The Christmas season liturgically officially ends with the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, but this is still a theologically rich period of time because the entire season, Advent, in preparing and waiting for Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus and all of the festivals that we have after that – The Holy Family, Mary, the mother of God, the Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord – all of that stuff is tied together in this celebration of the mystery of the incarnation of God: that God became flesh, that God became human.
That’s what we're celebrating at this whole time of the year. And the gospels that we hear are according to the fathers of the Church, all about this mystery of the Epiphany of the Lord. And the Epiphany of the Lord is Jesus being revealed or “manifested” not just simply to the little community there in the Holy Family or even in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas, but Jesus being manifest to the entire world. Last week we celebrated that in the persons of the three wise men who come from afar, and Jesus is now being opened onto the world scene.
The baptism of the Lord is like that, because now Jesus public ministry will begin. You really can't go back to anonymity when the skies open and God says, “You are my beloved Son, with you, I am well pleased.” You don't just walk away quietly from something like that! And Jesus ministry begins. But the third mystery from the life of Christ that the fathers of the Church tied together with the epiphany, the visit of the wise men, the baptism of the Lord is the wedding at Cana. That's next week's gospel. And it's not every year that we get to do this, but this year being Year C, we will hear John's account of the wedding at Cana. And again, that is a manifestation of Jesus coming onto the scene, being revealed in his power, his presence, his compassion and love.
So, all three of these particular episodes in the life of Christ speak to the same experience of Jesus, God made flesh, being revealed and becoming public knowledge. However, the Baptism of the Lord presented kind of a scandal or a problem for the early church. The early church wrestled with this because baptism as we understand it is a washing away of sin. John's baptism didn't wash away sin, but it was a sign of repentance, of wanting to put aside an old way of life and turn toward a good way of life in preparation for the arrival of the Messiah. So, it was a baptism of repentance. Neither of those did Jesus need, right? Jesus is the sinless Son of God, fully divine, fully human, perfectly sinless. So, he doesn't need baptism to wash away sin. He doesn't need baptism to repent from some degenerate way of life that he had been living. So why on earth did he come to be baptized by John?
The earliest church, the earliest disciples wrestled with it, because all of the gospels say it happened, so it had to have happened, but they didn't know why. And so, in Matthew's Gospel, for example, Jesus comes to be baptized. And John the Baptist says, “Whoa! Jesus, no, no, no! I should be baptized by you. Because John has a problem with it. And Matthew's trying to wrestle with it, and Jesus says, “Let it be, for such is necessary to fulfill all righteousness or to fulfill all justice.” Jesus commanded John to baptize him. And you do what Jesus says, right? What Jesus meant by “fulfilling all justice” is that Jesus being baptized is the initial sign of his work, of beginning to bring back together God and humanity. Justice is being in right relationship with God. Jesus, who has taken on our humanity in being baptized for us, basically is bringing us back together with God, which is what Jesus came to do.
Other early theologians, fathers of the church, had said that the reason Jesus went down into the waters of the Jordan was not so much himself to be washed, but to purify the waters of the Jordan so that all other baptism would have the effect of washing us away from sin. It's a good try. And they're much smarter and holier than I am. So, let's take that one also. It doesn't have to be either or.
But really, what's going on in the baptism of Jesus? As I've been thinking about this this week and praying about it, I remembered from our scripture courses and our Christology courses that this was an issue that the early church had a really hard time with. The fact that Jesus had to be baptized. Here's what I think this mystery is telling us. Because Jesus comes to John, he comes to the Jordan, and we hear in Luke's gospel something beautiful. And it's so matter-of-fact that I think I miss it a lot of times. Maybe you do too. This is what they say about the baptism of Jesus. There's no dramatic scene. John's just there doing his thing. And Luke says, “After all the people have been baptized […] and Jesus also...” There was no singling him out. There was no spotlight shining on Jesus before he got there. There was no John saying, hold on a minute. Jesus just went in with everyone else. He went in with everyone else, with the rotten people who showed up, the people who really hated themselves, the people who knew that they were wretched sinners and needed to do something to jar themselves out of this worthless way of life that they were living. Jesus walked down the banks of the Jordan with them, shoulder to shoulder, as one of them.
In John's gospel, when he describes this scene, John the Baptist says something really wonderful which is related to this. He says, “There is someone among you whom you do not know [who is the Messiah]”, meaning he's right here with us today. That Jesus so fully identified with us that he just blended in. That Jesus chooses to identify with you and me and everyone else in the world, sinners and saints. That Jesus chooses to be one of us. And that, I think, is part of the mystery of what we celebrate today. Because Jesus is not some distant deity on a mountain that doesn't have anything to do with us. Jesus is not someone who doesn't understand your temptations, your struggles, your depression, your feelings. Jesus knows and Jesus experiences it. And he walks right into the mess with us.
Now, of course, God singles him out on the way out so that we know that there's something special about this guy. But he didn't presume to take any privilege on himself. That is really, I think, the wonder of what we celebrate in the baptism of the Lord. When we get baptized, we are not reenacting Jesus’ baptism. When we get baptized, we are reenacting his death and resurrection. When Jesus is baptized, he is saying, “You are mine and I am yours, and we belong together no matter what.” No matter what your political affiliation, no matter what your sexual orientation, no matter what your immigration status is, no matter what your race, no matter what your religion, we belong to each other.
And as Christians who claim to follow Christ, you and I need to be shoulder to shoulder with those people too. Especially the marginalized, especially the ones who find it hard to operate in this world today, tomorrow, the next day, whatever. There are brothers and sisters of ours who sit in these pews who struggle with those things. We can't take on the safe privilege and say, that's not my problem. Because Jesus didn't do that. And by taking that on Himself, it led him directly to the cross, which is the path that he calls us to as well. That's the mystery we celebrate today.
I was also reflecting on why did it. Why did Jesus start 30 years in? We focus so much on Jesus as a baby, an infant, a child, and then all of a sudden, bam. Why did it take that long? I don't know about the details, but I think in those 30 years, Jesus did a lot of listening to people. I think Jesus encountered a lot of people. I think Jesus became quite the expert on humanity just by hearing people's stories, walking with them, associating with them, experiencing their mistakes. Maybe it takes that long to become Jesus. So, think about that. Take that with you.
This Baptism, Jesus wasn't being baptized because he was a bad person. He wasn't being baptized because there was something wrong with him. He wasn't being baptized so that he could be fixed. I was. You were. But Jesus did it so that we could be fixed. He did it so that we could experience the salvation that he came to bring. That's the mystery we celebrate. Next week we will hear about wine out of water, but today we're still focused on the water: the water of baptism, the water that unites us with Jesus so that we can act as him and walk shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters.
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