Isaiah 43.1-7, Luke 3.15-22 [1]
Baptism of Christ, 13 January 2019, Austwick, Clapham, Keasden
If Jesus hadn’t been baptised, would it have made any difference? If baptism is a ritual of repentence to receive the forgiveness of sins, why would the Sinless One need to go through it? If baptism is an initiation into the ways of God, surely Jesus, God’s own Son, needed no introduction?
Did it cleanse him, did it affirm him in his faith, did it do any of those things which baptism does to the rest of us mortals? If Jesus hadn’t been baptised, would it have made any difference?
He must have assumed that it would. He says as much in Matthew’s gospel, where John the Baptist says, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.’ [2] It will make a difference; and it is the right thing for us to do.
The account of the baptism itself is the same in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels: when Jesus came up out of the water, heaven opened, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove, and a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’.
The baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan is one of history’s great Trinitarian moments - when God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit were joined, embodied, visible, audible, there in the clouds and the air and the water for all to see and hear. The Godhead, together in a complete unity of love and fulness. A rare moment which revealed that the fully human Jesus was also fully divine; if the human Jesus had any doubts about the Father’s love for him the words from heaven would dispel them; if the human Jesus felt constricted in his mortal frame here was the Holy Spirit resting on him, empowering him from on high.
When Jesus was baptised, it made a real difference; not just to him, but to us. For in those moments the nature and meaning of baptism itself altered forever. For the baptism of Jesus transcended the baptism of John. John’s baptism was conducted in a fear of fiery judgement.
John’s baptism was a means of appeasing the Judge who comes carrying tools of destruction, and wielding lethal fire. Those who came to John for baptism were motivated by the fear of death. The relationships generated by their baptism were relationships of mutual suspicion, even enmity - such as the enmity generated between John and Herod. Because of John’s judgement on Herod for his affair with his brother’s wife, the king had John imprisoned, and later beheaded.
But when Jesus was baptised, baptism itself altered. For at Jesus’s baptism the only fire that was wielded was the gentle heat of God’s Holy Spirit. At Jesus’s baptism the only judgement on him was the judgement of a loving father expressing his love and his pleasure over his son. The relationships generated at the baptism of Jesus are relationships of unconditional mutual love, the love of the Godhead, together in a complete unity.
This baptism is the one in which we share. If we mortals have any doubts about the Father’s love for us then we should be encouraged that the words he spoke from heaven express His love for us too; if we mortals feel constricted in our mortal frame we should be encouraged that just as the Holy Spirit rested on Jesus at his baptism, so He rests on us too, empowering us from on high.
So, if you hadn’t (or haven’t yet) been baptised, would it have made any difference? To the person you are, to the way you live? You may want to think about that awhile.
I suggest that your baptism makes a great difference to the person you are. It identifies you as a Christian, as one forgiven, for sure, and embraced into a loving relationship with God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Spend some time this week thinking on that. Of all the relationships which define you, this is the one at the very core of your being.
And I suggest that your baptism makes a great difference to the way that you live. For you are in relationship with the God revealed in scripture, and so his ways will influence your ways, as the Holy Spirit helps you bring those scriptures to bear on the way you live.
Our baptism energises us to follow the example of those who have gone before us who spent time regularly reading and digesting the stories of Jesus, and who worked hard to apply what they learned from him to their lives, with the Spirit’s help. We all know people whose life is or was a great example of this - a faith practiced with great devotion.
Those responsible for selecting the bible readings for us each week, today left out the verses about John’s imprisonment. But I re-inserted them because I feel that it is essential to the powerful truth of Jesus’ baptism, that Herod’s destructive relationship with John features in the story. The baptism of Jesus faces the world head-on. Our faith does not avoid the realities of history but rather affirms God’s invasion of history. For human history is a place where tyrants imprison prophets, where powerful ones silence their opponents. And it is equally a place where God intervenes in love, and the power of the Holy Spirit enables prophets to continue speaking, and ordinary people to keep opposing the powers of greed and destruction, in their lives and by their words.
This reminds us that our baptism is not just for personal piety, but for the transformation of the world. Our study of scripture and its application, our prayer life, and everything else generated by our relationship with God, is part of the kingdom which is gently breaking into this world.
This is deeply understood by those Christians in other countries who are today being persecuted and killed for their faith in Christ. It is keenly followed by Christians close to home, motivated by their faith to make a difference: in running foodbanks and credit unions, in campaigning for a living wage, in opening their doors to the homeless, in keeping an eye on their lonely neighbours, or giving their days over to caring for others, and so on.
Each of these our brothers and sisters in Christ have embraced the truth of their baptism; that it puts them on a road where struggle and salvation travel together, a road which in their different ways John and Jesus travelled. It’s a journey which leads to joy. It’s a road we travel together. [4]
Notes
Previously preached as The baptism of Jesus and the baptism of John in Devon, 2013 and Somerset, 2016. Slightly altered.
[1] The Lectionary reading for the day omits verses 18-20 (the passage about Herod imprisoning John). I always like to consider those sections of scripture the Lectionary compilers shy away from.
Luke 3.15-22
15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17His winnowing-fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’
18 So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people. 19But Herod the ruler, who had been rebuked by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the evil things that Herod had done, 20added to them all by shutting up John in prison.
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’
[2] Matthew 3.14-15
[3] The ‘Judgement’ section draws on an earlier sermon, The judgement of Jesus and the judgement of John.
[4] The conclusion of this sermon is in parallel with my Epiphany sermon They left by another road when, drawing on Robert Hamerton-Kelly’s sermon, All the world, I said that ‘it is essential to the powerful truth of Epiphany, that Herod’s transformation features in the story’.
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