The Baptism of the Lord

January 12                  NOTES FOR REFLECTION             The Baptism of the Lord

Texts: Isaiah 42:1-9; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17

Theme:  The title of the Feast is the obvious choice.  This is a very important celebration, and we certainly should not come up with anything irreverent or flippant.  [This comment is addressed primarily to myself.]  To stress the continuity with the Epiphany we might go with "Revelation in Baptism".  I'm rather leaning towards ""Affirmed, Confirmed and Empowered", which seems to me to provide both a short summary of Jesus' own experience, and a guide to understanding our own baptism.  Another possibility might be "The Sacrament of Baptism", as the biblical accounts illustrate very well both the outward sign and the inner grace of baptism.

Introduction.  I have a feeling I may have said this before (more than once) but this week we have three wonderful readings – a perfect tonic to shake us out of the post-Christmas slump and into the excitement of another year of the faith journey.  We begin as so often with Isaiah at his very best – prophetically and poetically – a draught finer than any wine (or even cider) to lift our spirits.  This is the first of the so-called "Servant Songs" as he introduces the mysterious Lord's Servant, which played such an important role in our Lord's understanding of his true identify and mission.  Our lesson from Acts continues the idea from last week that the Good News is for the Gentiles as wells as the Jews, and also shows the importance of theology being based on and arising out of spiritual experience.  Then Matthew gives us his account of the Lord's baptism in the Jordan and, in typical Matthew-fashion, attempts a theological pre-emptive strike against any critics who might wonder why one who was said to be sinless should require baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

Background.  This is one of those instances where it really is important to read our gospel account alongside the accounts of the same matter in the other three gospels.  Mark (in 1:9-11) as always gets straight to the point.  Having opened his book with a brief and business-like account of the appearance in the wilderness of John the Baptist, he proceeds to an even shorter but equally direct account of Jesus' arrival on the scene from Nazareth.  In previous Notes I have already drawn attention to the fact that for Mark, this is "the beginning of Jesus" as we know him and need to know him.  The crucial verses are 10 and 11.  The former is clearly subjective:  "Jesus saw..."  There is no suggestion that John or anyone else present saw anything like that.  But the latter verse is more ambiguous: we aren't told directly who heard the voice, but it is addressed to Jesus – "You are my Son..."

Matthew follows Mark very closely, but with one important difference.  As mentioned above, Matthew sees the theological issue here; and he may also be dealing with the vexed issue of the relationship between John and Jesus, so clearly a source of strain between the disciples of John and the disciples of Jesus in the infant Church.  The meaning of Jesus' response to John's objection is, perhaps, open to some debate, but the important point is clear: John saw himself as needing baptism from Jesus and only "presumed" to baptise Jesus when ordered to do so by Jesus.

Luke (3:21-22), also characteristically, cannot be fussed with such legalistic hair-splitting: he reverts to Mark's simple approach, but again with one difference.  Notice that his account of the opening of heaven and the descent of the Spirit is re-cast in objective terms: it happened, whoever did or did not see it.

And lastly we have the wonderfully subtle and elusive "account" in the Fourth Gospel.  There is no direct account of John baptising Jesus in this gospel: the nearest we have is the hearsay evidence of John in 1:29-34.  John says he saw "the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and remaining on [Jesus]".  Then he tells us that he had been previously told "by the one who sent me to baptize with water" that "He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit".  Notice that John does not tell us when or where he saw this happen: we need to supply that information ourselves by drawing on the other accounts.

So much for the biblical accounts themselves, but what are we to make of them?  First, they are essentially in agreement that something happened to and for Jesus in his adult years – about the age of 30, according to Luke (in 3:23).  Whatever we may know or believe about his conception or birth, his presentation or his escapade in the Temple as a twelve-year-old – all accounts seem to agree that Jesus the healer, teacher and holy man of the gospel accounts emerged from obscurity (rather like John himself) as a "fully-fledged" adult.  At his baptism he had a profound religious experience – a direct experience of God expressed in terms that shaped the rest of his life and provided the core of his teaching.  It would be going too far to describe it as "life-changing" for Jesus – a bolt-from-the-blue, so to speak.  More calmly, it was not a "conversion experience" comparable to St Paul's; yet it was surely every bit as formative.  If we ponder those wonderful words he heard from God, we can see that Jesus was affirmed, confirmed and empowered by his experience.  He was affirmed in his belief that he was loved by God; he was confirmed in his belief that he was the Son of God; and that he was empowered by this experience to carry out his mission as the Messiah is shown by all that he did after his baptism.  From then on his life course was set, and there was no turning back; and that perhaps is underlined for us today by Peter in verse 38 of our reading from Acts.

One final point about our Lord's baptism is this.  It is NOT treated by the Scriptures as unique; indeed it could be argued that Jesus is shown as one of the vast crowd of "people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem" who Mark says (1:5) were going out to John to make that very point that Jesus was baptised as a human being, and not because he is (uniquely, of course) the only-begotten Son of God.  His baptism was paradigmatic of all baptisms: in our own baptism each of us was affirmed, confirmed and empowered as a son or daughter of God with a mission to fulfil.

