The Baptism of Jesus
January 10, 2010
Luke 3.15-17, 21-22
I don’t know about you, but occasionally I am just perplexed by things that happen in Scripture. Just when you think you might have it all figured out, something comes along in the Bible that completely perplexes me and throws everything upside down. Now, I bet if I went around the church this morning, most of you can give me an example. Maybe it’s the concept of the Trinity, or something St. Paul said, or maybe it’s difficulty in trying to figure out something Jesus said in a parable, or maybe it’s just one of those violent, weird stories from the Old Testament.
For me, the Baptism of Jesus has always been a hard one to grasp. My problem is this: I have always had a pretty clear sense of what baptism is. Baptism is probably one of my single most favorite things about the Church. I love the idea of Baptism. I love doing baptisms. I love commemorating my own baptism. And certainly I believe highly in Baptism. I believe in what the Catechism, found in the Book of Common Prayer, tells us about Baptism:
“Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as…children and makes us members of Christ’s Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God. “
I like that definition and I believe it completely. So, with this mind, I am still a bit perplexed. If Baptism is the sacrament in which God’s adopts and in which we are made members of the Body of Christ—the Church—why then was Jesus baptized? Isn’t he already the Son of God. Isn’t he, as the Son of God, already the natural inheritor of the Kingdom of God? So, why was he baptized?
Now, I will be honest. This is a question that has perplexed me for years. And most preachers that I’ve known have really glossed over this question. In all my years in the church, I have never heard anyone really confront this question from the pulpit. Sure, I’ve heard plenty of sermons on this First Sunday after Epiphany on the importance of the Baptismal Covenant. Trust me, I’ve preached plenty of sermons in the seven years I’ve been ordained about the Baptismal Covenant and about the importance of baptism in general on the this First Sunday of Epiphany. But I still have never heard one preacher ever wrestle with this issue of why Jesus had to be baptized.
So…why was Jesus baptized?
That’s the question Scot McKnight asks in his book, The Jesus Creed, a book from which you have heard me quote many times before (and no doubt I will quote from again). McKnight writes:
“John’s baptism is for repentance, but Jesus is sinless. So why was Jesus baptized? To begin with, we are no more baffled than John himself, for he does his prophet’s best to keep Jesus from jumping into the river… Clearly, then, if Jesus doesn’t need to repent [and John’s baptism is all about repentance], then he must be repenting for others, for us. Why would he do that? … Jesus is baptized to repent perfectly so God can send the Spirit to empower us for our vocations.”
McKnight goes on to quote C.S Lewis:
“Only a bad person need to repent: only a good person repents perfectly….The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person—and he would not need it.”
All right. So, we understand that John’s baptism is about repentance and Jesus is repenting for us by being baptized. Great. Still, that definition leaves me a bit disappointed. I think we need to look at it from a difference perspective to truly understand where we stand on this issue. Only when we start recognizing that baptism isn’t some sweet christening service do we truly understand the meaning of Jesus’ act in today’s Gospel.
Baptism is, in reality, full of heavy connotations. Namely—and this is very important—there is a powerful connection between descending into the waters of baptism and…you guessed it…death. We say in our baptismal liturgy:
“We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism. In it we are buried with Christ in his death.”
That’s a very important aspect of understanding what Baptism is all about. Originally Baptismal fonts were not sweet little stoups like ours. Originally they were big—in fact that were purposely shaped like tombs. And the belief was that as one was immersed in the waters of baptism, one essentially died. One died to one’s old life. One died to sin. They were buried in the tomb of the baptismal font. And as one rose from the waters, one was resurrected and renewed. Later in the Baptismal rite, we hear this:
“By [the waters of baptism] we share in [Jesus’] resurrection. Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.”
This is essential in trying to figure out what happens at baptism. Again, this is no sweet little service in which babies in white garments are sprinkled with water. This is an actual re-enactment of death and resurrection. We go down in the death of the water and we rise into new life in Christ. It involves death and resurrection.
So, essentially what Jesus is doing is he’s 1) foretelling what is going to happen to him. He too will die, but will rise again to new life. and 2) he sets the standard of what it means to be a Christian.
As Christians, we too, like him must die to our old selves and be reborn into new life. And—even more strikingly—this baptismal event in Jesus’ involves deep theological understanding we not fully grasp on first glance.
Last Wednesday, on the Feast of the Epiphany, I shred at our Wednesday night Mass a few thoughts from Father John Julian of the Order of Julian of Norwich. He shared with us the belief in the Eastern Church about the Baptism of Jesus being a theophany—a revelation of God as Trinity. In today’s’ reading, we find all of God being revealed to us. We find God the Father as a voice speaking. We find God the Son, in the water. And we find God the Holy Spirit descending upon the Son as a dove. This is important. We don’t experience moments like this very often in the Bible. It seems as thought, for this one moment, it all comes together. It’s all laid out for us. In fact, the only other time we experience something even remotely like this is also an event we celebrate during the Season of Epiphany and that is the Transfiguration of Jesus on the Mountain. In a sense then, what we find happening in the baptism of Jesus is not a cleansing of Jesus, not a sense of Jesus inheriting the Kingdom.
