because he was one of us and saw himself as one of us.  He did not play the role of being a human being; he was one.  His dipping in the river was neither setting a good example nor a public relations exercise for the best of reasons.  He [wanted] to do the right thing in God’s eyes.  ‘It is right for me to do this.’”[5]

What I earlier called a curious phrase in verse 15, the need “to fulfill all righteousness,” is just that—wanting to do the right thing in God’s eyes.

I want to push this idea a little further.  By joining John the Baptist in the water, Jesus does what God wants, no matter how it looks.  And in case you haven’t figured this out by now, hanging around with the downtrodden and the riff raff doesn’t help your image in polite society.  Jesus shows that it’s not about us; we need to get over ourselves.  Believe me—I’m speaking as one who needs to get over himself!

By joining John the Baptist in the water, Jesus dares to think for himself.  He doesn’t let his culture’s bigotry, intolerance, and narrow-mindedness control him.  One writer notes, “By our baptism we commit ourselves to putting on the mind and heart of Christ.”[6]  That requires a certain amount of courage.  “Too many times we allow others to influence the course of our actions and just go along with their decisions.  To renew our commitment to baptism is to renew our willingness to think for ourselves.

“Our baptism calls us to question everything, to hold up everything we do to the light of Christ’s teachings”—to the light of Christ himself.[7]

Some people take the opposite view.  They say that far from calling us to think for ourselves, baptism (and indeed, faith itself) requires that we yield our rationality—that we refuse to think.  In fact, some would say that we’re actually required to be hostile to the world around us.

There’s no doubt that there’s certainly a bomb-throwing, murdering element to faith.  But that’s not the faith that Christ calls us baptized into.  That’s the faith of fanaticism, and unfortunately, it’s an ideology that is claimed by many to be Christian.  But even short of such murderous ends, there’s a twisted sort of faith that excludes and thinks it’s better than others who don’t agree.

Jesus’ desire to be baptized gets its stamp of approval from God.  Notice what happens in verses 16 and 17:  “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’”

Jesus is called “the Beloved.”  When we stand in the water with him, we also take our place as the beloved.  When we take hold of that love, there’s no more room for the pettiness we too often exhibit.  We stop our grasping, and we allow room for grace.

How do we allow the grace of God—and that’s assuming that we do allow this to happen—to have our thoughts shaped to think like Jesus?  I’m serious about this.  Does our baptism mean anything?  Do we accept that we are God’s beloved, and do we allow our lives to be transformed to reflect this love?  Or do we go about our daily business, without hope of showing the world that Christ is real?  Do we really believe that he has the power to forgive and to heal and to restore?

Next week, my sermon will be taken from the introduction to Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.  He tells the church that God has called them to be partners with Jesus.  That goes for us, too.  We’re called to be partners with Jesus.  I’ll leave you with that.  What does it mean to have Jesus as your partner?

Remember your baptism—remember our baptism—and be thankful.

back to home page