SERMON PREACHED BY
THE REVEREND NATHAN A. RUGH, CURATE
CALVARY EPISCOPAL CHURCH,
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
ON THE FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY
7 JANUARY 2007

 

 

You could be excused if you were reading Luke's gospel and you missed the fact that Jesus got baptized. Unlike Mark and Matthew, who make somewhat of a big deal about the baptism of Jesus, Luke kind of slips it in there.

 

Before the description of the baptism of Jesus there is a lot about the John the Baptist. We are told that he has gone out into the wilderness and is offering a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. In the wilderness, John has been making a living giving people a hard time. He has been encouraging them to live just lives, while proclaiming to all who will listen that there is someone else coming who is more powerful than he is and that this one who is to come is from God. The one who is to come will baptize the listeners with the Holy Spirit and with fire, which is to say the one who is coming will raise the bar a bit.

 

But then verse 21 kind of comes out of nowhere, it says, "Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying" Luke sort of slips in the baptism before getting to the important stuff about the Holy Spirit descending on him as a dove and the voice from heaven proclaiming Jesus as God's beloved Son, with whom God is well pleased.

 

There are different theories for just why it is that Luke downplays the baptism, but some scholars have proposed that the author we call Luke was a bit hesitant about giving much too publicity to the notion that John baptized Jesus. These scholars speculate that the reason why Luke was hesitant to make a big deal out of our Lord's baptism is because Luke did not want people to get the wrong idea about why Jesus was baptized.

 

After all, John's baptism was for the forgiveness of sins, it was to effect a transformation in the lives of sinners who stood in a broken relationship with God and their neighbor. But, if Jesus was not a sinner, then why should he be baptized?

 

I do not know if this scholarly speculation is correct or not. But, I do know that the only Gospel author who seems to take the baptism of Jesus head on is Mark. In Matthew's Gospel, John the Baptist and Jesus have a conversation, where John tries to get Jesus to baptize him instead, but Jesus insists on getting baptized. In the fourth Gospel, John's Gospel, there is no mention of Jesus being baptized at all. Now there might be perfectly good reason for all of this, but we might at least grant that the scholars have a point. If Jesus is one who is without sin and baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, then why was Jesus baptized?

 

It could be viewed as a sticky theological question and one that points also to the popular cultures understanding of what baptism is for. It would seem from my watching of television and perusing the internet that our culture thinks of baptism as exclusively for the forgiveness of sins and as a means of securing personal salvation.

 

Baptism acts as an insurance card that one could hold up at the time of death to tell God or Saint Peter or whoever, "I'm in the club. You got to let me in."

 

Now, I believe that the reason why our culture seems to suppose that baptism is exclusively for getting people into heaven is because the Church has spent a lot of time in the past giving people that very idea. For whatever reason, the Church got locked in the mode of ensuring that people showed up with their children to get them baptized and the way in which that was primarily done was by lifting up divine forgiveness.

 

Now do not get me wrong, baptism is in part for the forgiveness of sins, but to emphasize this forgiveness exclusively, narrows the meaning of baptism. Baptism is not just juridical, it is a cosmic event. And I think we can see this because Jesus is also baptized. He was one the first disciples experienced as not knowing sin but he received a baptism from John for the forgiveness of sins.

 

So, that baptism either did nothing or the baptism was not just about the forgiveness of sins. And, I think that if we look at the text we see that the latter is the case. Baptism is more than just about the forgiveness of sins.In fact, the baptism that Jesus received was not about forgiveness at all, not for him. Instead, the baptism was about being empowered by God. Instead, of a cleansing the baptism of Jesus was an inauguration.

 

After Jesus was baptized and praying, God the Father gives his Spirit to Jesus. The Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form. God graces Jesus with a sign and with power.

 

Then there is the voice that proclaims, "You are my Son the beloved". This quote comes from Psalm 2, a royal Psalm that was interpreted Messianically. The Psalm declares that God holds the corrupt kings of the earth in derision, laughing at their vanity, while he lifts up his beloved Son to be the true king.

 

The other half of the quote of the divine voice is from Isaiah 42, "With you I am well pleased." Now, the beginning of the 42nd chapter of Isaiah is a hymn of the so-called suffering servant. This servant suffers unjustly but in doing so brings forth justice and freedom and ushers in a new age. This suffering servant hymn was also read through a Messianic lens.

 

Seen in this light the baptism of Jesus is proclamation and is empowering.

 

And after his baptism Jesus is sent out into the wilderness to face his temptations. When he returns, he returns proclaiming a message of God's kingdom. He has been empowered and begins to live out his ministry as prophet, priest and king. He has been commissioned as son and servant to be the bearer of peace and the promise of God. His baptism ushers in the dawn of a new day.

 

And so today, as we commemorate the baptism of Jesus, we should look to our own baptisms. They were not only rites that cleansed us, but they were events that contained the power to bring about our transformation.

 

Baptism removes the stain of our brokenness, but primarily as a way of sharing in the life of Jesus and in order to receive the power that comes with the descent of the Holy Spirit.

 

The baptism of Jesus is of the Holy Spirit and of fire. The fire is to burn in our hearts and the Spirit is to empower us to make God's life changing love known in word and deed to a world that aches under the burden of its bondage. Our baptisms were just as much about proclamation and empowerment as the baptism that Jesus received.

 

Our baptisms draw us into his life. For the baptism that we received is baptism into Jesus Christ, for in being baptized we have become members of his body in the world. And therefore if baptism is into the body of Christ then it is also into his mission in the world.

 

Baptism, your baptism, has drawn you into the divine life to share the Good News of God in Christ to a hungry world.

 

Amen