A sermon given by the Revd Tessa Stephens
'The Baptism of Jesus'
Silence had reigned over the land. For 400 years or more there had been no prophets. No sign of God’s favour for his chosen people. The people who were walking in darkness were longing for the light which God has promised them through the prophets.
And then came John the Baptist, preaching repentance. John’s ministry lead to a wave of national repentance and revival the like of which had not been seen before. As faithful Jews queued up to be baptised in the river Jordan they were turning to God and praying for national and personal renewal. The excitement builds. Surely now, finally, God’s light will be revealed.
This is the point that we have reached at the start of today’s gospel reading. The stage is set. The expectations are high. And then Jesus walks in. He’s come from Galilee to meet John at the Jordan river. John knows who Jesus is. They are cousins after all. John knows that Jesus is the Messiah whom Israel has been waiting for. So what happens next? Well, as we know Jesus asks John for baptism. John is horrified. This isn’t what he was expecting from the Messiah, the one about whom he himself has said “he will be greater than me”. John has been preaching that while he has been baptising with water the Messiah will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
So the first thing that Jesus does is to ask John to baptise him. Instead of immediately pronouncing judgement on Israel he seeks to become a part of the national movement of repentance and renewal. John tries to persuade Jesus that he’s got it wrong, that Jesus should be baptising him and not the other way round. But Jesus says that this is the right thing to do.
And Jesus’ decision is affirmed when, as he comes up from the water, the sprit of God descends on him in the form of a dove. And this isn’t a floaty dreamy sort of dove. When we look at the Greek verb we can see that it’s more like a bolt of lightning striking Jesus than an ethereal spiritual presence. And if that wasn’t enough, the voice from heaven says, “This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
This is the affirmation that everyone has been waiting for. It’s a very public recognition of the importance of Jesus’ ministry and of the source of his authority as being from God himself. The nativity stories which we’ve heard over the past two weeks told the story of how special Mary’s baby was – the angels, the shepherds and the wise men all played their part in affirming the kingship of Jesus. And yet this is the first recogntion of the adult Jesus, and his words to John are the first words that he speaks in Matthew’s gospel. In all sorts of ways, this is an important beginning.
But it’s not just a beginning. It’s also the fulfillment of a much earlier promise and to understand that we need to turn to the passage from Isaiah that we’ve also heard this morning. The words of God in this passage, speak of a servant in whom God can delight. This servant has God’s spirit on him and will bring justice to the nations. The servant is the chosen one of God, just as God has chosen Jesus to fulfill his promises. And yet as we have already seen this fulfillment will sometimes come in unexpected ways.
We can see Jesus as a kind of embodiment of Israel. The nation of Israel came out of Egypt, through the waters of the Red Sea and were then given the law which confirmed their status as God’s chosen people. Jesus has also come out of Egypt, where he and his family had to flee to avoid Herod. He has gone through the waters of baptism and has now received the Holy Spirit and been confirmed as God’s son and a representative of the nation as a whole.
The people of God were expecting a king and a mighty warrior. They had been told by John to expect a powerful figure who would baptise with fire and who would use his winnowing fork to separate the wheat from the chaff. Jesus does bring a message of judgement but he also brings a message of hope. And it is in his willingness to identify with the people whom he came to save that he gives us the greatest hope of all. As the repentant people have been baptised, so he too is baptised. In doing this he identifies himself with the people of God and shows that he will save the people not from afar off but through becoming a part of the same story, sharing their repentance, living with them and, in the end, dying for them.
The story of the baptism of Christ tells us a great deal about who Jesus is but it also tells us something important about who we are. It reminds us of our own baptism and of our adoption as sons and daughters of God. For Christians, baptism is a significant point on our journey whether it happened as a child or as an adult or even if it is a step that we have yet to undertake. The baptism service itself is also a journey, in which we make promises to turn to Christ and receive the assurance of his love and care for us before we are sent out to live out our baptismal promises. In this way, the words of God to Jesus speak to us too: God wants each of us to know that we are his beloved sons and daughters with whom he is pleased. Life with God is an adventure, with hard times as well as joyful ones. But the starting point for all those times is the unconditional love and acceptance which God offers us. We too are his beloved sons and daughters with whom he is well pleased. Amen