baptism year A

Isaiah 42: 1-9 NRSV text
Psalm 29 NRSV text
Acts 10: 34-43 NRSV text
Matthew 3: 13-17 NRSV text

(Please note the request for help in the sidebar text box and help if you’re able)

Jesus’ baptism is about his identity as the Son of God – which is why the baptism is so central to Epiphany. Who is Jesus? This is not only a theological question – it is an existential one. Matthew doesn’t write primarily to convey information to his readers. His purpose is transformation. We (his readers) are not so much members of his catechesis class as we are potential disciples. His purpose in writing is to draw us into faith and discipleship, and into Jesus’ mission. Jesus’ closing words in the gospel are for us just as much as they are for his first hearers:

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)

Jesus, the Son of God, has taught us how to live in faithful obedience to the God whom he calls Father. We, like him, are to live as children of God.

Jesus and the Baptist: Son of Abraham
Matthew’s opening statement in his gospel is about Jesus’ identity. He begins with his genealogy – telling us where Jesus came from. But he has told us from the first who Jesus is: the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Three titles – and his genealogy is constructed in 3 groups of 14: Abraham to David; David to the Exile, and the Exile to the birth of the Messiah (1:17).

The Infancy Narrative then expands on the first two titles (Messiah and son of David). He is the Messiah because of his divine origin: Jesus is none other than Emmanuel, which means, “God is with us” (1:23b). Last week, we looked at Matthew’s story of two kings of the Jews: Herod and Jesus. Jesus, not Herod, is the true King of the Jews. He is God’s true King – a fact proclaimed in the heavens by the star and acknowledged by the wise men of the east, who come asking the false king (Herod), “Where is the child who has been born King of the Jews?” (2:2). Matthew has the chief priests and scribes declare to Herod that Jesus is the Messiah King – the royal Messiah of the line of David – via Micah’s Bethlehem prophecy (2:6): Jesus is the Shepherd King like David.

I want to return in a moment to the Infancy Narrative to look at Matthew’s great secret which is hinted at in the flight to Egypt and fully revealed for the first time – that Jesus is, in fact, the Son of God – but first we need to look at how Jesus’ baptism expands on the third of Matthew’s opening titles: Jesus the Son of Abraham.

I want to start with something that has always puzzled me about Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism: Matthew alone has Jesus baptised by John “in order to fulfil all righteousness” (3:15). Why “righteousness”? John’s baptism is a baptism of repentance in the face of the imminent arrival of the Kingdom (3:2). Why does Jesus need to “repent” when it is quite clear that Matthew, in company with the other Evangelists, tells us that the Kingdom arrives in the person of Jesus himself? It seems to me that it has everything to do with the question mark that hangs over Matthew’s Jesus as a son of Abraham.

Matthew, as we have seen, doesn’t flinch from the issue of Jesus’ illegitimacy. It was clearly widely known in Nazareth that Jesus was a bastard. He was Mary’s son – not Joseph’s (cf 1:16). That meant that Jesus would not be regarded as a “son of Abraham” (ie a good, decent, Jewish boy). He would not be acceptable as a husband to any “daughter of Abraham” (ie any good, decent, Jewish girl). Regardless of Jesus’ own personal qualities, his dodgy origins would mean that he would always be regarded as dubious. To be a son of Abraham had nothing to do with personal qualities and personal life: it had to do with birth – with origins.

Put this into the context of the expectations about the coming Kingdom. “The Kingdom of God” (or, as Matthew piously renders it, “the Kingdom of Heaven”) was not a phrase invented by Jesus. It was a common summary-statement of Jewish eschatological hope and expectation: Yahweh was going to send the Messiah, who would liberate Israel from the Roman yoke. “Israel” would be restored as an independent state under a Davidic king. Yahweh’s people would be sovereign, the Temple would be central and national life would be ordered by Torah rather than Roman law. The expected Kingdom was nationally and ethnically defined (Israel). Its inhabitants would be the sons and daughters of Abraham. And many of the Pharisees and teachers of the Law (Saul of Tarsus among them) believed that the Kingdom would come only when Israel had purified itself.

