Sermon Text
INTO THE WATER (Matthew 3:13-17)
The baptism of Jesus is told by each of the four Gospel writers, and when all four Gospels agree that an event about Jesus took place, it likely did. Further, the story of Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist raised such awkward theological questions for the early church that no writer would have invented it. It is those awkward questions in the story that probably explains why each Gospel writer handles the event in a different way.
For Mark the baptism is a personal experience with Jesus involving no other baptisms and no public witnesses. There is a a sense of urgency in the telling: He writes: JUST AS JESUS WAS COMING UP, OUT OF THE WATER, HE IMMEDIATELY SAW THE HEAVENS TORN APART. This sense of urgency is absent from the other three tellings.
Luke's account places Jesus' baptism as the last of many other baptisms so there are witnesses to Jesus' baptism and to his affirmation as the Chosen One of God in the dove and the heavenly voice. Luke also is at great pain to explain that that John the Baptist was a complementary and subordinate to Jesus. Oddly, Luke also has Herod throw the Baptist in prison just before Jesus' baptism so we have a public baptism but no baptizer!
John does not mention the baptism as such but only writes that John the Baptist testified that he saw the Spirit come down from heaven and rest upon Jesus (John 1:32). John neglects to mention that Jesus may have been standing in the river Jordan.
And then there is today's account in which Matthew pictures John and Jesus standing knee deep in the Jordan where they engage in a fervent debate as to whom should baptize whom.
Matthew 3:13-17
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousnes."Then he consented. And when Jesus had heen 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."
Only Matthew reports this conversation between Jesus and the Baptist. His version like the other three is influenced by the early church's desire to subdue and channel the independent popularity of the Baptist in support of the Jesus movement. This conversation between the Baptist and the Nazarene is the early church's attempt to practice theological damage control regarding the awkward issues raised by Jesus' baptism.
How's that? Theological damage control! The fact that Jesus was baptized by John raised the issue of why the lesser should baptize the greater. As Jesus took precedence in authority over John, why did Jesus feel he needed to be baptized by John the lesser? John baptized those who repented of their sin. Jesus had never sinned so he had no need for a baptism unto repentance in the first place.
All four Gospels agree that the event testified to the calling of Jesus as the Messiah, the One Chosen by God (in contrast to John the Baptist and other candidates for Messiahship who abounded in the first century). But this primary assertion represented by the dove and the heavenly voice and by Jesus' absorption of these signs should not be used to smooth over the awkward question just noted. Why did Jesus need to be baptized in the first place?
When you think of it, the divine affirmation: THIS IS MY SON, THE BELOVED, WITH WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED could have been delivered at almost any time in Jesus' ministry. Jesus could have just stood on the bank, looking on, and the dove and voice visited him. He would have been dry that way and the awkward question about why he let John baptize him would not have arisen.
But as it turned out Jesus did feel compelled to go into the River and to be baptized by John in order to confirm his life's work. And fortunately he gives his own reason for this at verse 15: LET IT BE SO NOW; FOR IT IS PROPER FOR US IN THIS WAY TO FULFILL ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS. Jesus' own explanation is not self-evidently clear: Who are the FOR US? Is this the regal or royal WE, meaning Jesus alone; or are the FOR US a reference to Jesus and his heavenly Father. Or is the FOR US - EVERYBODY, meaning us?
Also the meaning of the phrase FULFILL ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS is not self-evidently clear in reference to Jesus who already was deemed to represent the perfect righteousness of God. So how do you fulfill or realize that which is already perfectly formed through the will of God in the incarnation of Jjesus?
I can only surmise that Jesus must have felt it necessary to go into the river and submit to the work of the Baptist in order to embody or convey to us his already perfect righteousness as the Chosen One of God sent to us. He went into the river that we could understand what RIGHTEOUSNESS OR RIGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD means for us. He entered the River in order to stand with us. He who was without sin was baptized in the river Jordan to avoid the sin of standing apart from us.
A popular misinterpretation of the baptism of Jesus is that it is a clarion call for all others to be baptized. But Luke states it was afier all the people had been baptized that Jesus entered the river, and Mark has no others baptized at the time. And Matthew focuses entirely on the Jesus and John conversation. So the baptism of Jesus is not meant mainly as an inspiration for the baptism of others or for others to follow Jesus into the river.