Isaiah.  And just look at this introduction of the One who was to come!  Notice the word "Servant": not "King" or "Ruler"; not "Son of David" or "Messiah"; but SERVANT!  What a break-through that was and is!  God's Chosen One comes as "Servant", as Jesus exemplified and taught seven centuries later.  The Servant is one whom God upholds – indeed, he is one in whom the very "soul of God" (marvellous thought!) delights.  And he is one with a mission to all the nations, a mission to bring all peoples justice.  How is that to be achieved in a world where so often it seems that "might is right"?  Through quietness (verse 3), gentleness (verse 4), and steadfastness (verse 5).  In other words, this is no philosophical ideal we have here: this is a man who will change the world, not through power but through service.  Where there is darkness he will bring light; where there is blindness he will bring sight; where there is illness, he will bring health; where there is slavery (imprisonment) he will bring release and freedom.  And so it has been for the last 2,000 years and so it will continue to be until the end of the age.

Taking It Personally.

• Read through this passage slowly AND JOYFULLY!  Read it out loud – sing it out loud – if you can do so without causing too much alarm.  Don't rush it – sip it, savour it, it's the only intoxicant that is good for your health.
• Notice any particular word or phrase that attracts your attention.  Focus on it and wait for the Spirit to teach you more about it.
• Reflect on your own relationship with God in the light of verse 1.  Do you feel "upheld" by God?  Do the bit with your bathroom mirror: look yourself in the eye and say, "I am chosen by God, and his soul delights in me!"  [Caution: Once the truth of that really sinks in you may need to jump around shouting.]
• Reflect on verses 3-5: are you generally quiet, gentle and steadfast (when you're not jumping around shouting)?
• In what way are you a light to others?  What might you do this year to shine a little brighter?  What might your local church do to become a brighter light in your community?

 

Acts. Peter has had an extraordinary spiritual experience, in which his whole understanding as a faithful man of God has been shattered.  Being Peter, of course, he put up stern resistance; but with him everything went in threes, and so on the third showing he was convinced.  (Incidentally, I've just noticed the "baptismal" imagery in verses 9-16: in verse 11 he saw the heaven opened...; and the idea of something being lowered/ dipped three times.  Just a thought.)  As mentioned above, Peter "dates" the ministry of Jesus from John's call to repentance and baptism.  He stresses that he and the others have been witness to all that Jesus did in his lifetime, and, even more importantly, to his resurrection.  So here we have the basic elements of personal experience, reflection, and growing understanding leading to better theology: he NOW understands that God has no favourites.

 

Taking It Personally.

 

• Reflect on the past year.  What have you witnessed that has increased your faith over the last few months?
• To whom have you testified about your faith during this period?
• If God has no favourites, does that mean that everyone is his favourite?  How do you feel about that?  No, really!
• Can you recall a time when you suddenly found your own understanding turned on its head?  Are you open to new insights?
• Place yourself in Cornelius' house on this occasion.  Suppose Peter has finished his "talk", and has invited questions.  What question might you have for him in response to what he has said?

 

Matthew.  It seems that for Matthew there is no difficulty for John in recognising Jesus even amongst the crowds: John reports that John did not recognise him until he saw the Spirit descend on him.  But Matthew sees a theological problem here and has to address it.  We can get a glimpse of the issue when we look at various examples throughout the Book of Acts where it appears that some forms of baptism were considered inferior to others.  A case in point is at Ephesus: see 19:1-7: the believers there had not even heard there is a Holy Spirit – they had "only" been baptised "into John's baptism".  According to Paul, John's baptism was one for repentance (the forgiveness of sins), not for the transmission of the Holy Spirit.  Hence the "theological problem" for Matthew – why did Jesus undergo "John's baptism"?  Frankly, I do not understand Jesus' response to John's objection, but I have just noticed a very interesting variation in this passage (and in Luke's version), compared to the parallel passage in Mark.  Mark says the descent of the Spirit came as Jesus was rising from the water; both Mathew and Luke make it clear that the Spirit came after Jesus had been baptised, perhaps to separate that event from "John's baptism".

 

Taking It Personally.

 

• The essential point is not what happened or didn't happen at Jesus' baptism but what happened at yours.  If you have access to a Prayer Book have another look at the baptismal liturgy.  It's all there, isn't it?
• Look particularly at the commitments you made, or were made by others on your behalf.  How well have they been kept?
• Make it your practice this year to thank God for your baptism regularly – if you know the date of your baptism celebrate the anniversary as you do your birthday.  If you are a parent or godparent of someone who has been baptised, make a point of remembering and celebrating his or her baptism on the anniversary.
• Give thanks, then give more thanks, and more thanks, to God for your baptism!