Matthew 3: 13-17
Then Jesus came from Galilee to
John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.
John would have prevented him,
saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
But Jesus answered him,
"Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all
righteousness." Then he consented.
And when Jesus had been
baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to
him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
And a voice from
heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well
pleased."
At this point in the gospel of Matthew, John the Baptist has
already been introduced, and we find him already at the banks of the Jordan, calling
sinners to turn, to repent, to be baptized. He is preparing the way for the
Messiah. The same story we just heard, when told in the gospel of Mark, does
not indicate that John the Baptist knew Jesus had come to the Jordan when he
baptized him; only Jesus went in to be baptized with the rest, and that the
Spirit of God descended on Jesus as he came out of the water.
But here we are given this pre-baptism dialogue between John
and his cousin Jesus. We should note that this Jesus is the one of whom John
has been saying to those coming to the water –
“I baptize you with
water for repentance, but one more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not
worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and
he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary;
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
After a description like that, we could imagine that John
may intend to fall at the feet of Jesus when he first meets him. He may also
believe that his work will be done at that point – that baptizing will take on
a whole new meaning. Perhaps he thinks he can hand over the reins, and Jesus
will take it from there. The Messiah has come, with Holy Spirit, fire, and
winnowing fork, to baptize, to clear the threshing floor, gathering wheat and
burning the chaff.
But here comes Jesus, expecting John to baptize him. And so
of course John protests – I’ve just finished telling the crowd I can’t even
carry your sandals – and you come to me for baptism of repentance? No way, Jesus…… no way.
Jesus’ response is “Let it be so now; for it is proper for
us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” A more specific translation would
be “It is required that you and I fulfill God’s will by allowing me to be
baptized.”
Many scholars have tried to address the question “ Why would
it be God’s will that the Messiah be baptized?” The text doesn’t appear to say
that Jesus needed to be cleansed from sin through baptism, since Jesus’
response implies that it’s out of the ordinary, but should still be allowed to
fulfill God’s will. Douglas Hare writes,
(read slowly….) “The most likely answer to this question stresses
Jesus’ solidarity with sinners. The one who will save his people from
their sins, by (ultimately) submitting to a baptism of annihilation (the
crucifixion), must consecrate himself here to his vocation, by joining the
sinful multitude in the waters of the Jordan. As the one destined to be
their lord and king, he accepts the sacrament of the renewal of God’s people.
In doing so, however, he takes that first step on the road to Calvary.”
Here we are at the start of Jesus’ ministry. We know that a
name for Jesus is God with us. We understand that means God was walking among
us in the person of Jesus. Here we see Jesus, from the beginning, acting in
solidarity with us, living and moving as we do, not using his authority as God,
but joining us as sinners, from our moment of baptism on.
This is the first of many times we encounter Jesus acting
from a position of humility. Let’s remember who we are talking about here. This
is GOD.
As Troy Miller describes it in one commentary, “At Jesus’
baptism there is an ironic tension, that remains constant throughout his entire
earthly ministry. Jesus’ uniqueness is known in and shouted from the heavens—a
higher authority, there is not! — but his own baptism and ministry are
characterized by a consistent and
conscious submission to those for
whom he is bringing the gospel.”
Let’s consider this counsciously submissive behavior. Jesus
could have blown right past the act of his own baptism. It could have still
been a sacrament for us, because Jesus baptized as part of his ministry. But
Jesus submits to God, not John, in an act of obedience that reflects his
humility and his solidarity with the rest of us sinners, the rest of us poor
slobs.
And this is not the only time.
Jesus the boy submits to his parents when they find him and
tell him to come home from the temple with them right now!
Jesus rejects the temptations that the devil places in front
of him in the wilderness – and they were temptations that could have showed
what Jesus was truly capable of. Make no mistake – the tempter was right when
he said, if you want to, you can turn these stones into bread, you can throw
yourself off the temple and angels will save you. But Jesus, again, performs
this act of submission, humility, and obedience to God.
At the last supper, Jesus takes the basin and the towel and,
in an extreme act of submission that shocked his disciples, he kneels and
washes their feet. And just like John, when the disciples protest, Jesus makes
it clear that this is the will of God – unless I wash your feet, you will have
no part in me, he says to Peter.
And then of course the ultimate act of submission, the
ultimate act of solidarity with us as sinners was Christ’s obedience to the
point of death on the cross, all to save us from our own sin, something we
could never do on our own.
This is the paradox that was so shocking to those who knew
Jesus. This is the scandal – that God almighty, who deserves all honor and
glory and praise, came here among us not just as a human being, but as a human
being emptied of all hubris, all pride, all competitiveness. It makes me wonder
if that is a big part of what it means to be without sin.
We can now see why Paul wrote to the Philippians these
words:
“3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in
humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own
interests, but to the interests of others.
5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6 who,
though he was in the form of God,
did
not regard equality with God
as
something to be exploited,
7 but
emptied himself,
taking
the form of a slave,
being
born in human likeness.
And being
found in human form,
8 he
humbled himself
and
became obedient to the point of death—
even
death on a cross.
9
Therefore God also highly exalted him
and
gave him the name
that
is above every name,
10 so that at
the name of Jesus
every
knee should bend,
in
heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every
tongue should confess
that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to
the glory of God the Father."
Brothers and sisters, if Jesus could do this, why can we
not? This competitive world tries to keep us in the mode of needing to prove
ourselves, to competing with one another, pushing to be the best, to show how
we are at the top of the pecking order, driving us to be one-upping each other
about, well, everything – our titles, our salaries, our children’s grades or
degrees, about achievements and successes of all kinds. The way our
denomination does things compared to that other one. The way our church does
things compared to the one down the road. The size of that congregation across the road.
What would it be like if we took on the path of submission,
not bothering to consider ourselves as better or more worthy than anyone else?
How might that change the way we see one another, across the pew, across the
campuses, across the Detroit area, across the world?
One day this past week, when I was driving on US 23, heading
to M-59, there was one pretty clear right lane and the one on the left that was
a bit more dicey. There was a steady stream of traffic in the right lane going
45-50 miles an hour, and sometimes we’d catch up to someone going a bit slower,
and we’d all slow down behind them. And of course before long you would see
someone go flying past on the left, and then when they found the inevitable
patch of ice, they would slow down, turn on their signal, and humbly seek for
space to come back into the right lane. You could almost see them realizing
that was fast enough, and they’d better get back in line.
Jesus shows us that it’s ok to be humble – in fact, it’s
best. To be obedient enough to fulfill God’s will, we will need to get back in
line, to do the things that speak for humility,
and to not worry about where we land, because God will take care of that
for us.
If you think about it, where else but the church are you
able to give up that competitive drive, and just rest in the loving care of
God? Where else but the church are you encouraged to be your humble self, and
that you are loved just the way you are? If we cannot let down our defenses
here in the church, the body of Jesus Christ, and let our broken selves
minister to the other broken selves that find their way here, where else will
this ever happen?
As we consider the meaning of Jesus’ baptism today, and as
we pause to remember our own baptisms, let us remember that by going down into
the water of baptism and reemerging, we participate in Jesus’ death and
resurrection. In Baptism, we die to what separates us from God and are raised
to newness of life in Christ.
By our submersion in the waters of baptism, we follow Jesus
into submission and obedience to the will of God, emptying ourselves of the
hubris that the world encourages, and taking on the humility of the Messiah
himself.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost. Amen.
