Last spring I had the opportunity to stand beside the Jordan
River and talk about Jesus’ baptism to the Christians and Jews from Birmingham
with whom I went to Israel. I had been
to the Jordan before, but I’d never had the opportunity to stand there, to touch
the water, to read aloud the story of Jesus’ baptism, and to reflect on its
meaning.
The baptism of Jesus is a story that we tend to skip over
lightly, but for the early church the baptism of Jesus summed up the whole
mystery of salvation.
First, the baptism of Jesus helps us understand the
forgiveness of sins.
The baptism of Jesus is a difficult story. If John the
baptizer is proclaiming a “baptism for the forgiveness of sins,” then why is
Jesus being baptized? Surely, he was sinless, so Jesus could not have been
going to the Jordan to receive forgiveness. So the fathers and mothers of the
early church reasoned that Jesus was baptized not in order that HE might be
forgiven, but so that WE might be forgiven. One early Christian writer said
that Christ imparted his sinlessness to the water so that we might receive it
when we are baptized.
Second, Jesus’ baptism begins to heal the damage done by
sin.
In Romans 8, Paul tells us that “For the creation waits with
eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the
creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the
one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set
free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children
of God.”
Genesis 1 tells us that the Spirit hovered over chaos and
was the agent by which God imparted order, so the Spirit descends on Jesus in
his baptism and once again brings order out of disorder. Through the Spirit,
God turns chaos into creation.
Third, the baptism of Jesus is a decisive event in God’s war
against evil.
Have you ever noticed that at the beginning of the baptismal
service, we ask the person being baptized or the parents and godparents of the
child being baptized to renounce evil three times. What’s that about?
The ancient world and the ancient church had a much more
vivid sense of evil than we do. They saw the presence of demons and evil
spirits everywhere. And evil spirits were especially associated with water.
When Jesus exorcises the Gadarene demoniac, he sends the evil spirits into the
sea of Galilee because water is their natural dwelling place.
The writers of the OT had a love/hate relationship with
water. On the one hand, it is necessary for life, but on the other hand, water
is destructive. You can sail your boat on it, but you can also drown in it.
Water cannot be contained forever. Unlike stone and metal, you cannot impart a
form to it.
So in baptism, Jesus was declaring his power over darkness
and evil. He went down into the water just as on the cross he went down into
death. And in both cases, he met and defeated evil.
Finally, Jesus’ baptism is the moment when his identity is
established and revealed to the world.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke agree that when Jesus was baptized,
a heavenly voice said, “This is my Son, my beloved…”
Only Luke tells us that the angels revealed Jesus’ identity
to the shepherds. Only Matthew says that the magi knew who Jesus was. But they
all agree that the baptism of Jesus is the declaration to the whole world of
Jesus’ identity.
But what does this have to do with us?
We are sinful people who live in a sinful world. Let’s
change the word “sin” to “broken.” We are broken people and we long for
wholeness. The baptism of Jesus tells us that we can find wholeness, that Jesus
imparted a power to the water of baptism to heal us and make us whole. The gift
is there for the taking.
The baptism of Jesus tells us that the gift of wholeness is
not just for us; it is for the whole of creation. Now, that’s good news. We
live in a time when the created order is staggering under the weight of the
damage we have inflicted. The baptism of Jesus reminds us that God loves the
WORLD, the cosmos, the created order, not just puny little human beings, and that
God will be our partner in healing and restoring the created world.
And above all, Jesus’ baptism tells us who we are.
‘
We live in a world that tries to define us. Every TV
commercial, every newspaper or magazine ad, every “pop up” on the internet tells
us that if we eat this, wear that, or buy the other thing we will be happy,
young, good looking, and sexy. In other words, they tell us that we are
deficient, that we lack some essential ingredient of happiness, fulfillment,
and satisfaction. We live in a world that defines us as a cog in an economic
machine.
But Jesus’ baptism reminds us that we are God’s beloved
children, that we are God’s daughters and sons. Jesus’ baptism reminds us of
God’s original blessing on the world: “And God saw all that had been made and
behold it was very good indeed.” Did you hear that? God declared creation to be
good, not perfect. And that’s what we are: God’s beloved daughters and son…
good but not perfect.