This, presumably, is the significance of the fact that Matthew alone has John address the “many Pharisees and Saducees coming to him for baptism” (3:7). His speech (vv 7b-12) is drawn from the Q material (the “sayings” material common both to Matthew and Luke), but it is significant that, whereas Luke has John address this generally to “the crowds” that come for baptism, Matthew has John specifically address the Pharisees and the Saducees – the Jewish religious establishment and, importantly, the interpreters of the Law. What is going on here?

The Pharisees and Saducees had come for baptism because they saw John’s ministry as a vital part of the cleansing of Israel that would make possible the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of the Kingdom. Crucially, for them, Jesus (as illegitimate) would not figure in their calculations as part of Israel. He was not a “true son of Abraham”. He was not one of those for whom the Messiah was coming.

This makes sharp sense of John’s tirade against them:

Do not presume to say to yourselves, “We have Abraham as our ancestor”; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham! (3:9)

It’s becoming clearer, isn’t it? It’s all about John’s preparation for Jesus! His job is to announce Jesus as the fulfilment of God’s promises – as Messiah and son of David, who will usher in the Kingdom. And yet, in the eyes of the guardians of the Law, Jesus cannot possibly be these because he is not “properly Jewish”! They judge him to be someone who is not a son of Abraham.

We need to note that Matthew, unlike the other Evangelists, draws the closest possible parallels between John and Jesus. Whereas the other gospel writers are at pains to emphasise the difference between them, and the superiority of Jesus to John (Luke most markedly), Matthew even has John preach the same message as Jesus (“Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near” cf Mark 1:14 – Mark’s summary statement of Jesus’ preaching!). And then, of course, he has Jesus refuse to acknowledge John’s own admission of his unworthiness to baptise Jesus (3:14).

What is Matthew trying to achieve by this? I think it is this: by identifying John so closely with Jesus, Matthew has John give us God’s view of the issue of Jesus’ status. Matthew will go on in his gospel to show us that Jesus is the New Moses, giving the New Law to the New Israel (chapters 5-7). Whereas the Pharisees and Saducees judge Jesus to be illegitimate because of his birth, John wants to talk about the New Israel that Jesus will bring into existence: a nation defined not by ethnic origin but by filial obedience – a new covenantal faithfulness to Yahweh whose model is Jesus.

It is not the Pharisees and Saducees who have a right to judge Jesus; Jesus is in fact the one who will judge them! It is Jesus who will “sift Israel”, not them (vv 11-12). It is Jesus who will divide the wheat from the chaff: he – the one whom they judge to be “chaff” in God’s sight – is actually the ultimate Son of Abraham!

Jesus and the Baptist: Son of God
The events of Jesus’ baptism prove John to be right and the Pharisees to be wrong. Jesus allows himself to be baptised by John because Jesus, as a son of Abraham, identifies himself with the hope of the coming Kingdom that John announces and prepares for through his baptism. The baptism is Jesus’ own preparation for God’s Kingdom. That is what I take him to mean by “…it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness”. John’s baptism is about faithful, obedient preparation for the Kingdom; Jesus prepares similarly for his own role in all that God is doing.

Preparation, in other words, rather than repentance in the manner of the other baptisands. Everyone needs to prepare in the appropriate fashion to take their own part in the Kingdom, and Jesus does the same. Of course, his own role will be decisively and radically different, and this is made clear “just as he came up from the water” (3:16).

Mark (Matthew’s source) begins his gospel with identifying Jesus as the Son of God (Mark 1:1). Matthew’s opening line appears to have a less exalted view of Jesus: he is Messiah, son of David, son of Abraham. Matthew deliberately begs the question, “But what about Son of God?” We have already had a hint about the “missing title” in Matthew’s gospel in the story of the flight into Egypt, again through the citing of a prophecy: “This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son’”.

But Matthew deliberately waits until now – Jesus’ baptism – to make this clear. It is a moment of revelation – both to us as readers and to Jesus (who, in Matthew’s gospel, alone sees the heavens opened and hears the voice):

“This is my Son the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (3:17).