Rather what we find in Jesus being baptized is a pathway being set for us. Jesus, by going down into the waters of the River Jordan, is prefiguring his own death. And by rising from those waters, he prefiguring his own resurrection and glorious ascension, not to mention the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is, then, a kind of prophetic act. And it is one that he invites us to take part in as well.
The early Church Fathers thought a lot about the Baptism of Jesus. And whenever I get hung up on something perplexing, I can usually go to those early Church Fathers and Mothers and find a new perspective. And sure enough, there it is in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius was one of the great Fathers of the early Church. And he wrote this wonderful little gem:
So far from being cleansed in the waters at his baptism, Jesus effectively cleansed the waters for us by his baptism.
Jesus shows us the way. He makes clear to us that we too must do so we can partake fully in not only his death, but also his resurrection. Or rather we can say that Jesus, by dying, confronts head-on that unavoidable fact that we must die and by doing so we lets us know that we also can take part fully in his resurrection. As Tom Wright says,
“This is how he must do it: by humbly identifying himself with God’s people, by taking their place…living their life and ultimately dying their death.”
So too then can we partake in his resurrection. This is what baptism is all about. It is not about sweet, gentle sprinkling of water. It is about death and dying. It is about death and new life. It is about renewal and rebirth.
In just a few moments, we will renew out Baptismal Covenant. And when we are done, I will sprinkle you with water. In these actions, we will be reminded of how important this Baptismal act was in our lives. Although most of us were too young to remember the actual event, our baptism was, by far, the single most important event in our spiritual lives. We, on that day, were reborn and renewed to live a life of following Christ. On that day we, like Jesus, went down into the waters and by doing so we died like him. And that, like Jesus, we arose from the waters. We arose from those waters renewed and reborn into full inheritance of God’s Kingdom. When we arose from those waters, like Jesus, the Holy Spirit descended upon us and anointed us with the holiness that would sustain us throughout our lives. And when we arose from those waters and were anointed by the Spirit, God also spoke to us and said to us (and God still says to us), “You are my Beloved. With you I am well pleased.”
Now, you can see why I love baptism so much. You can see why I believe it such an import event in our lives as Christians. Because we truly are reborn in these waters of baptism. And it is an event in which we are embraced by God in all God’s forms—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and claimed by God as God’s Beloved So, with that in mind, please stand and turn to page 292 in the Book of Common Prayer.
January 10, 2010
Luke 3.15-17, 21-22
I don’t know about you, but occasionally I am just perplexed by things that happen in Scripture. Just when you think you might have it all figured out, something comes along in the Bible that completely perplexes me and throws everything upside down. Now, I bet if I went around the church this morning, most of you can give me an example. Maybe it’s the concept of the Trinity, or something St. Paul said, or maybe it’s difficulty in trying to figure out something Jesus said in a parable, or maybe it’s just one of those violent, weird stories from the Old Testament.
For me, the Baptism of Jesus has always been a hard one to grasp. My problem is this: I have always had a pretty clear sense of what baptism is. Baptism is probably one of my single most favorite things about the Church. I love the idea of Baptism. I love doing baptisms. I love commemorating my own baptism. And certainly I believe highly in Baptism. I believe in what the Catechism, found in the Book of Common Prayer, tells us about Baptism:
“Holy Baptism is the sacrament by which God adopts us as…children and makes us members of Christ’s Body, the Church, and inheritors of the kingdom of God. “
I like that definition and I believe it completely. So, with this mind, I am still a bit perplexed. If Baptism is the sacrament in which God’s adopts and in which we are made members of the Body of Christ—the Church—why then was Jesus baptized? Isn’t he already the Son of God. Isn’t he, as the Son of God, already the natural inheritor of the Kingdom of God? So, why was he baptized?
Now, I will be honest. This is a question that has perplexed me for years. And most preachers that I’ve known have really glossed over this question. In all my years in the church, I have never heard anyone really confront this question from the pulpit. Sure, I’ve heard plenty of sermons on this First Sunday after Epiphany on the importance of the Baptismal Covenant. Trust me, I’ve preached plenty of sermons in the seven years I’ve been ordained about the Baptismal Covenant and about the importance of baptism in general on the this First Sunday of Epiphany. But I still have never heard one preacher ever wrestle with this issue of why Jesus had to be baptized.
So…why was Jesus baptized?
That’s the question Scot McKnight asks in his book, The Jesus Creed, a book from which you have heard me quote many times before (and no doubt I will quote from again). McKnight writes:
“John’s baptism is for repentance, but Jesus is sinless. So why was Jesus baptized? To begin with, we are no more baffled than John himself, for he does his prophet’s best to keep Jesus from jumping into the river… Clearly, then, if Jesus doesn’t need to repent [and John’s baptism is all about repentance], then he must be repenting for others, for us. Why would he do that? … Jesus is baptized to repent perfectly so God can send the Spirit to empower us for our vocations.”
