Mark 1:4-11, 1-8-12
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ
The Baptism of our Lord! That is the theme of the day. Every
Christian denomination (that I am aware of) and some Christian-like churches (that I know of) celebrate
Jesus’ Baptism and so also make a place for the Sacrament of Baptism in their
theology and practice. This has been true all throughout the history of the
Christian Church; there have been many lists of the Sacraments, but to my
knowledge Baptism has always been included on these lists.
This is not to say that there have not been differences in
the way that Baptism has been practiced and understood; there have been some
great differences, and there still are some great differences, but Baptism has always
played a major role in the life and theology of the Christian church. Today, the
Pentecostals center their worship and membership practices around a Baptism
that includes a spiritual sign, like speaking in tongues. The Mormons believe
that they can save non-Christians, even those long dead, by baptizing them in their
absence. Baptist’s believe that you must be immersed in water for the baptism
to be effective and that you must be old enough to make the decision to be
baptized; it is a, kind of, believer’s baptism. Lutheran’s, Roman Catholic’s
Presbyterian’s and many of the other main line denominations believe in infant
baptism and they sprinkle water on the baby or child or adult’s head rather
than dunk them in a pool of water.
In spite of the differences, almost all Christians agree and
believe that baptism is necessary, that God imparts to those who are baptized his
Spirit, the gift of faith and a variety of other spiritual gifts and that
Baptism has something to do with our salvations. Baptism is, without question,
central to Christianity.
The practice of baptism began as a ritual washing within the
Jewish faith, but became a public event and was popularized by John the Baptist.
The baptism that John the Baptist offered was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness
of sins which drew many people who were suffering with the guilt of their sins
to John and to the river Jordan to be baptized.
One of the people baptized by John was Jesus; and it is, in
part, because Jesus was baptized that we today include it as a sacrament and why
we include it among the practices of the Christian Church; some other reasons
why we include it are because Jesus called his Disciples to go out and baptize
and on at least one occasion Jesus listed baptism as one of the two conditions
necessary for salvation.
Strangely though, the very fact that Jesus submitted to
John’s baptism of repentance presents us with more questions than answers. “Why?”
is the first question. If John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sin, why would Jesus submit to it? Jesus, we believe, to have
been without sin; Jesus we believe did not sass his parents, he did not steal
from his neighbors, he did not kill and he did not commit adultery. The Gospel
of Matthew, when telling the story of Jesus’ Baptism, uncomfortable (maybe)
with Jesus submitting himself to such a baptism, goes so far as to suggest that
John the Baptist resisted doing the baptism, saying that he should be baptized,
in stead, by Jesus.
So, why would Jesus submit himself to John’s baptism? It is
not an easy question; it begs a series of other questions, like: “Why would
Jesus submit to being born into human life, to hunger and thirst, to
associations with tax collectors and prostitutes, to meetings with the sick and
the poor and why would Jesus submit to suffering at the hands of both, Jews and
Gentiles and, of course, why would he then submit himself to such a horrible death?”
All these questions are related.
About his baptism: Jesus may have been baptized with a baptism
of repentance, but what happened at Jesus’ baptism had very little to do with
repentance and it did not a declaration of God’s forgiveness (which we believe
that Jesus really did not need), but what we hear was rather a bold acclamation
of how pleased God was with Jesus (God’ announced, You are my Son, the Beloved;
with you I am well pleased), and there was the receiving by Jesus of the Holy
Spirit and then Jesus was pushed by the Holy Spirit out into the wilderness to
be tempted by the devil, and then after that forty day fast and trial, Jesus
was directed to return to Galilee to begin his ministry. Jesus’ Baptism was, in
a real sense, a kind-of coming out party; it marked the beginning of Jesus’
public life, for us.
And that is, in effect, the answer to all of those questions
of why Jesus would have submitted to such things; the answer is simply that
Jesus did all that he did for us. We
could say that Jesus submitted himself to human life so that he could know how
to love and care for us, that he submitted
to suffering and death so that we would not need to be punished for our sins, and
that he submitted to John’s Baptism of repentance, so that we would not have
to.
And we don’t; in fact, the baptism that we submit to is not
John’s Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, but rather a new kind
of baptism instituted by Jesus, made possible by Jesus’ suffering and death; the
baptism that we submit to is a baptism of adoption. In baptism we are, each and
every one of us, adopted by God as his very own children and so we are made brothers
and sisters of Jesus.
In celebrating the Baptism of our Lord today, we are
acknowledging, maybe not all, but some, of what Jesus endured for us. We are accepting Jesus
sacrifice for us. In doing so, we admit to our need, to have Jesus as our Lord
and Savior. We admit that we are unable, on our own, to earn God’s salvation. We
admit that we cannot live our lives free from sin and so do not ourselves deserve
God’s love. We admit that, without Jesus sacrifice, we would deserve no less
than eternal punishment.
Why was it that Jesus submitted to John’s Baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins? Because we needed him to do that. We
needed Jesus to do all those things that he did for us and God in Jesus was willing to submit to and endure all
those things for us.
Celebrate the Baptism of our Lord, with thanksgiving, giving
praise to our Loving Father and our self sacrificing Savior Jesus, because all
that was done, was done for us, for you and for me. And to that we
proclaim; thanks be to God!
