Sermon 1/9/05
Beginnings - Matthew 3:13-17
(view lectionary notes for this text)
This Sunday, we celebrate the Jesus’ Baptism. While today we often celebrate the baptism of a child soon after she or he is born, in Jesus’ day, infant baptism did not begin as a practice until Paul’s time, a few decades after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. Even so, we find ourselves reading of Jesus’ baptism just after we have celebrated his birth. Only, in this case, some thirty years have passed. We’re not sure exactly what Jesus has been up to in the past 30 years, give or take a passage here and there. But we know that Matthew, Mark, and Luke count this event – Christ’s baptism - significant enough to record. And so we take notice – this is an important day in Jesus’ ministry. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic gospels – meaning literally “with one eye” because of the similar way they record Jesus’ life and the similar sources they share. Indeed, the three share a similar account of the baptism of Jesus – which I found most notable for its brevity. Just three or four verses for the whole event. If today we view this as the commencement of Jesus’ ministry, why is not more written about it?
But we have to work with what we have – and what we have is five verses on Jesus’ baptism by John. I started out my preparation this week by hoping, imagining, that surely the other gospels had a more detailed account that I could compare to. Didn’t Luke give more details? Wasn’t Mark’s account of this baptism more specific? But I was surprised and a bit disappointed as I read through the texts to realize that Matthew’s five verses actually give us the longest, most detailed account of Jesus’ baptism. Matthew records a conversation taking place at Jesus’ baptism between John and Jesus that the other synoptics do not. We read, then, that “John would have prevented” Jesus from coming to be baptized by him. But Jesus counters, saying, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Convinced, we read, John consents and baptizes Jesus. That short scene is the extra gem that Matthew includes in his account of the baptism. After this, the heavens are opened, and Jesus sees the Spirit of God descending on him in the form of a dove, which comes to rest on him. And a voice says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
I wonder, along with John – why does Jesus need to be baptized. Today we celebrate baptism as an outward symbol of God’s grace that is already at work in our lives, from the time we are born, before we even know what to call it. And indeed, Jesus being baptized today could accurately reflect such a meaning. But when John the Baptist was baptizing, before Jesus began his ministry, the meaning baptism held was somewhat different, as John himself indicated. When the crowds were coming to John, he told them, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but one is coming after me who will baptize you with fire and Holy Spirit.” John’s baptism has a different meaning – it is a preparation, a symbol of repentance, something John calls the people to do because he knows the kingdom of heaven – God’s reign on earth, has drawn near. The word for repentance in Greek is metanoia, and it is my favorite Greek word, as you may remember me saying before. It means literally, “a change of mind”, a complete change of direction. John seeks people to come to him who need a complete change of direction, a total change of their mind.
Is this something that Jesus needs? Does Jesus need repentance? We immediately want to respond, “of course not!” because we understand today that repentance has the sense of asking for forgiveness. And we don’t believe that Jesus needs forgiveness – it is we who need forgiveness. But Jesus doesn’t need to repent, does he? I think, though, if we turn back to this other meaning of repentance, this idea of a “change of mind,” perhaps we can better understand why Jesus comes to be baptized by John. Jesus is about to embark on something new – we’re not sure how he has been preparing for this day, what he’s been doing before this. But we can gather that he drew little attention, at least, before this moment. So for Jesus, this was indeed a change of direction. It was a beginning for him, a beginning of his public ministry, a beginning of the attention, good and bad, that would be lavished on him by friends and enemies. A beginning of a time he probably knew or at least felt already would end in suffering and pain, betrayal and denial. But a beginning of a time of hope and promise – his chance to reach out to people who felt rejected by God or who were rejecting God. A beginning. A change of direction.
But this event is even more for Jesus, I think. Jesus says to John, “it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” You’ll notice if you study the gospels carefully that Matthew is the one most often to talk about Jesus being the fulfillment of something. Matthew quotes the Old Testament scriptures left and right, showing how Jesus fulfills the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others. He wants to make sure that his readers know who Jesus is, know that he is the one they’ve been waiting for. But what of this saying – “to fulfill all righteousness.” What does Jesus mean by that? Righteousness is another word, like repentance, that is filled with meanings. We hear the word righteousness, and we think of someone who is good and right. Or we think of someone who is pious and devout to the point of wanting to call them “self-righteous.” After all, religious leaders like the Sadducees and the Pharisees were very concerned with righteousness, particularly their own righteousness and how that measured up against others. What of Jesus? What is his righteousness?
Jeff Krantz and Michael Hardin of Preaching Peace write that, “Righteousness in Matthew has fundamentally to do with obedience to the will of God, the doing of what is right before God. ‘To fulfill all righteousness’ is Matthew’s way of saying that what Jesus is doing here in submitting to the waters is that which is right before God.” For Jesus, coming to be baptized by John says loudly and clearly, “Here I am God – let it be with me as you would have it. I am your servant, your child.” Jenee Woodard of The Text This Week writes, “JESUS is the one to watch to see how God works on earth. Not the political authorities, not the religious authorities, not the "experts", not the Pharisees, not even John the Baptist. JESUS. The prologue fades and the story begins. What do we see that's new, even today, in the way that Jesus "fulfills righteousness" completely differently than anyone else?” (2)
Today we have an opportunity to renew our own baptismal vows. We have an opportunity to make a beginning – to be obedient to God’s desire for our lives, to make a change of direction and turn ourselves toward God and God’s purpose. We are God’s children, beloved. Let us seek to be like Jesus, to do and live and act and love in the ways that we know are pleasing to God, to receive the grace that God shows us in baptism, and to be gospel-messengers of this grace to others. For Jesus, this baptism was the first step on a path that ended in the giving up of his own life. We aren’t promised an easier path. But we are always promised God’s love. Let’s begin. Amen.
(1) Jeff Krantz and Michael Hardin, Preaching Peace,
http://www.preachingpeace.org/epiphany1.htm
(2) Jenee Woodard, The Text This Week,
http://textweek.blogs.com/textweek/2005/01/matthew_31317_e.html