The Baptism of Jesus

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
January 12, 2014

Baptism of Jesus

After all the rain this past December, the Ohio River flowed rapidly. The water was turbulent picking up all kinds of debris off the shore on the way toward Cincinnati. Uprooted trees could be seen floating down the river, along with huge mats of debris and trash, single limbs, and other unidentifiable objects. The river ran so rapidly that white caps formed and broke as the river moved. The river, which normally flows smoothly and peacefully, seemed angry-even tormented-cold, and dangerous.

When I think about the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, I think of a much more tranquil scene. The water is clear and smooth, just the right temperature, with no signs of debris floating around. Each year, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Baptism of Jesus on the Sunday after Epiphany, and we often have baptisms on this Sunday as we do today. The water this morning for Wyatt and Sophia will be bright and clear, the right temperature, and I can assure you there will be no debris. On the Sunday that we celebrate the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan, our appropriate response is to renew our own baptismal vows as we bring others to the waters of baptism.

When Jesus went to the Jordan to be baptized by John however, John was baptizing to give people the opportunity to repent of their sins. We understand that we are baptized to be cleansed from sin and born again. Bu Jesus, we are taught, was sinless. So, why would Jesus need to be baptized?

John the Baptist has the same question. When Jesus presents himself to John for baptism, John says "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus’ response is "Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Jesus’ baptism is a matter of fulfilling all righteousness. On the one hand, in the Hebrew scriptures, righteousness is a characteristic of God and the word is used to describe God’s faithfulness to the covenant with God’s people. On the other hand, with regards to humans, in the Hebrew scriptures, to be righteous is to do as God commands, which is to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God. By offering himself for baptism, Jesus is committing himself to the life God calls him to lead, whatever that may entail. I imagine Jesus’ motive here is not a lot different that all the other folks in line, who are baptized because they want to live a more righteous life.

So, Jesus goes down into the waters of baptism and comes back up, just like the thousands of other people before him. But when he comes out of the water, the heavens are opened, the Spirit of God descends on him like a dove, and a voice from heaven says "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." Jesus may have gone into the water like everyone else, but only for Jesus do the heavens open and does the voice of God claim him as God’s own.

After a baptism so glorious, a grand celebration would be in order. Jesus has just been claimed as God’s own, God’s beloved. Surely food and drink, dancing and merriment should follow. But immediately after Jesus is baptized, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Any thought that being God’s beloved means the conferral of special protection and privilege comes to a grinding halt. Jesus will spend the next 40 days and 40 nights without food or shelter and alone with the devil. And only after those 40 days does Jesus begin his public ministry, announcing that the Kingdom of Heaven has come near, and going about teaching in the synagogues, and curing every disease and sickness among the people.

In the Church, we baptize with water, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Water both makes us clean and quenches our thirst. The waters of baptism do the same. In those waters, we are cleansed from sin, because we are human and we are not Jesus, and we are nourished and strengthened for the work that lies ahead, as Jesus was. We are also anointed with oil in the form of a cross, which seals us with the Holy Spirit and marks us as Christ’s own forever. In this anointing, we hear the voice of God say through the Church "You are my beloved child. With you I am well pleased." That anointing is God’s name being written on us as God claims us as his own forever.

Back to those choppy waters on the Ohio River. While the Holy Spirit does not drive most of us out into the wilderness to fast for 40 days and be tempted by Satan after our baptism, we are sent out into the world to do the work God gives us to do. Most of us will find that the clean smooth waters of baptism do not guarantee us that life will always be filled with clean, smooth waters. The guarantee of baptism is not health, or happiness, or popularity, or success. Baptism did not guarantee Jesus those things and baptism certainly does not guarantee us those things. What baptism does guarantee is that when life looks and feels less like the calm, clean water of baptism and more like the choppy, cold waters of the Ohio River, dangerous and full of debris, we have been claimed by God as God’s own and God will never abandon is to those waters. The guarantee of baptism for Jesus and the guarantee of baptism for us is that we have been claimed by God as God’s very own and God will never let go.

Amen.