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The Baptism of Our Lord, January 7, 2007 |
Luke 3:15 As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John 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. 17 His 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." ... 21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and 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."
Setting the Scene Today the writer of Luke’s Gospel might well be a screen writer, or director. He has the right eye, the right feel for how to convey a lot in a little. I can only dream of having his economy of words. In one short scene he is telling us a lot about Jesus, where he comes from, who he is, where he is going, what he is up to. Imagine the following, as if you were seeing it on screen. John, hearing the voices in the crowd calling for him to become Messiah, speaks words of warning and expectation, quickly, almost as a flash back to the prophets of old, announcing the coming Messiah. Cut to a scene of John’s violent arrest by Herod’s henchmen. (Our missing verses actually have John arrested before Jesus’ baptism!) All of this takes less than 60 seconds! Just as quickly, now, the screen shows Jesus stepping into the water for his own baptism. The director would have chosen mystic, ancient chanting for a musical backdrop. While the waters wash over Jesus, you see flash backs of the waters of the sea, through which the people of Israel must go. You see images of the people of Israel, encamped in the wilderness and tested with heat and exhaustion, hunger and thirst, you see the fire upon the mount of God. All of these images flash around Jesus in the Jordan. Then Jesus comes out of the water and prays, arms outstretched. The cry of a dove is heard and the dove appears, as if from nowhere! A voice from heaven speaks, and the images of a coronation scene from Israel’s past appears, as the words, “You are my Son” are spoken. But the crown on the head of the king slowly morphs into a band of thorny vines woven together, the royal robes disappear, and the beloved servant hangs on the cross in a moment of foreshadowing. In a short period of time, the movie director can say much with rapid flashes of images. I think Luke’s Gospel intends us to see all of these things with our minds eye, as Jesus is baptized. That is the wonder of his writing. He knows the history and traditions of Israel intimately. He knows how to pack that knowledge into so few words by choosing words, scenes, quotes, carefully. He wants his readers to know that with Jesus, there is always more than meets the eye.
More than a Baptism Of course, unless we also are steeped in the history of Israel, unless we also know the ministry of Jesus from within Israel’s story, much of what Luke has to say is lost to us. We might miss the significance of the ministry of John in the Wilderness. We might lose sight of the fact that Luke is telling Israel’s story when he is telling Jesus’ story. We might not see that John is doing for Jesus what Samuel did for David, or what 1 Kings 19 tells us the Prophet Elijah did for the rulers of many nations. We might miss the quotation of the ceremonial Coronation Psalm, or the quote from Isaiah 42, one of the servant songs. But even without that knowledge, what we know about John’s baptizing and what we know about Jesus and his ministry will send us looking for answers. John’s baptism of repentance and forgiveness are not for Jesus, unless Jesus is standing in for the whole nation. Jesus is not looking for a ritual of personal piety, he is standing in for a people who have failed to be God’s people, looking for the restoration of a nation’s vocation as well as their relationship with God. Jesus baptism is so unlike what we imagine baptism ought to be that we sometimes gloss over it without asking the difficult questions about what Jesus is doing there, and the difficult follow up questions about what our baptisms might mean as well. Our baptisms have become so common place that we no longer even realize what we are doing, what we are committing ourselves and our children to when we bring them to God’s waters of life. We think we are naming them, or placing a mark or sign on them to protect them in case of accidental death. We think of it as “heaven insurance” as though we had a God who would bar admission to the life to come if a child did not come with the correct stamp of approval. Jesus baptism does none of that. It does seal a relationship. It binds Jesus in the covenant that God made with the people of Israel of old, when God brought them through the waters of the sea and gathered them to be his people. This event ended their struggle for freedom, but plunged them into an even more intense struggle: to be life, and not only for themselves, but for all nations and peoples. It was for this serving purpose that God brought them out of Egypt. It was for this purpose that God gathered them in the wilderness around Sinai. They were called to join God in a struggle to reclaim the world from the brokenness of human sin, and so that the healing might happen through this very human, very flawed people of God. Now in Jesus, God has bound himself to the world in a new way, but also an old way. Jesus still represents the servant people of God, but now as God present with them, to keep the covenant of old that they broke. The waters are crossed again, but this time the people of God, through Jesus, will not fail. They will serve, suffer and die for God’s struggle. It is into this struggle that Jesus goes, willingly in his baptism. Then we find the startling truth that it is to this struggle that the anointed one of God is called. The Messiah, the one who is anointed king, is called to lead the whole nation in this struggle. He who is first of all becomes the servant of all. All of this to overcome the sin, the brokenness of the world, which Jesus takes upon himself on the cross. And through his action with us and for us, our healing begins. More than beginning, our healing is accomplished, though not yet complete. Baptized Into This Struggle When we understand these things about Jesus’ baptism, then we must come to grips with some awful (and wonderful) truths about our own baptism as well. As we journey through these waters, we too are joined and committed to this struggle. Far from insulating or isolating ourselves from pain and death through baptism we are washed to enter into its struggle for a lifetime. Parents should be warned not to rush to the font with their children too quickly! For they are committed to teaching their children this way of serving, of giving our lives for the sake of others. If taken seriously, this will put us at odds with a world that teaches us to serve ourselves, at the expense of others. It is the faith in God’s way of being, of Jesus way of being that understands that the world’s healing is accomplished, though not yet fully realized by Jesus, that commits us to living in this tension. Our baptism is likely less about our own personal journey’s, our own personal forgiveness (though we certainly are forgiven) and more about God’s healing of the world’s brokenness. When we touch the waters, we join Jesus in the healing, as we join the thousands who have died hoping in that healing before us and the thousands who will come after us. We join in Israel’s old vocation, to be a light to all nations, drawing them to the God of healing, the God of life giving love. We must beware, lest we take this too lightly. Following God’s call this way is dangerous. It is sometimes deadly. In a world where the thirst for power and money creates people who will throw a life away for their own ends, our lives will get caught in the crossfire. But God does not abandon his people to the four winds. We are known and loved and cherished, just as the people of Israel were cherished, though scattered, when Isaiah wrote the beautiful words in Chapter 43:1-7. And though God has chosen to heal this broken world from within, a slow process that will take many generations, this healing vision is already our reality when we are caught up in his love in our baptismal covenant. Jesus is the first, but not the last of a great family. In him, John’s baptism is completed and transformed. All of us, now, have a stake in the future for the sake of each and every one who joins us in the waters. The movie makers might have a “special effect” to signify that this is true. Perhaps when a new Christian enters the waters, a cosmic wave would wash over each of us. But we need no such effects. We have God’s Holy Spirit, who binds us together in faith. We gather around the font as we begin worship each Sunday to celebrate the broken chains of sin and God’s new life. We gather around it today to recommit ourselves to the struggle of our baptism and renew the covenant. We end worship, again facing the font, as we are sent into the world to engage in God’s healing struggle for another week. This day, in my congregation we will say “farewell and godspeed” to some of God’s beloved as they move from this place to take up their baptismal struggles in a new place. But we know that Jesus is there, wherever we go. He is ahead of us, in the struggle as always, but the risen one is also there to announce that the battle’s end is sure, even as we engage in the struggle. Our final baptismal calling, our final dying to ourselves and rising to Christ, is waiting for us, where the struggle is no more and the healing is complete. It is in that hope that we take up our calling every day, and commit ourselves to the God who calls us also beloved children, in whom he is well pleased. Rev. Dr. Luke Bouman
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