“The Baptism of Jesus”

Baptism of the Lord Sunday

Sunday, January 13, 2008

Isaiah 42:1-9

Psalm 29

Acts 10:34-43

A few weeks ago, we celebrated Christmas.  We read the famous accounts of Christ’s birth, and pondered the significance of that event -- both in our lives and in the history of our world.

But we also noted, at least in passing, that the story of Christ’s birth is not recorded in all four Gospels.  In fact, it is only in two of the Gospel accounts – in Matthew and Luke – that his birth is even mentioned.  The Gospels of Mark and of John, by contrast, contain no record of the birth at all.   

But such is not the case with Jesus’ baptism.  Today, as we read about the baptism of Jesus, it is important to realize that, unlike the account of his birth, the story of Christ’s baptism is included in all four Gospels. 

Which should cause us all to ponder.  After all, for all of our focus on the events of Christmas, it is remarkable that two of the four Gospel writers knew that they could tell the story of Jesus’ life without mentioning his birth.  But all four Gospel writers knew that their accounts of Jesus’ life had to include the story of his baptism.

So why was the baptism of Jesus so important? 

And how do we understand the questions that present themselves to us from this event – questions such as why Jesus needed to submit to a baptism of repentance at all.  After all, if Jesus was without sin – as we so often claim – then why did participate in a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin? What was the deeper significance and meaning of this simple but strange incident?

One of the beauties of the biblical narratives is the way that they operate on many different levels simultaneously.  Like a multifaceted diamond, it is only when we look at this narrative from a number of different angles that we begin to appreciate the various ways that its light is revealed to us. There is, of course, the purely literal level – the recounting of what happened on that day that Jesus made the journey to John at the Jordan and was baptized.  But, even as that event is being narrated, we begin to realize that there are a number of different biblical allusions and theological parallels that are woven into this story – and that illuminate, for us, the deeper meanings of this important incident.

This morning, I would invite us to consider four of these facets of meaning. The first is that the baptism of Jesus was a sign of a new exodus; the second is that it signaled the formation of a new community; the third is that it proclaimed the beginning of a new creation; and the fourth is that it was a profound expression of God’s new solidarity with humanity.

The Baptism as New Exodus

So, first, the baptism was a sign of a new exodus. 

We begin to realize this first dimension when we realize the remarkable parallel between the experience of Jesus and the experience of the people of Israel at the time of their exodus from Egypt.  At the moment of their liberation from slavery in Egypt, the people of Israel had also made a famous journey through water – namely, the waters of the Red Sea.  And, ever since, at the very heart of the Jewish understanding of that first exodus from Egypt was a confidence that God had acted to liberate the oppressed Israelites, to let the people go, to set them free.  And what happened after they passed through the Red Sea? God led the people of Israel out into the wilderness, where they were tested and tried for forty years.

Consider how similar that experience was to the account of Jesus’ baptism. Immediately after Jesus journeyed through the waters of baptism at the Jordan River, he, too, was led out into the wilderness where he was tempted and tested for forty days.  To follow Jesus – through the waters of baptism -- was clearly meant to be understood as the beginning of a new exodus, a new journey towards liberation.

And what is the nature of this new exodus, this new liberation? 

At the heart of the Church’s proclamation, for the past two thousand years, is the message that, through baptism, we begin the journey of liberation from the slavery of sin and the dread of death towards the eternal freedom of God’s love.  The moment of baptism does not signal that that journey has concluded; to the contrary, baptism is only a sign that the journey has begun.  Throughout our lives, the journey will include trials, tests and temptations, just as it did for the people of Israel, and just as it did for Jesus. 

But we who are the baptized are called to persevere, for we know that baptism is the starting point of a new exodus within us.

In the waters of baptism, our journey towards liberation has begun.

The Baptism as the Beginning of a New Community

A second dimension of this event is revealed in the fact that the baptism of Jesus signaled the beginning of a new community. This is particularly evident when we consider where this event took place – that is, in the Jordan River. 

