The First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year B, 2012

The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ

Mark 1: 4-11

The Rev. Ronald N. Johnson

A prophet is the spokesman of God.  There have been numerous prophets over the years, some with a valid claim to be speaking for God, most without such a valid claim.  There was once a prophet named Isaiah, equally revered by Jew and Christian alike.  In Isaiah’s prophecies Christians find a foretelling of Jesus.  In the forty-second chapter of Isaiah, we read these words: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”  Christians understand this as a reference to Jesus, and the prophecy seems particularly relevant to our Lord’s baptism.

I suspect this comment from Isaiah was much on the mind of another prophet of God, John the Baptist, as Jesus approached him for baptism.  Mark quoted John as saying, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”  Matthew’s account of the baptism, which is somewhat more expansive than Mark’s, tells us of an interesting disagreement between the Baptizer and our Savior.  John recognized Jesus as the Messiah and he did not feel worthy to baptize Jesus.  We can understand John’s confusion, because we know that we ourselves have the always-unanswered question of why Jesus would seek baptism, since John proclaimed his baptism as a symbol of repentance from sin.  The only answer we’ve ever had, or ever will have to this, comes also from Matthew’s Gospel; “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”  There is nothing else to say about this. In any case, for Jesus, baptism was a beginning, an acceptance of the mission that God had given him, and the Lord would be true to that mission throughout his life, to include his acceptance of death.  In baptism, Jesus accepted the mantle of messianic authority and responsibility, because he understood it as the will of God.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell us something else that I, at least, find interesting.  At the moment of his baptism, as he came up from immersion in the Jordan River, there was a theophany, an appearance of God to man, a manifestation of God in a way that you just cannot miss.  Theophanies are rare, but they happen.  They even happen to people like you and me, from time to time.  When they do, you know it; you know beyond any doubt that God has spoken to you.  God knows how to get your attention when he wants to. 

This theophany was especially powerful; it was visible, audible, and very, very present and focused.  There was just no mistaking it.  Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, to quote Mark, “he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’”

We ought to tie this experience back to Isaiah, for Jesus certainly would have.  “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”

Baptism, for Jesus, symbolized commitment to doing the Father’s work.  The Lord’s work was redemptive work, totally, completely sacrificial in redeeming humanity from sin and death.  It was also evangelical work, the work of knowing the Father and making him known.  Our baptisms are more like Jesus’ than we might think. 

Yes, our baptisms differ in that there is that very necessary element of “washing clean,” of removing sin.  In that sense, our baptisms can be tied to those of John the Baptist.  But, equally, our baptisms are very much rites of initiation and commitment.  Our status changes in baptism.  Before baptism, we were outside the body of Christ, the Church.  With baptism, we are now insiders, members with all the responsibility of being a member of the Church of Christ, a disciple of the Lord, an instrument of God’s work in this world.  We are called in baptism to a new life of being a servant of God, doing the divine business of knowing Christ and making Christ known.  This is our vocation, our commission.  In baptism we are expected to die to self so that we can live our lives as disciples of Jesus of the Lord.

This best disciple is an imitator of the Master.  Baptism intends to make us icons, images of Jesus, so that we reflect Christ to others in this world.  Some of us are better icons than others, but none of us are anywhere near perfect.  We don’t have to be, and if we let the Holy Spirit coach us, we surely will be good enough.  That really is all that our Savior asks.  Amen.