The voice of God (Psalm 29)
It is not surprising that the Lectionary compilers have chosen Psalm 29 for this week. There is the thematic link of v3: “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, over mighty waters”. Also, Yahweh is proclaimed as “…enthroned over the flood; Yahweh sits enthroned as king forever” (v10).

The psalmist uses the image of a great storm as the revelation of Yahweh’s glory. Creation belongs to Yahweh and the awesome power and majesty of the storm is earth’s praise and proclamation of Yahweh’s glory (vv 1-2). Yet the sheer noise and destructive power of the storm are harnessed by the psalmist to reflect on the power of Yahweh’s word.

Yahweh is the God-who-speaks. Creation comes into being through the word of Yahweh’s voice. Yahweh speaks life, liberation, salvation and judgement. Things happen because Yahweh speaks, and when Yahweh is silent, things are bad!

The point is this: in the Bible, the First Word and the Last Word belong to Yahweh. Because Yahweh is sovereign, Yahweh speaks and creation’s duty (and very especially human duty) is to listen and to obey. If the Jews are People of the Book, they are even more fundamentally People of the Voice, because the Torah is Yahweh’s Words. The purpose of studying and interpreting Torah is to listen and understand what Yahweh says – and then to obey. To be in covenant with Yahweh is to be Yahweh’s chosen conversation partner. That is what gives Israel existence and that is Israel’s glory.

In the context of today’s gospel reading, Psalm 29 underscores the importance of the heavenly voice as the final word on who Jesus is: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased”. Why is God pleased? Because of Jesus’ obedience! Jesus, through baptism, is putting himself at God’s disposal. The Kingdom role that Jesus will be called to assume will result in his crucifixion – but that will not be the Last Word. The Last Word belongs to God, and it is the Word of resurrection.

Jesus, the Servant of Yahweh (Isaiah 42: 1-9)
Isaiah 42: 1-9 is one of the great Servant Songs. In Isaiah’s own context, the oracle refers not to an individual but to Israel, whose calling is to be Yahweh’s servant in the world. These particular prophecies very quickly became the lens through which the earliest Christians understood Jesus as the Suffering Servant of God.

The servant’s role is not a glorious one (cf especially 52:13-53:12). Yahweh is going to act through the Servant, not through power, but in humility and gentleness (vv2-3a). Yet what the Servant will achieve will be Yahweh’s universal reign of justice and peace (v1b; 4). How will this be achieved without an enormous exercise in Yahweh’s sovereign, annihilative power? It will be achieved through the Spirit (v1). It is the Spirit who will empower the Servant to live sacrificially.

In Christian terms, it is important to remind ourselves at the outset of Jesus’ mission – and as we reflect upon our own baptism and discipleship of Jesus this week – that mission happens only in the power of the Spirit. Mission may be our task, as it was Jesus’, yet mission is something different from merely a call to Christian activism. It is about being God’s servants in the world. It is a call to a lifestyle of faithfulness, prayer, devotion and worship of God. This is what nourishes and sustains life-in-mission. We cannot transform the world in our own strength.

More than that: the disturbingly difficult fact is that, although mission is ultimately God’s that is no guarantee of success! We believe and trust that what God wills and intends for creation will ultimately come to pass; what we need to keep firmly in the forefront of our minds is that God appears to make the timetable distressingly dependent upon human response! We are called, in other words, to be faithful – not necessarily successful! What we achieve may be negligible in terms of size and success – but Jesus’ promise is that we sow mustard seeds whose significance and ultimate size far outweighs what we might expect from our achievements. That, though, is only because of the Spirit. The heartbreak, disappointment, doubt and sheer exhaustion involved in discipleship of Jesus and participation in God’s mission can and will be overwhelming without the resources of the Spirit – both within us and as we are nourished through life in the community of faith (preaching, prayer, worship and the sacraments). It is the Spirit who empowers us to live the life of the cross – the baptismal life.