In order to appreciate this second facet of meaning in the story, it is important to remember that the people of Israel actually had two experiences of passing through waters during their journey from Egypt to the promised land. The first of those two journeys – namely, when they were being led out of slavery through the waters of the Red Sea – is by far the more famous of those experiences (thanks in no small part to a certain Cecil B. Demille movie starring Charlton Heston!).

But we sometimes overlook the fact that at the end of their wilderness wandering, the people of Israel made another journey, through another body of water. 

And the body of water that the Israelites passed through just before they established a new community was none other than the Jordan River, in which Jesus was later baptized.

So what was this new community that Jesus’ journey through the Jordan River was intended to create?

This new community was a community that was intended to break down the various walls of hostility that existed between people.  The nature and importance of baptism as the moment of initiation into this new community is perhaps best articulated in the letter to the Galatians, in which we read, “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” 

The church is meant to be that new community of the baptized, that new community in this world in which the walls that we so often put up to keep ourselves separate from each other – walls of race, culture, language, orientation, gender, economic status, and ability—give way to the unifying love of God made known in Jesus Christ.

And it is the waters of baptism that continue to form the Church.  Our baptisms are not meant simply to be about us – as individuals – but rather they are intended to remind us that we are baptized into a new community whose call and purpose is to continue the work of Jesus Christ in this world.  Every time that a person is baptized, whether as an infant or as an adult, we are offered a reminder that this new community is being renewed and that the ministry and mission of Jesus Christ will go on. 

It is the waters of baptism that form and that renew this new community. 

The Baptism as the Sign of the New Creation

A third wonderful dimension of this story is that the baptism of Jesus signaled the beginning of God’s new creation. 

Again, a subtle but powerful parallel is found in this story.  After all, in the opening chapter of Genesis, the first creation had begun when the voice of God spoke over the chaotic primordial waters.  And what do we find in our reading from Matthew? The voice of God was once again speaking over the waters, calling forth a new reality, a new creation in this world.  The fact that the voice which was now speaking over the waters identified Jesus as the Beloved reminds us that Jesus was, at some very deep level, at the very heart of this new creation.  Later in the New Testament, we find reference to the fact that Jesus was the first-born of the new creation; and that his baptism – and our own – serve as signs of the beginning of that new creation.

This idea that baptism is a sign of the new creation continues even into our own celebrations of baptism. 

Consider, after all, the very shape of the baptismal font that stands at the front of this sanctuary. 

The top of this baptismal font, like the top of many baptismal fonts, is circular.  Circles are traditional symbols of eternity – reminding us that, through the waters of baptism, we are initiated into a community which lives in the hope of eternal life in the presence of God. 

But the base of this baptismal font is not a circle.  Rather, the base of the font has eight sides on it.  In fact, most baptismal fonts have eight sides to them.  Why?

Because the first creation was completed in seven days.  According to the Genesis accounts, in seven days God made the heavens and the earth.  Whether we accept such an account as scientifically accurate is irrelevant.  The point is that the number seven was a symbolic reminder of the completion of the first creation. 

An eight-sided baptismal font, therefore, is intended to remind the church that baptism is a sign of the new creation.  To be baptized into Christ is to be drawn into the life of the One whose own baptism was the moment when the new creation began. 

So, first, the baptism was a sign of the new exodus; second, it was the sign of the formation of a new community; third, it was the sign of the new creation.

The Baptism as an Expression of Solidarity

A fourth and final dimension of Jesus’ baptism is reflected in the fact that Jesus’ baptism was a new expression of God’s solidarity with the human race.  This is reflected, most explicitly, in the words that Jesus speaks in this passage when John questioned why Jesus needed to be baptized.

In verse 14, we read, “John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness’”.

The word ‘righteousness’ is one of those words that we so often read without thinking about what it means.  Perhaps the most ‘workable’ definition that I have heard for ‘righteousness’ is that it is a state of being in right relationships.  To live a righteous life is to live a life in which one maintains good relationships with others. 

