Baptism
of our Lord – 10 January 2016 – Year C
Grace
to you and peace from our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen
The
text for this meditation is written in the 3rd Chapter of the Gospel
according to St Luke: Verses 15 – 22.
15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their
hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John
answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier
than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His
winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the
wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But
Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s
wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added
this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been
baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and
the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came
from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
When
the disciples were going about the process of replacing Judas the betrayer,
they wanted a man who had witnessed Jesus’ work. One of the things this does for us is define
the beginning and end of Jesus public, earthly ministry. Peter said, [Acts 1:21-22] 21 So one of the men who have
accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among
us, 22 beginning
from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of
these men must become with us a witness to his resurrection.” So we see that as far as the early church was
concerned, Jesus’ public ministry began when John baptised Him and it ended
when Jesus ascended into heaven. Today’s
gospel tells us about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry as He was baptised.
The
Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke all tell us something about John
baptising Jesus and although John the Evangelist does not specifically tell of
the baptism itself, he does tell how John the Baptiser testified about the Holy
Spirit descending like a dove on Jesus.
So, directly or indirectly all four Gospels and the book of Acts
tell us about John baptising Jesus.
During
this season of Epiphany, we consider the things that God showed to His
people. It is not too hard to figure out
what God wants us to see in today’s Gospel: … the heavens were opened, and
the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came
from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” That should get your attention. It is not every day that God opens up the sky
and proclaims something to us. It is not
every day that the Holy Spirit takes on the form of a dove and flies down to
rest on someone. In fact, I think it would
be safe to say that this is the only time that all these things happened
together in the entire history of the world.
Think
about it. Today’s Gospel tells us that
the crowds wonder if John is the Christ.
They are ready. All the
prophecies have come true. All that’s
left is for the Christ to actually show up.
John is out there by the Jordan saying, “I’m not Him, but He is
coming. Prepare the way for the
Lord.” Then one day the Lord Himself
steps down into the Jordan and tells John, “Baptise me.” After the Baptism, the sky opens up, the Holy
Spirit comes down, and there is this voice.
Now that really is an Epiphany !!
The
wonderful thing about this epiphany is that we get to see our Lord and Saviour
beginning His public ministry as He battles to take back what is rightfully
His.
God
created all things and therefore all things belong to Him. When He created humanity, He said, [Genesis
1:28] “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have
dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over
every living thing that moves on the earth.” With these words God established humanity as
His stewards over all of creation. He
established Adam and Eve as the lord and lady of all they surveyed. Everything was perfect.
Then
the devil spoke with the voice of the serpent and asked, “Did God really say
…” God had given everything except the fruit of the one tree to Adam and
Eve and yet Satan convinced Eve that God had held something back – that God did
not have their best interest at heart.
Satan leveraged that seed of doubt until both Adam and Eve lost
confidence in God and ate the fruit.
On
that day, the universe changed forever.
The relationship between God and Man was closed. The relationship between Man and woman was
closed. A wave of sin swept through the
entire universe just as a large tidal wave sweeps over an island. Mankind had turned the keys of the worldly kingdom
over to the devil. From that time
forward our enemy and his allies have had their way with us. As we say in the order of baptism: The
Word of God … teaches that we are all conceived and born sinful and are under
the power of the devil until Christ claims us as His own. We would be lost forever unless delivered
from sin, death, and everlasting condemnation.
At
Christmas we celebrated God’s action to infiltrate this world and take it
back. He entered this world as a baby –
as one of us. He stepped onto the
battlefield as a baby in a manger and then grew up to be a man. Now, here, at his baptism, God the Father
proclaimed His intention to all who were there with John the Baptiser at the
Jordan.
We
should get all excited about this
epiphany. Jesus is on the move. The people who were there witnessed the
inauguration of Christ’s public ministry.
The One for whom they have waited, has arrived. This is a time of celebration; heralding
bugles and drums, maybe even some fireworks!!
There
are however, other eyes that see this epiphany.
There are those who have dreaded this day. God made a promise way back in Genesis, [Genesis 3:15]
I will put enmity between you and
the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your
head, and you shall bruise his heel.” The servants of the enemy also see this
epiphany. They are the servants of the
one who is in danger of getting his head crushed. For these servants, it is time to go on red
alert. The Christ is about to start
His offensive.
Although
we do not read the account of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness until Lent,
it actually takes place right after Jesus’ baptism. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness
to do battle with the enemy and the devil wasted no time in hitting Jesus with
every devious resource at his disposal.
The Holy Spirit inspired the writer to the Hebrews to say that Jesus is
the [Hebrews 4:15] one who in every respect has been tempted as
we are, yet without sin. This
teaches us that Jesus endured every temptation that the devil and all his
allies have ever used against any person in any place and at any time. The devil pulled out all the stops because he
knew that if he can get Jesus to sin just once, the plan of salvation would lie
in ruins.
Yet
this sentence from Hebrews tells us that although Jesus was tempted as we are,
He was different than us in that He did not sin. This meant that Jesus’ baptism was the
opposite of our baptisms. We enter the
waters of baptism covered in sin and leave those waters covered in God’s
Righteousness. Jesus entered the water
covered in righteousness and left the water covered in sin – our sin. Jesus began to carry the burden of our sin at
His baptism. As we pray in the order of
baptism: Through the Baptism in the Jordan of Your beloved Son, our Lord
Jesus Christ, You sanctified and instituted all waters to be a blessed flood
and a lavish washing away of sin. As
Jesus went down into the water, He was the only holy man on the earth. As he came up from the water, He was the
greatest sinner on the earth – not with His own sin, but with the sin of every
man, woman, and child who has lived or ever will live. He carried it all.
God
the Father and God the Holy Spirit acknowledged the sacrifice Jesus made as he
took our sin onto Himself and clothed us in His righteousness. When Jesus also had been baptised and was
praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in
bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved
Son; with you I am well pleased.” Christ’s mission to open heaven is the will
and work of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit puts in a rare appearance in
physical form – like a dove. The Father
declares His pleasure with the Son.
While Jesus is the member of the Trinity who became flesh and died on
the cross, we see in this reading that all three members of the Trinity are
actively involved in opening the way to heaven.
Jesus
was a marked man after His baptism. He
was marked as the target of Satan’s temptation.
He was also marked as the target of God’s wrath. He was marked as the one who would open
heaven for all believers.
Jesus
endured the full fire of Satan’s temptation.
He endured not only the temptation in the wilderness, but Satan never
really stopped tempting Jesus. He even
tempted him through His friends and followers.
Jesus endured these temptations, as we never will. Jesus’ perfect perseverance under Satan’s
fiery temptation was part of the mission to open heaven for us.
In
spite of the fact that Jesus never sinned, He was the target of God’s wrath – a
wrath that was so severe that Jesus cried out, “My God, My God, why have You
forsaken me?” Jesus suffered the
original baptism of fire in our place.
He fulfilled John’s prophecy of baptism by fire in order to open heaven
for us.
Jesus
blazed a trail through death that leads to life. He conquered death and rose from the
dead. Through His triumph, the way to
heaven is open.
Here
at His baptism, Jesus took our place under the burden of our sin. As our substitute, He carried out God’s plan
perfectly. The mission that Jesus began
at His baptism was successful. He opened
a way to heaven. He offers to join us to
Himself through baptism. The Holy Spirit
gives us the faith that receives that offer.
God the Father adopts us into His family by that faith. When the time comes for us to leave this
world, the heavens will open, the angels will carry us home and we will hear
the Father say, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Amen
The love and peace
of our great Triune God that is beyond all human understanding, keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen
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