Baptism of Christ
“Up from the Water” – Rev. Brent Gundlah
First Reading (Acts 10:34-43/NRSVUE)
Gospel Reading (Matthew 3:13-17/NRSVUE)
As I’m sure you all know, the church has many rituals — things we do, songs we sing, words we say — and each of these practices matters in its own way, but there’s a few, called sacraments, that have a certain level of importance and mystery that sets them apart. Saint Augustine once defined the sacraments as “the visible form of an invisible grace,” and that captures their essence as well as any definition could. In the UCC we have just two sacraments — communion and baptism (the Catholic Church, for those of you keeping score, has seven).
In pastor school we spent a lot of time learning about the sacraments’ theological meaning and what the Bible has to say about them, but relatively little time actually doing them. And my lack of practical experience in this regard meant that I was kinda winging it when I did my first baptism.
That being said, it went okay (more or less). I mean, the baby didn’t scream; I didn’t drop him; and I didn’t spill water everywhere. The one thing that caused me some trouble, though, was my lapel microphone, which was apparently of great interest to the aforementioned baby. I learned this right in the middle of a prayer as he reached up, grabbed the mic in his tiny hand, and wouldn’t let go.
Suddenly, the sanctuary was filled with a loud sound that I can only describe a cross between a long clap of thunder and ice cubes being crushed in a blender. I had my hands full so I couldn’t reach for the off-switch; we all just had to endure this horrible noise until the baby lost interest in the microphone, which he did after what seemed like an eternity. It wasn’t quite the heavens opening up and the Spirit descending like a dove and the voice from above that we hear about in Matthew’s account of Jesus’s baptism, but it sure got people’s attention for a minute.
A few weeks later, I received some photos of the baptism from the baby’s proud grandfather; they were filled with smiling faces of family and friends who had come from near and far to be a part of this important event (and the party that took place afterwards). You would never know from those images that the auditory mishap I just described had ever happened. Heck, I’m not sure anyone present in church that Sunday would even recall that it did. But, to this day, it’s the most vivid memory I have of that baptism. It’s really interesting how people can remember the same event so differently, and choose to focus their attention on the aspects of it that they do.
While each of the Gospel writers seeks to give an account of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection, they go about their business in unique ways. And when you think about it, this makes complete sense; at some level they are all writing about the same thing, but their audiences are different groups of people, in different places, at different times. On top of that, each of these authors has their own set of priorities — things they believe are important for their readers to know about Jesus and his ministry.
As much as these authors might want to tell you about every single second of Jesus’s life, they couldn’t possibly do that — the resulting book would be too long for anyone to write, let alone read. All biographers are faced with this same challenge — winnowing a lifetime of information down to what they see as the essentials; and so they make choices about what they’re going to say and how they’re going to say it.
Adding to this difficulty in the case of the Gospels is the fact that none of the writers was likely around to witness Jesus life. They had to rely on secondhand accounts for much of their material because none of them had firsthand knowledge of events like Jesus’s birth and baptism. Someone (or multiple someones) must have told him what happened.
So when the gospel writers set out to tell specific stories about Jesus, their versions of those stories often don’t agree on details. Today we heard Matthew’s account of Jesus’s baptism, and there are key aspects of it that diverge from those of Mark, Luke and John. And simple logic tells us that at least one of them must be incorrect.
But instead of focusing on historical and factual accuracy, let’s turn our attention to more biblical things, more essential things; let’s consider what Matthew wants us to know about Jesus’s baptism, and how it helps us understand who Jesus is and what that means for us.
As the story begins, Matthew says that “Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.” But John doesn’t think he’s up to the job; “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” is what he says in an attempt to get out of it. And Jesus is having none of it: “Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’” Fun fact: this conversation between Jesus and John is described only by Matthew — none of the other gospel writers makes any mention of it.
Jesus’s words to John here are his first in Matthew’s Gospel (and we’re almost three full chapters deep at this point). When Jesus speaks, we ought to listen; and when Jesus speaks for the very first time, we really ought to listen.
“Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness,” is what he says to John. Basically, what he means is this: “Look, I know it seems strange that you would actually baptize me. I mean you were completely correct when you said that one who is more powerful than you (namely, me) is coming after you. But we need to do this in order to fulfill all righteousness.”
“To fulfill all righteousness.” These ancient words sound odd to our modern ears, so what does Jesus mean by them?
