Jesus Precedes Us In Baptism
It's the first Sunday after the Epiphany: Baptism of the Lord Sunday.
We’ll get back to Jesus & Nicodemus tomorrow. But today is a feast day on the Christian calendar - Baptism of the Lord. Churches throughout the world today will gather to remember that Jesus preceded us in baptism.
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For many Christians, it is a bit of a perplexity. If baptism is about the cleansing of sin, why would Jesus—who knew no sin—be baptized?
Quite simply, baptism isn’t only about the cleansing of sin. And even when it is, it’s not the act of baptism that cleanses sin. God does that and works as individually as necessary with each person.
Rather, baptism is a sacrament that signifies what God is doing within the person who has accepted it. As such, it is an act of recognition and incorporation into the people of God, which is to receive the favor of God.
So when we read the words God the father shouts from the heavens at Jesus’ baptism, it makes sense that they are words of affirmation. Baptism is a two-way affirmation.
Some also point out that Jesus’ baptism is a preparation of the Church’s. In that Jesus was baptized in water, his baptism sanctifies the water in anticipation of each one of our baptisms. Think of how, at the first Lord’s Supper, Jesus raised the bread and cup. We believe this set the precedent for each time bread and wine are blessed and consumed since then - in your church, my church, big churches, and small churches in every corner of the globe.
Similarly, we can see the waters in which Jesus was baptized to be the water each one of us was baptized with some 2000 years later.
It is indeed another situation in which Jesus stands in solidarity with us, preceding us in those things his way requires. He is no despotic leader demanding arbitrary actions he’d never do himself. No, Jesus stands firmly in the way of salvation, both as effecter and recipient, even when his life did not require it.
Jesus is with us.
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The people were filled with expectation, and everyone wondered whether John might be the Christ. John replied to them all, “I baptize you with water, but the one who is more powerful than me is coming. I’m not worthy to loosen the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.” …
When everyone was being baptized, Jesus also was baptized. While he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit came down on him in bodily form like a dove. And there was a voice from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I dearly love; in you I find happiness.”
Psalm 29
You, divine beings! Give to the Lord—give to the Lord glory and power!
Give to the Lord the glory due his name! Bow down to the Lord in holy splendor!
The Lord’s voice is over the waters; the glorious God thunders; the Lord is over the mighty waters. The Lord’s voice is strong; the Lord’s voice is majestic.
The Lord’s voice breaks cedar trees—yes, the Lord shatters the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon jump around like a young bull, makes Sirion jump around like a young wild ox. The Lord’s voice unleashes fiery flames; the Lord’s voice shakes the wilderness—yes, the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The Lord’s voice convulses the oaks, strips the forests bare, but in his temple everyone shouts, “Glory!”
The Lord sits enthroned over the floodwaters; the Lord sits enthroned—king forever!
Let the Lord give strength to his people! Let the Lord bless his people with peace!
Prayer1
God,
Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
Adapted from the Book of Common Prayer’s collect for the First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of our Lord.
“Jesus is baptized in the Jordan. What sort of baptism is this, when the one who is dipped is purer than the font, and where the water that soaks the one whom it has received is not dirtied but honored with blessings? What sort of baptism is this of the Savior in which the streams are made pure more than they purify? For by a new kind of consecration the water does not so much wash Christ as submit to being washed. Since the Savior plunged into the waters, he sanctified the outpouring of every flood and the course of every stream by the mystery of his baptism. When someone wishes to be baptized in the name of the Lord, it is not so much the water of this world that covers him but the water of Christ. The Savior willed to be baptized for this reason—not that he might cleanse himself but that he might cleanse the waters for our sake.”
–Maximus of Turin (380–465)
Thanks to Brian Zahnd for highlighting this.