Baptism of Our Lord

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Today, we are celebrating the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Gospel according to Matthew, this is the first public appearance of Jesus and the first time Jesus speaks. A big event. And accordingly, it is packed with meaning. In my sermon, I am going to highlight a few themes that spoke to me this week.

After Jesus is baptized by John and emerges from the water, the heavens are opened and a voice from the heavens says, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” What a lovely affirmation of Jesus on this special day and at the start of his ministry.

Here is an interesting tidbit: Matthew, Mark, and Luke all report Jesus’ baptism, and they all record the voice from heaven announcing Jesus to be God’s beloved Son. But there is one big difference: In Mark and Luke, the heavenly voice is directed at Jesus himself – You are my Son, the Beloved. In the text before us today from Matthew, the voice is directed at all the people gathered at the river – This is my Son, the Beloved.

This is God introducing and affirming Jesus towards the crowd: “Hey everyone, this is Jesus, he’s my beloved Son.”

This made me think of occasions in our lives when we have been introduced and affirmed like that.

For example, after we get married, our spouse might bring us to a group of colleagues and say, “You all, this is my wife/my husband, whom I love very much.”

Or we might be in the cafeteria at lunchtime and bring someone over to our group table and say, “Hey, guys, this is so-and-so, my new friend. She/he is really cool. Make some room, will you?”

Being introduced like that makes us feel good, valued, affirmed. It gives us confidence and hope.

One such occasion I will always remember was shortly after my oldest child came out as transgender. No longer did I have a daughter named Hannah, but I now had a son named Zeke. As a family, we worked through the transition and did our best to accept and affirm our beloved child.

A few weeks after his revelation, he and I were shopping. We met someone I knew, and we chatted a bit and I introduced my son to that person. After we had moved on, Zeke said, “Mom, every time you introduce me as your son, it makes me feel so good.” My announcing him publicly as my son affirmed him and made him feel loved.

I imagine the same felt true for Jesus when God publicly introduced him and told everyone in earshot that Jesus was his Son, the Beloved, with whom he is well pleased.

The voice from heaven giving Jesus this divine affirmation is a quote from our Isaiah passage this morning. The prophet Isaiah proclaims God’s word about God’s chosen servant and what God expects that servant to do: bring justice to the nations, teach the coastlands, be a light to the nations, heal the blind, free the prisoners, represent God’s righteousness, and embody God’s covenant with God’s people.

Righteousness also comes up in the conversation between John the Baptist and Jesus there at the banks of the River Jordan. Jesus asks to be baptized by John, but John balks. He knows about Jesus and doesn’t think he’s worthy of baptizing Jesus, doesn’t think Jesus needs to be baptized for the repentance of sins.

But Jesus insists, saying that his being baptized by John is proper for in this way they will fulfill all righteousness. What is this righteousness?

All through Matthew’s gospel account, that word comes up quite a bit. And it always refers to people doing the will of God, submitting to the will of God, obeying the will of God. Jesus believes that God wants him to be baptized by John.

A lot of ink and thought and debate has been spent on the question as to why Jesus needed to be baptized if he was the sinless Son of God. One answer to this question that makes a lot of sense to me it this: God wants Jesus to be baptized because it will foreshadow the kind of ministry Jesus came to bring, the kind of Messiah Jesus will be.

As the Son of God and God’s chosen messiah, he could have come in with power and might, with the axe and unquenchable fire John the Baptist had imagined. Today’s psalm (29) describes the power of God’s presence; the divine voice alone can break cedar trees and make mountain ranges skip like a calf. An encounter with the Holy of that kind could be scary, indeed.

But God doesn’t want Jesus to come in swinging an ax and causing earthquakes. God wants the Beloved to identify with the people, to enter human existence completely, and to bring God’s love into that human existence.

And so Jesus stands there in the mud of the riverbank like all the other people. He is baptized like all the other people. He is one of them, one of us. He humbles himself under God’s will and becomes fully human. He fulfills all righteousness.

That God designs Jesus to be a humble, gentle Messiah is also hinted at by God’s voice quoting that line from the Prophet Isaiah. It is the beginning of one of the Servant Songs in Isaiah’s book, describing how God’s chosen servant will show up in the world. The servant will not come in guns blazing and force people into God’s justice. Instead, the servant will be humble and gentle, will change the world one life at a time through teaching and healing and liberating, by giving breath and spirit, by holding God’s children by the hand and keeping them.

One verse from Isaiah’s servant song that spoke to me is verse 3: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench.” What gentleness these words describe. God’s servant will not break who or what is already bent and will not snuff out the one struggling to stay lit.

In the world, such breaking and snuffing happen all the time. The child struggling with learning is also teased by classmates. The person with disabilities is also rejected for job openings. The one who is already down gets trampled on even further.

God’s servant is different. God’s servant will gently tend to the bruised reed and help it upright. He will protect the struggling flame; in my mind, I see a flickering candle and the hands of the servant shielding it from a draft. So kind. So gentle. So humble.

This verse perfectly describes the ministry of Jesus. He tended to those on the margins and called them into God’s love where they would find strength and healing, hope and community.

And he continues to do that today, through his followers, through today’s servants of God, through the church, the body of Christ in the world - through us. From the word go, Jesus’ humility also showed in that he always shared his power and spirit with others, always drew others into co-ministry, always promised his followers that they, too, would be able to heal and teach, uphold the bruised and protect the struggling.

This, too, is foreshadowed in today’s story of Jesus’ baptism. John balks at baptizing Jesus. And what does Jesus say? “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” For us. Together, they fulfill righteousness. Jesus draws John into the fulfillment of God’s will, into the righteousness God desires, into the work of bringing the reign of God into this world.

Today, Jesus draws us into that work. On the day of our baptism, God’s heavenly voice pronounced us to be God’s beloved child. Countless times since, Jesus has shown us his gentle care, has helped us up when we felt bruised, has protected us when our light was dim, has stood by our side and introduced us to his people, “Hey, everyone, this is my Beloved whom I value soooo much!”

And every time we hear or sense that, we feel so good. We feel uplifted and encouraged. We have our hope and sense of worth restored. We sense new breath and Spirit in us.

As we come to God’s table of grace today, may we hear God’s voice affirming us. In the bread and wine of communion, may we sense Jesus’ protecting hands. In the company of this congregation, may our Spirit be encouraged and renewed.

As we remember Jesus’ baptism, may we also rejoice in our own. I invite you to pick up one of these blue glass pebbles out of the baptismal font and put it in your pocket. Every time you touch it, may you be reminded of how much God loves you, how lovingly Jesus holds you, and how faithfully the Holy Spirit guides you, today and always. Amen.