Breaking boundaries (Acts 10: 34-43)
Matthew is, of course, intensely Jewish, writing for a Jewish audience. He feels acutely the question raised by Jesus’ crucifixion: if Jesus is the Messiah, how is it that his mission ends in his murder by the People of Yahweh? And what does this mean for the Covenant?

His answer is that Jesus is the author of the New Covenant (26:28) and the progenitor of the New Israel. This is a people defined not by their Jewish ness but by their faith in and discipleship of Yahweh’s Messiah, whose sonship is to be seen not so much in his origins as in his filial obedience to the Father. It is not that Matthew believed that Jesus’ origins were not divine; rather, he wants to show us that Jesus’ divinity is demonstrated by his obedience; that to be a child of God is first and foremost to live in relation to God as Jesus does, and to be involved in God’s same saving mission. Jesus will go immediately into the wilderness to face the devil (4:1-11). It will be a contest about faithful interpretation of and obedience to God’s Law, and Jesus, the New Moses, will be the one who both interprets and obeys it. He will prove himself to be the Son of Abraham.

But God’s Kingdom is not to be understood in the narrow terms of Jewish nationalism. God’s saving purposes are for the whole earth (cf 28:19). This is a lesson that Peter learns on the rooftop in Joppa at the outset of Acts 10. Peter is converted – yet the truth that the gospel is for the whole earth, rather than only for the Jews, is one with which he will struggle for the rest of his life. Acts 10: 34-43 is his very first proclamation of the Christian gospel to Gentiles. It is a momentous occasion.

Note how Peter begins with a confession: in effect, he says, “You know, I’ve just come to understand something radically new, and to be honest, I’m still reeling!” He then goes on to rehearse the story of Jesus, but what makes this sermon so interesting is the “new bit”:

I now understand for the very first time that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him! (vv 34-35)

Wow! This is dynamite! Here is Peter, jolted right out of his comfortable Jewish/Christian theological box! This is a new world. It is, quite literally the whole world that has opened up to Peter for the first time. God is not as Peter has been taught to expect and believe God to be. God has done something in Jesus that cannot be contained in the “old wineskins” of the faith – the “old” theology and the old ways of reading the Law and worshipping God.

And what happens? “The Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word” (10:44) and no one is more gob smacked than the Jewish believers! And if the Holy Spirit has come upon them, who can come up with any good reason why they ought not to be baptised (v 47)? So the first Gentiles to become Christians en masse are baptised. The world is different! God is not looking for disciples who will be defined by their origins and religious traditions: God is looking for people who will respond with joy and faith and obedience.

What begins here in Acts 10 with the inclusion of the Gentiles actually began with Jesus, the illegitimate carpenter of Nazareth – to all intents and purposes outside the true community of Israel. But Jesus responds with faithful obedience and receives the divine seal of approval – and the affirmation that he is the Son of God!

The history of the Christian Church is remarkably un-glorious! The Church has behaved instinctively far more like the Pharisees and the Saducees than like Jesus. The community that Jesus will call into being – the community of the Spirit – is shockingly, radically inclusive! Yet one of the most thrilling stories of the Christian Church is how it has learned, painfully and with agonising slowness, that the gospel includes those whom we instinctively want to bar: people of other races; slaves; women. The Church is most authentically a sign of the Kingdom when it manifests that radical inclusiveness. It is not we who are the judges of whether gay people ought to be fully part of the life of the Church; that Word belongs to God. And we do well to heed the lesson that Peter learned on that first day as a missionary to the Gentiles: if God gives these “outsiders” the Spirit, what possible reason can we have for refusing to baptise them? It’s time the Church caught up with its God!

Jesus’ disciples will be drawn from all the nations of the earth. They (we) will not be sons and daughters of Abraham by birth, because they (we), like Jesus, are in that sense “illegitimate”; rather – and more importantly – they (we), like Jesus, will be sons and daughters of God.

Hallelujah!

Technorati Tags: new testament, old testament, theology, biblical, hermeneutics, jesus and john the baptist, the gospel to the gentiles, radical inclusion, the voice of god, the servant songs, the suffering servant, peter and cornelius, why was jesus baptised?, did jesus need to repent?

« Previous Page