Righteousness is really important to Matthew — he uses the word seven times in his Gospel, while none of the other gospel writers uses it at all. In the Old Testament, “righteousness” describes our proper response to God; to be righteous is to obey God and to do God’s will. And this is how Jesus uses that word here. He’s saying that it’s God’s will that he be baptized by John, despite John’s objections; and because it is God’s will, he and John must do it.
But John wasn’t the only one who had issues with this; indeed, the story of Jesus’s baptism created some dilemmas for early Christians. First, many thought it strange that Jesus was baptized by someone who was said to be his inferior. This wouldn’t be something that a person of authority — let alone the Messiah, the Son of God — would ever allow to happen. And second, if baptism is, as John says, for “repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” then why would Jesus, who is said to be without sin, actually need to be baptized? These are questions for which, I’m afraid, there are no definitive answers.
And yet, despite the fact that it is theologically inconvenient, despite the fact that Matthew, Mark and Luke disagree about so many details of Jesus’s story, there is consensus among the three of them on this: Jesus was baptized by John (the Gospel of John never actually says who baptized Jesus). But this left Matthew, Mark and Luke with some explaining to do; they needed to reconcile what happened there on the banks of the Jordan River that day with what we’ve come to understand about who Jesus is.
For Matthew, the explanation lies in Jesus’s righteousness — his willingness to obey God, no matter what. Sure, the story doesn’t make much sense when it’s judged by our rules governing the way things ought to work, but the whole point is that Jesus is playing by a different set of rules — God’s rules.
And under God’s rules, worldly concepts like status and power and authority get turned upside down; under God’s rules, you reign by serving, and you lead by following. Jesus died on a cross like a criminal — which is hardly an end fit for a king (but Jesus wasn’t your typical king). And if Jesus was willing to go that far to obey God, then being baptized by John because God said that was what needed to happen doesn’t really seem like all that big of a deal in comparison.
And this is what Matthew wants us to know about Jesus: that he was willing to do whatever God asked of him, no matter how difficult it may have been, no matter who it may have ticked-off, no matter how much it may have defied the world’s expectations.
But Matthew doesn’t stop there. While he definitely wants us to know who Jesus was and what Jesus was all about, he also wants us to understand what that means for us; he wants us to understand what Jesus’s example calls us to do. And the way Matthew chooses to tell the story of Jesus’s baptism underscores this idea.
As soon as Jesus comes up from the waters, the heavens open and the Spirit descends upon him. A voice from heaven — presumably God’s — declares, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Now, if you look at what Mark and Luke have to say about this, their versions are a bit different. In those two Gospels, the voice from heaven says, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” In other words, in Mark and Luke the voice from heaven speaks to Jesus, while in Matthew that voice speaks to the crowd. This might not seem like all that big of a deal, but it’s worth thinking about.
Jesus comes to the Jordan to be baptized by John. John objects to doing so because he believes that he is not worthy. Jesus doesn’t disagree with John’s reasoning, he simply says that such reasoning doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things; he must be baptized by John in order to “fulfill all righteousness,” in order to do God’s will. So John relents and baptizes Jesus.
At that moment God proclaims, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” It is the very first time that Jesus is referred to as God’s Son; and it’s Jesus’s display of righteousness that prompts God’s public revelation of Jesus’s divine status.
In Matthew’s version of the story, God holds up Jesus’s willingness to follow God as an example for the crowd to follow. It’s as if Jesus’s behavior here inspires God to point to him and shout out, “Did you see that folks? That’s how it’s done! That’s why I picked him for this job!”
It’s the first time in Matthew’s Gospel (but certainly not the last) that we hear about the importance of righteousness, of obeying God, of doing God’s will — even when it is challenging, even when it defies what the world demands from us.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled,” Jesus will say.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus will say.
“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus will say.
And what is righteousness? It’s the choice we make to obey God’s will.
You see, our baptism, like Christ’s, represents, among other things, our commissioning to go out into the world do what God calls us to do. Love God and love one another. Serve with joy. Give more than you receive. Even when it is not the popular thing to do, even when it is not the easy thing to do, because it is the right thing to do — because it is the righteous thing to do.
And it all starts right here, with this unlikely Messiah who honors God’s call upon his life in the waters of baptism, who does what God asks of him simply because God asks it of him.
This is what Matthew wants us to know and to remember about Jesus.
Maybe we should go and do likewise.