For Jesus to claim that he needed to submit to baptism ‘to fulfill all righteousness’, therefore, was his way of stating that he needed to submit himself to the experience of baptism as a part of his task of restoring good relationships between God and humanity. 

And how did this ‘righteous’ restoration and reconciliation between the human and the divine occur?  In and through Jesus’ willingness to share, in solidarity, the experience of being human. Jesus’ words to John remind us that even though Jesus may not have needed baptism for the sake of repentance; he nonetheless submitted to baptism to show us that he is with us in our brokenness and our need.  A new relationship, a new solidarity between the human and the divine was taking place.

We sometimes forget just how powerful and transformative solidarity, rooted in compassion, can be. I was reminded of this a number of years ago, during a period of time when a family that I knew went through the journey of watching a child, a little girl, suffer with cancer.  Fortunately, things have turned out quite well; but, at the time, it was a terrible struggle.  During one of the bouts of chemotherapy, for example, the child lost all of her hair.  While such an experience can be difficult for anyone of any age, for a child to lose their hair is sometimes even more difficult.  The looks and expressions of pity often cause the child to feel self-conscious and uncomfortable.

One day, however, the girl’s older brother did a beautiful thing.  Unable to cure her cancer or to go through chemotherapy for her, both he, and a number of his friends – all of whom were in their late teenaged years at the time -- shaved their heads as well.  None of them had cancer, but they chose, out of love, to share her experience with her, insofar as they could, and in so doing to try to lift her spirits.  They, who were healthy, willingly gave up their hair so that that little girl would not feel quite so strange when she noticed the odd looks and when she felt self-conscious about being bald.

It was a remarkable act.  Her self-conscious discomfort and sense of oddness was replaced with laughter, because she was no longer alone.  It was a beautiful act of compassion and of solidarity. 

Jesus’ baptism, in certain ways, might be understood in a similar way.  Like that older brother, who did not have cancer and therefore did not have to lose his hair, Jesus had not sinned and therefore did not have to be baptized for repentance.  But he did so as a sign of solidarity with those of us who are sinful and who do need to repent.

But this expression of solidarity did not end with Jesus’ baptism.  To the contrary, the entire Gospel story is a story about God’s solidarity with us, as humans.  In Christ, God stood, in solidarity with us in our human vulnerability, our finitude, our joy, our pain, our suffering, our death.

And the beauty – and the invitation – of the Gospel is that in following Christ, it is not only he who comes into this new level of solidarity with us, but we with him.

That is, it is not only he who became what we are, but we who are invited to become what he is.

He who was perfect took on sin so that we who are sinful might become perfect.

He who was immortal became mortal so that who are mortal might become immortal.

He who was eternal experienced death so that we who will die will come to experience eternity.

Jesus’ willingness to submit to baptism, therefore, was intended to be a definitive expression that a new relationship, a new solidarity between God and humanity had come into being.

What is remarkable about the baptism of Jesus is that these four dimensions of Jesus’ baptism – as a sign of a new exodus, a new community, a new creation and a new solidarity – are only a few of the many facets of meaning that we discover when we begin to explore this powerful event.  But even these few levels of meaning begin to help us to understand why the Gospel writers all valued it so highly.

But it is not enough to simply realize or appreciate these dimensions in this ancient story. Rather, we must constantly ponder, and constantly appropriate its message in our own lives and in our own faith.

There is an old tradition, in the church, which calls people to ‘remember their baptisms and give thanks’.  It is a wise practice.  After all, it is not enough to simply study what the baptism of Jesus meant – we are, instead, called upon to allow the new exodus, the new community, the new creation and the new solidarity with God to come to life within us.  Then, and only then, will we begin to experience what it means to be the community of the baptized in this world.

So, on this Sunday when we ponder the baptism of Jesus, let us all remember our baptisms.

And give thanks.

Amen.