McKnight goes on to quote C.S Lewis:
“Only a bad person need to repent: only a good person repents perfectly….The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person—and he would not need it.”
All right. So, we understand that John’s baptism is about repentance and Jesus is repenting for us by being baptized. Great. Still, that definition leaves me a bit disappointed. I think we need to look at it from a difference perspective to truly understand where we stand on this issue. Only when we start recognizing that baptism isn’t some sweet christening service do we truly understand the meaning of Jesus’ act in today’s Gospel.
Baptism is, in reality, full of heavy connotations. Namely—and this is very important—there is a powerful connection between descending into the waters of baptism and…you guessed it…death. We say in our baptismal liturgy:
“We thank you, Father, for the water of Baptism. In it we are buried with Christ in his death.”
That’s a very important aspect of understanding what Baptism is all about. Originally Baptismal fonts were not sweet little stoups like ours. Originally they were big—in fact that were purposely shaped like tombs. And the belief was that as one was immersed in the waters of baptism, one essentially died. One died to one’s old life. One died to sin. They were buried in the tomb of the baptismal font. And as one rose from the waters, one was resurrected and renewed. Later in the Baptismal rite, we hear this:
“By [the waters of baptism] we share in [Jesus’] resurrection. Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.”
This is essential in trying to figure out what happens at baptism. Again, this is no sweet little service in which babies in white garments are sprinkled with water. This is an actual re-enactment of death and resurrection. We go down in the death of the water and we rise into new life in Christ. It involves death and resurrection.
So, essentially what Jesus is doing is he’s 1) foretelling what is going to happen to him. He too will die, but will rise again to new life. and 2) he sets the standard of what it means to be a Christian.
As Christians, we too, like him must die to our old selves and be reborn into new life. And—even more strikingly—this baptismal event in Jesus’ involves deep theological understanding we not fully grasp on first glance.
Last Wednesday, on the Feast of the Epiphany, I shred at our Wednesday night Mass a few thoughts from Father John Julian of the Order of Julian of Norwich. He shared with us the belief in the Eastern Church about the Baptism of Jesus being a theophany—a revelation of God as Trinity. In today’s’ reading, we find all of God being revealed to us. We find God the Father as a voice speaking. We find God the Son, in the water. And we find God the Holy Spirit descending upon the Son as a dove. This is important. We don’t experience moments like this very often in the Bible. It seems as thought, for this one moment, it all comes together. It’s all laid out for us. In fact, the only other time we experience something even remotely like this is also an event we celebrate during the Season of Epiphany and that is the Transfiguration of Jesus on the Mountain. In a sense then, what we find happening in the baptism of Jesus is not a cleansing of Jesus, not a sense of Jesus inheriting the Kingdom.
Rather what we find in Jesus being baptized is a pathway being set for us. Jesus, by going down into the waters of the River Jordan, is prefiguring his own death. And by rising from those waters, he prefiguring his own resurrection and glorious ascension, not to mention the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It is, then, a kind of prophetic act. And it is one that he invites us to take part in as well.
The early Church Fathers thought a lot about the Baptism of Jesus. And whenever I get hung up on something perplexing, I can usually go to those early Church Fathers and Mothers and find a new perspective. And sure enough, there it is in the writings of Ignatius of Antioch. Ignatius was one of the great Fathers of the early Church. And he wrote this wonderful little gem:
So far from being cleansed in the waters at his baptism, Jesus effectively cleansed the waters for us by his baptism.
Jesus shows us the way. He makes clear to us that we too must do so we can partake fully in not only his death, but also his resurrection. Or rather we can say that Jesus, by dying, confronts head-on that unavoidable fact that we must die and by doing so we lets us know that we also can take part fully in his resurrection. As Tom Wright says,
“This is how he must do it: by humbly identifying himself with God’s people, by taking their place…living their life and ultimately dying their death.”
So too then can we partake in his resurrection. This is what baptism is all about. It is not about sweet, gentle sprinkling of water. It is about death and dying. It is about death and new life. It is about renewal and rebirth.
In just a few moments, we will renew out Baptismal Covenant. And when we are done, I will sprinkle you with water. In these actions, we will be reminded of how important this Baptismal act was in our lives. Although most of us were too young to remember the actual event, our baptism was, by far, the single most important event in our spiritual lives. We, on that day, were reborn and renewed to live a life of following Christ. On that day we, like Jesus, went down into the waters and by doing so we died like him. And that, like Jesus, we arose from the waters. We arose from those waters renewed and reborn into full inheritance of God’s Kingdom. When we arose from those waters, like Jesus, the Holy Spirit descended upon us and anointed us with the holiness that would sustain us throughout our lives. And when we arose from those waters and were anointed by the Spirit, God also spoke to us and said to us (and God still says to us), “You are my Beloved. With you I am well pleased.”
Now, you can see why I love baptism so much. You can see why I believe it such an import event in our lives as Christians. Because we truly are reborn in these waters of baptism. And it is an event in which we are embraced by God in all God’s forms—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and claimed by God as God’s Beloved So, with that in mind, please stand and turn to page 292 in the Book of Common Prayer.
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