SERMON FOR JANUARY 12, 2020, BAPTISM OF OUR LORD TEXT: MATTHEW 3:13-17

“Jesus answered [John], ‘ Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’” “These are the first words that Jesus speaks in Matthew's Gospel and the saying is a bit mysterious,” comments a savvy biblical scholar. “We may at least gather that God has a plan for making everything right and that Jesus is committed to being obedient to that plan. Why did he have to be baptized? That's a minor question. The big one is, why did he have to die on a cross? Matthew grants that neither makes sense from a human point of view: thus, John tries to prevent Jesus' baptism and Peter tries to prevent Jesus' death (16:22).”

Both events are troubling — the one because it seems unnecessary, the other because it is cruelly unjust. If the wages of sin is death, then Jesus did not earn them. We are told that the crowds who went out to John were baptized, “confessing their sins.” But none of the Gospel accounts suggests that Jesus did that. Matthew is the only evangelist who records this exchange between the Baptist and Jesus, and clearly he shares John’s reservations: “John would have prevented him, saying ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’” That’s when Jesus reassures him and insists that this is the right thing to do. Why that was so reveals much about why he had to die as well.

John proclaimed to the people, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” When many Pharisees and Sadducees approached him, he calls these elite leaders of the religious community a “brood of vipers” and demands that they “bear fruit worthy of repentance.” The Greek word that is translated as “repentance” in the text is metanoia. This kind of repentance is not focused on regret or guilt or shame; it is about turning around, facing a new direction. And then to follow the path opening before you, like the magi following the light of the Bethlehem star. You hear God’s call and begin to align your life with God’s will. You become an agent of God’s working in the world. Here being righteous means being in right relation to others, first of all to God, and then, grounded by that fundamental orientation, to all that God has made.

Jesus stands on the banks of the river Jordan at the threshold of something new. Decades have passed since his parents brought him back from Egypt as a child and settled in Nazareth. He had a life there in Galilee, but he has left it behind and turned his face toward a future of which he only knows the beginning. In the words of the familiar prayer, at God’s bidding, he embarks on a venture of which he cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. He goes out with good courage, not knowing where the way may ultimately take him, only trusting that God’s hand is leading him and his love supporting him. In this sense of facing a new direction, Jesus does indeed repent. His baptism by John is his first public appearance, and in this event he makes clear who he is and whose he is. In this moment he responds to God’s call with confidence, just as his mother Mary did, when, having learned of her pregnancy, she said to the angel Gabriel, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

“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.” In Mark’s and Luke’s accounts the voice says, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.” It appears to be a private moment rather than a third person proclamation for the benefit of others. According to Matthew, the title is used later to mock Jesus as he is crucified. His detractors cry out, “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, I am God’s Son.” And then when he is dead, the centurion standing guard at the cross confesses in awe, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”

The public pronouncement of God’s relationship to Jesus frames his ministry — here at the Jordan, as he first joins himself with the people of God called to repentance and then at the end on Golgotha, when he takes their sin and despair to the grave. He leads the way to a repentance, a turning in a new direction, full of grace and truth, that was not possible before. Now in Jesus’ name we too are baptized with water and with fire — new birth, new life, new hope. Remember, you have been named “child of God”; you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever.

When my niece Katya was little, she shared a baby sitter with her buddy Michael. One day Tina, their caregiver, had gotten Michael dressed up in a little sailor suit, all clean and spiffy, and told him to stay put and not get himself dirty or mess up his clothes. It was his mother’s birthday, and his parents were picking him up to go out to dinner. Tina had her orders from them; now he had his from Tina. We were all at my brother’s house; I had come over from the university after class. I felt for poor little Michael with his slicked-back hair, his ridiculous white romper and his polished shoes. He was trying so hard to keep perfectly still and dirt-free. My niece, God love her, was a little minx, and she was having none of this perfectionism. She snuck up behind Michael and did one of those little wicky-flicks behind his ear. He tried to swat her hand away, but she was too quick for him. She waited a bit and then did it again . . . and again, until finally Michael jumped off his seat and took off after her. So much for shiny clean and wrinkle-free!

In the early church the newly baptized emerged from the water to be clothed in a pristine white garment, symbolizing their newly given righteousness, their alignment with God’s purpose, their grounding in God’s mercy. Through the sacrament God acknowledged them publicly as his own beloved children, in whom he is well pleased. But for them, as for Jesus, they emerged from the water to move into an uncertain future. The task God sets for us all is not to keep ourselves spotless but to risk getting dirty. We can’t escape the webs of sin that bind humankind. In our worst moments we help spin them. But on our best days we can name them, challenge them, even cut through their sticky threads.

One of CLC’s members told me recently that he has been reading the Old Testament prophets and is finding a lot of parallels between what they were saying and what is happening and could happen in our future. That’s not surprising. Sin is rarely original; we have always moved along the same dark passages — violence, cruelty, lies, arrogance and greed. The events of the last week were quite the showcase for these our old standards. And so the prophets’ dire warnings from long ago come to life for a new generation. We aren’t superheroes; we can’t leap buildings in a single bound or walk through an inferno unharmed or put the bad guys out of action without breaking a sweat. But we do have a super power — repentance. We can turn and turn again to face the right direction, to come into alignment with the light of the world, Jesus Christ. We can reflect His radiance into the world through our lives. Amen.