Jesus’ Baptism and Our Own
First Sunday after Epiphany, Year A
Art: “John Baptizes Jesus” By Jesus Mafa
Isaiah 42:1-9 | Acts 10:34-43 | Matthew 3:13-17
This first Sunday after Epiphany is the time set aside to celebrate Jesus’ baptism. It is one of the traditional times for baptisms, and both of our sons were baptized at this feast. This feast holds a special place for me and my wife. Because it so often reminds me of our sons’ baptisms, I tend not to reflect much on Jesus’ baptism and the ways in which it is and is not like our baptism.
The most theologically dense account of our baptism in the NT comes from Romans 6. There Paul uses a variety of metaphors to account for what happens in baptism. Paul begins from the premise that all of us are slaves. From Paul’s perspective, the important question is not whether one is a slave or a freed person, but who is our master. Outside of Christ, we are under the control of Sin, the adversarial force that rules this present age. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus establishes (or restores) an alternative political space, a different dominion. Baptism marks, enables, performs (choose your verb) our transfer from being slaves to Sin to being slaves of God in Christ.
Since Christ’s realm is established through his death and resurrection, it is not surprising that Paul speaks of our baptism as a type of death and resurrection. Entering the waters of baptism, we die to Sin. Coming out of the water, we are raised to new life with Christ. Baptism transfers us from the oppressive death dealing realm of Sin, into that realm ruled by Christ.
Paul furthers this set of images, in Colossians 2:11-12 where he again speaks of baptism as a death and resurrection. This time, he also likens baptism to circumcision, an initiation by which people (at least males) enter into and are joined to the covenant people of God. As in Romans 6, baptism transfers one from being a member of one people into membership in a different people.
Our Book of Common Prayer uses all this imagery in the baptism service, and it is consoling to recall that although it was parents and godparents who presented our sons for baptism, it is God who does the real work of their dying and rising to new life.
The point of presenting this barebones theology of baptism is to note how the baptism of Jesus, which we celebrate this Sunday, is and is not like our baptism.
First, it is important to establish what is not happening at Jesus’ baptism. Our readings, particularly the readings from Acts and Matthew, could leave you with the impression that at his baptism, Jesus receives a really big promotion, becoming God’s beloved Son, a status he did not have prior to his baptism. As easy as it might be to slip into that view, we should resist it. If Jesus were a mere creature whom God promoted (for reasons entirely unclear by the time of his baptism) into being God’s Son, we are left pondering how that character can offer us salvation unless we, too, can figure out how to get a similar promotion.
Instead, Jesus’ baptism serves as an announcement of what was always the case. From Matt 1:23, when he is identified as Emmanuel – God with us, continuing through his baptism, transfiguration, and ultimately, his resurrection, we are offered signs and affirmations that Jesus is, indeed, God with us. The voice from heaven and dove descending are for our benefit, not for Jesus’ benefit.
Secondly, John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. Crowds of people went out to be baptized by John, “confessing their sins” (Matt 3:6). Jesus comes to John, not to repent of sins, but to “fulfill all righteousness.” At one level, by baptizing Jesus, John has fulfilled his commission to prepare the way of the Lord, to identify and announce the presence of “the one who comes after me” (cf. Matt 21:32). Baptizing Jesus, is the climax and fulfillment of John’s vocation. As he says in John’s Gospel, “He must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30). In this way, perhaps, John is fulfilling all righteousness by baptizing Jesus.
At another level, however, Jesus’ baptism “fulfills all righteousness” because it foreshadows his own death and resurrection. Jesus’s immersion in the Jordan and his coming out of the water, prefigures his own death and resurrection. In this way, early in Matthew’s gospel, the baptism offers us a symbolic guidepost to see where this story is leading.
Jesus lived his life in obedience to the Father. The world, however, could not abide the presence of the fully obedient incarnation of God’s love. In response, the world nailed him to a cross. Jesus’ obedience even to the point of death, fulfills all righteousness. Nevertheless, at the cross the world sees itself as fully justified in rejecting Jesus. The resurrection is that final announcement that this indeed is God’s beloved Son. We should listen to him.
Jesus baptism, so different from our own, also foretells the establishment of Christ’s alternative realm, the one opposed to the oppressive, death dealing realm of Sin. The realm into which we are transferred through our baptism. Thanks be to God!