The Harrowing Waters of Baptism: A Sermon for 1 Epiphany

During the season of Epiphany, we are invited to explore the many ways in which Jesus’ identity as the son of God are manifested – or made visible to us. The first sign – and the one that begins this season - is the Magi’s visit to pay homage to the Christ child. Their visit not only announces that there was born a new king of the Jews, but also a new king of the Gentiles as well. This child was born to redeem all of humanity.

The second manifestation of Jesus’ divine identity and purpose is the story of Jesus’ baptism. In just a few days since the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6, we have fast forwarded from Jesus as a toddler to Jesus as an adult. It took 30 or so years for Jesus to begin the public fulfillment of his messianic identity and calling. And he chose launch his public ministry through the Jewish cleansing rite of baptism. John’s call for people to be baptized in the Jordan River was a call to repentance… a moral, ethical, and religious “reset” so to speak. So it begs to question why Jesus himself submitted to such a ritual. John himself wondered the same thing when he said to Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

But Jesus saw his submission to baptism “as a fulfillment all righteousness.” In other words, there was more to it than what was happening right then and there. Such was the case with much of what Jesus did – the Last Supper was more than just a final Passover meal with his friends. The crucifixion was more than just an execution by the state. These events in Jesus’ life had many layers of meaning and purpose. And his baptism was no different.

Jesus’ baptism – which marked the beginning of his public ministry - pointed to his death and resurrection – which marked the end of his earthly ministry, but the beginning of something entirely new. Anglican scholar and bishop N.T. Wright once recalled a funeral sermon he heard, in which the preacher proclaimed, “As we trust that Jesus died and was raised to heaven, so we trust that our beloved friend has now died and has been raised to heaven.” Bishop Wright went on to say, “That’s not the point. Easter is not Jesus getting to heaven when he died.  Easter is Jesus’ newly-embodied life launching God’s new creation through the water of death. And that’s why, from the very earliest Christian sources that we possess, Christian baptism is linked not just to Jesus’ own baptism, not just to the Exodus and first creation, but to Jesus’ own death and resurrection.”

The apostle Paul asserted that in the rite of baptism, we are not just being cleansed – we are being drowned. We are plunged into the waters of baptism so that we may die with Christ. And we are raised up out of the waters of baptism so that we may be raised to a new life in Christ. As such, this is a far cry from a sentimental ritual that only comes into play once we die. As with Jesus, our first death and resurrection happen through the waters of baptism, as a sacramental sign of what is to come. For those of us who were here last Sunday when we baptized Aiden, it makes perfect sense that he would cry through the whole service like he did!  Perhaps he had a deep, God-given intuition that he was about to be drowned and brought back to life. Who wouldn’t cry – or run if we are able - under these circumstances?

In his letter to the baptized Christians in Rome, the Apostle Paul wrote, “count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” In examining this passage as it pertains to baptism, N.T. Wright points out that it seems to appeal “for faith on the basis of baptism” as opposed to baptism on the basis of faith. In other words, much of the working out of our faith in Christ Jesus happens after we have died to our old selves and been born anew through the sacrament of baptism. In exploring Paul’s understanding of baptism, Bishop Wright asserts that it certainly doesn’t mean “now that you’ve got all your Christian understanding together, we can baptize you.”

The “working out” of our faith as members who have been baptized into Christ’s body can take on many forms. In the sermon we heard in our reading from Acts today, Peter tells us that Jesus “commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Oftentimes we hear preachers focus the part of Jesus’ baptism where we hear God the Father’s voice from heaven proclaim that “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” If we are not careful, this statement from God can be misinterpreted into something along the lines of, “we are being baptized because God is pleased with us, or, because we are baptized, God is pleased with us.” And then baptism becomes about us, and God being pleased with us. Now don’t get me wrong, God loves us as God’s very own children. And God’s love for all of creation can’t be overemphasized. But Jesus wasn’t baptized because God was pleased with him. And we aren’t baptized because God is pleased with us. 

The Jewish people who heard Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism would have immediately recollected the words of the prophet Isaiah, which is why Isaiah 42 is paired with our Gospel lesson today. It begins with God saying, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights…” In regards to this servant, Isaiah goes on to prophesy,

“I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness,
I have taken you by the hand and kept you;

I have given you as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,

to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.”

As Christians, we read this prophesy as a foretelling of Christ, but also, as those who are grafted into Christ’s body through our baptisms, as a foretelling of our own vocations as members of Christ’s body. Yes, God delights in us. Yes, we are God’s beloved. But we are delightful and beloved not because of how good we are, but rather, so that we may be equipped to be a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind (beginning with our own), to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and from the prison those who sit in darkness. As we heard from baby Aiden last week, being among the baptized is terrifying business. Being drowned with Christ isn’t for the lukewarm or faint of heart. But rising out of the waters of baptism into new life with Christ is the greatest privilege and calling to which one can be called. Let us rejoice and be glad that we are God’s beloved. And let us live into that truth with a humble dose of fear and trembling, as we are sent out as God’s baptized “to do the work [God] has given us to do, to love and serve [God] as faithful witnesses of Christ our Lord.”