The First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year A, 2011

Matthew 3:13 - 17

The Rev. Ronald N. Johnson

During the Season after the Epiphany, the Church seeks to bring us a greater understanding of Jesus Christ.  To know Christ is to make him known and we cannot know him unless we allow him, through the work of the Holy Spirit, to dwell in us, leading us in discipleship. Discipleship begins with baptism.  In baptism, we die to self and are born again into the life of Christian believing. Sins, whatever they are, are washed away.  We are raised up into the life of the Resurrection and become a new being, a new person and a member of Christ’s One, Holy and Apostolic Church.  In the words of many Evangelical Christians, we are “born again.”

On this First Sunday after the Epiphany, the Church, in the Gospel reading, tells us about the baptism of Jesus.  Jesus came from the region of Galilee to the Jordan River, where John the Baptist was proclaiming the need for humanity to renounce sin, to turn from foolish ways and to walk a morally straight path in the presence of Almighty God.  The message of John is an ageless message.  The flip side of the good news of free will is that in choosing right from wrong we have the option of choosing wrongly.  The state of humanity, left to its own devices, is very often sin.  I have never really understood why it is that so often any of us, equipped with the sure and certain knowledge that to give in to temptation will produce consequences that we do not want, will nonetheless do those things which we ought not to do.  At least I am in good company in wondering this and having no good answer.  Even Saint Paul acknowledged that knowledge of God’s law seemed only to lead him into ever bigger and better violations of the law, and that his only hope was through redemption in Jesus Christ.  John the Baptist said that humanity must turn from this way of sin and death, or face the consequences.  Repent, John said, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

Why, then, was Jesus baptized?  If we are confused, so was John the Baptist.  He even argued with Jesus, that if any one needed baptism, it was John himself and Jesus ought to be baptizing John.  All we can say is that scripture tells us that Jesus asked to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness.  Jesus believed that his baptism was God’s will. God the Father responded in the presence of all that were witnesses to our Lord’s act of obedience. God said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

The baptism was a key moment in the life of Jesus and it is a key point in our understanding of the Lord.  This is the moment of the beginning of our Lord’s three years of earthly ministry.  This action marks the beginning of his preaching, his healing, his teaching and it sets him on the road to Calvary and the empty tomb.  Baptism symbolizes, in the life of Jesus, unwavering commitment to do the work do the work of his Father in this world and to ultimately die for us that we might live as children of Almighty God.  This baptism is our Lord’s personal acceptance, as the man Jesus, of what God the Father has given him to do.  It is a resounding affirmation of obedience.  And so, to John’s question, Jesus said, “Let it be this way now, John.  This fulfills all righteousness.”

Our baptism is not like Jesus’ in that we are clearly sinners in the need of the Savior’s redeeming Grace.  Baptism starts us in this life of grace.  However, our baptism is like the Lord’s in that it is our beginning of discipled service. Baptism launches us on the road of discipleship, the road that leads to serving the master and ultimately to eternal life in Jesus Christ.  It is the right beginning.  Amen.