Alightenment
Matthew 3:13-17

January 13, 2008


The most common analogy on this expanse of the prairie for what happened in the River Jordan is the eternal summertime event of a mosquito alighting very lightly upon an exposed area of your skin and having mosquito fun. Most of the time you are not even aware that our provincial bird has alighted upon you - except for the middle of the night when you hear quite acutely the dive bombing aerial routines. Nonetheless, mosquitoes do have an effect upon you and me: their bites can hurt, be irritating, become infected and in many parts of the world, much worse.

And so we go back to the Jordan and the same questions arise as we hear about the Spirit alighting upon Jesus after his baptism. Do you feel the Spirit when it alights and how do you feel it? Does it hurt and can it be bad for your health? And most importantly, what good does it do, and does it have any lasting effects?

Especially in Protestant circles, baptism has been one of the signature sacraments since Day One and traditionally that is today, the traditional Baptism of Jesus in the calendar. Baptism still is very significant for individuals and families around the Christian world, but it has long been clear that baptism assumes many different meanings. Regretfully, one of the major causes of the splintering of the great church is the interpretation of what happens at baptism. It’s not just the Baptist churches who have something to say about baptism.

All four Gospels are clear that the real business and biography of Jesus begins with the appearance of his cousin John the Baptist and this happening down by the river. Matthew and Luke have nativity stories and a genealogy preceding the baptism, but there is that famous long gap from at the most 12 years old until 30 - wow, that’s nearly 18-1/2 years. A number of modern significance!

What does seem the case is how unnecessary was all of this Jesus being baptized stuff. It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t need to be baptized; Jesus shouldn’t have been baptized according to John’s criteria. There were groups who had practiced a yearly baptism of water for the purpose of washing away the past year’s sins. John’s baptism for repentance and the forgiveness of sins is of the same ilk. Jesus has always been perceived as the one person who is sinless. The funny thing about this sacrament rooted in the Biblical narrative itself is that no church attaches that simple a meaning to baptism from the earliest church up to now. Sure, there are lots of churches that insist rather strictly on a complete dunking of the baptizee, but we have added a whole layer of ideas to what this baptism is supposed to do.

Forgiveness of sins is still there, but noticeably diminished, especially in the baptism of an infant or young child. What is emphasized more is the reality that the baptized has become a new person, committed to living a new kind of life following the example of Jesus, and that one has now become a member of the Christian Church in this particular place. In the Gospel narratives these layers of meaning are at best implicit - the sacrament of baptism in the Church has always been more than what’s in the Bible.

The real point of the Biblical story is that Jesus didn’t need to be baptized, but he knew he really needed to be baptized and so he was. When challenged by John, Jesus’ response was a phrase readers have been trying to unravel ever since, “to fulfill all righteousness.” Basically, Jesus seems to mean that in order for everything and everyone to be in the right place at the right time for the right reasons, I have to do it this way. And “this way” implies that baptism never involves the issue of how good you are. Jesus could have taken the waiver and no one would argue. I don’t have to tell you that there are lots of people who would claim to be just as perfect, just as sinless as Jesus, and therefore don’t need to get wet in baptism. It is not a matter of what you have done or been, but of who you will become and do.

That’s almost an original idea - what you may become! We get so wrapped up into whether someone is worthy enough to be baptized or has earned the right that we forget about what we may become. I am not partial to the Baptist insistence that one has to be old enough or mature enough to understand what you are doing by being baptized. That approach slides too easily into an elitist way of thinking, that only the superior Christians can earn the right to be baptized. Churches that baptize infants are often excoriated since babies do not understand what is going on. That is exactly why we do baptize infants because it is God who is doing the baptizing, so it is God’s gracious move towards us that you and I cannot earn and perhaps do not deserve, not our own spiritual understanding. In the wetness of baptism, God demonstrates that the child or the adult is already accepted, is already blessed and to be a little cheeky, there’s nothing you can do about it.

Nobody knew Jesus when he was standing in line down by the River Jordan. Nothing distinguished him until he reached John who knew who his cousin was. “I need to be baptized by you,” John pleaded, but he did what he had to do. Nobody else noticed when he was baptized, nobody else heard that voice from heaven, not even John. “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus didn’t need to be baptized because he didn’t have any sins to wash off, yet God evidently liked his style. If Jesus didn’t insist on getting what he deserved, then he enables the rest of us to be given the grace of receiving how God loves us.

Now I know that all of this is a pretty intellectual, let’s call it a theological, set of concepts. Some would call it personal and private, exclusive of the opinions of others. But I don’t believe that baptism is private and all that personal. Baptism should always be public whether in a public service of worship or in a river or lake before a few other brothers and sisters supporting and encouraging you in the faith. Baptism only makes sense in the midst of the church.

Let’s be honest, however, and get it straight. When you are baptized nothing special happens, no visions or heightened senses of awareness or electric vibrations pulsing through your body. You acquire no special powers and no extra intelligence. After all, it’s just plain water, for whatever is available locally works.

Most people in our society do not believe in baptism; they think it’s an empty archaic meaningless rite. It didn’t fulfill any purpose and didn’t even do anything for Jesus. The Gospel story could easily have begun with his first healing or first sermon or first parable. The Gospel begins with something quite ordinary, yet there is no ordinary life without water. According to the rules of baptism, Jesus did not need to be baptized, yet what better reason to do something than that it is unnecessary? Baptism demonstrates physically that God begins with the most ordinary human beings and the most ordinary substance applied in an unspecial way and insists that we are already special in God’s eyes, loved graciously and told to live in an extraordinary way. It isn’t magic, however, even divine magic, for you and I have to recognize that this act is not about your goodness, but about God’s grace given freely to us.

Martin Luther was a man who fought with the devil and its demons in many forms. Whenever he felt pinned in by inner doubts and temptations or the threats and oppression of a hostile ruler, he said, “When all else fails, I say to myself, ‘But I am baptized!” What else do we need to say?

Preached by Robert Kitchen
Knox-Metropolitan United Church
Regina, Saskatchewan