If Jesus was the last one to be baptized that day, he joined us rather than called us to follow him. Jesus wanted to be in the river where everybody else already was!Actually, none of the Gospels record that Jesus ever baptized anyone. His disciples were told to baptize only at the end; the apostle Paul baptized. The Church and we today baptize. But Jesus never baptized.
The essential meaning of this episode must derive from Jesus' own explanation: it was so that ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS COULD BE FULFILLED.
The fulfillment of all righteousness, WHICH IS TO SAY GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS required Jesus to enter the river to be with all people, to be with us.
I suggest the River Jordan can be taken in this baptism episode to represent the troubled waters of life in which we all stand, sink or swim. Jesus goes into our troubled waters because his very righteousness requires it and our righteousness hinges on it.
No river, including the Jordan, is necessarily a place we want to be standing. A river always contains dangers of the unknown and of strong currents. In planning for the baptism of Maria Leung in the River Jordan last October, I was surprised to learn that there is only one place along the 200 mile flow of the Jordan where baptisms are sanctioned today. All baptisms must be conducted at the Jewish kibbutz which controls both banks of the Jordan where it begins with the outflow of water from the Sea of Galilee. This is the one safe place because there only are the banks smoothed and maintained and because downstream the river is polluted; and downstream the Jordan flows through land farmed and contested both by Palestinians and Israelis.
I suggest that Jesus went into the river not because the River Jordan was in his opinion some safe river like the Ganges for ritualistic self-improvement ablutions, but precisely because the River Jordan is a metaphor for all humanity who lives in waters not entirely safe, known and pure. It was into such waters of our lives that Jesus needed to enter to identify with us and to make his affirmation from God effective for us. That is what he meant by the fulfilment of all righteousness.
Jesus went into the River to be with us so that his righteousness with God would be available to us where we are. A righteousness safely proclaimed from the dry bank lacks the power of a righteousness offered up in the midst of our existence. Jesus submitted to the water not for repentance but to fulfil all righteousness. Matthew means to tell us that Jesus fulfilled God's righteousness by being Son of God and Servant of God with us. Jesus submitted to John, the lesser, as he repeatedly would submit to lesser authority, because the love of God is most effective when offered humbly, sincerely, servantlike as with Jesus in the river.
Jesus' unique relationship with God necessarily required the humility of a servant who will enter the River to suffer humiliation and ultimate rejection. The German theologian Karl Barth put it this way at the midpoint of our century: JESUS CHRIST IS THE LORD WHO BECAME SERVANT BY GOING INTO THE FAR COUNTRY ( VIZ.RIVER) AND CONCEALING HIS GLORY. BUT HIS CONDESCENSION INTO SERVANTHOOD, THE LORD DOES NOT DISFIGURE HIMSELF. HE REVEALS HIS TRUE NATURE AS ONE WHO CAME NOT TO RULE BUT TO SERVE.
Jesus went into the RIVER to make the difference he was sent to earth to make: his divine power and presence had to be awash in the full range of human experience. And by entering into the river of our life, he made things both better and worse for us.
His presence troubles the waters as readily as his presence smoothes the water. Standing with us in the River Jesus may bring security but he also may bring upset. We can see the River Jordan blue and tranquil at Jesus' baptism. But just below its' surface we can see the water running red. Blood red. The suffering and sacrifice of Jesus are anticipated in the river; they could not be witnessed had Jesus stayed safely on the bank.
Matthew 3:13-17 is not mainly about Jesus' relationship with John, nor is it simply an invitation for our baptism. Jesus went into our River to tell us that we are so loved by God that God's own Son became a part of our struggle in the waters, joining us in the flesh in order to guide us through the turbulent waters of life and death. Later in his ministry Jesus was to say: NO GREATER LOVE HAS ANYONE THAN TO GIVE HIS LIFE FOR ANOTHER. In the River Jordan Jesus began his work of showing God' s willingness to give his life to be with us and for us always.
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The Rev. Gene R.Preston
14th Floor, Blk 36, Lower Baguio Villa Tel : 25516161 Fax: 25512114E-mail : gpreston@netvigator.com
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