The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, January 13th: Isaiah 42:1-7; Acts 10:34-38; Matthew 3: 13-17)

THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

In this week’s gospel reading, Jesus went out to the Jordan where John the Baptist was baptizing people. Jesus asked John to baptize Him, and John was stunned. He tried to discourage Jesus. “I need to be baptized by you,” John said, “and yet you are coming to me?”

John had a good point. This was Jesus, THE Jesus. John knew who He was. Remember all the Advent and Christmas readings we heard over the past few weeks? All the stories about angels announcing their conceptions, the fulfillment of prophesies, Mary and Elizabeth, etc.? They were cousins and John knew that he was the warm-up band while Jesus was the main act.

So, when Jesus showed up looking to be baptized by John, John immediately thought, “Whoa! What’s wrong with this picture?!” To John, it made about as much sense as Abe Lincoln asking for advice about honesty from Bill Clinton.

John’s was a baptism of repentance. He was calling people to admit their faults, turn away from their sinfulness, and seek God’s kingdom. Everybody, even John himself, needed to do this. Everybody, that is, except Jesus. He was the one person on the planet who didn’t need to repent.

But Jesus told John not to worry about it. He said, “Allow it now, for thus is it fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Baptism symbolized turning from the old to the new. John wanted people to turn from sin and live new lives of goodness. Jesus also was turning from the old to the new. He was not turning from a life of sin, of course, but for many years He had been working quietly in the carpentry shop He had inherited from Joseph. Now it was time for His public ministry. Just like all the other people who had come out to John, Jesus, too, was making a public proclamation of His intent to begin a new phase of His life. If was time for Him to fulfill His purpose for being born—to fulfill all righteousness.

The fact that Jesus submitted to baptism also symbolized that He was submitting His will to that of the Father. Although Jesus was God, and had always been equal to the Father since before time began (“One in being with the Father,” “In the beginning was the Word,” “Through him all things were made,” etc.), by taking on human flesh He was lowering Himself down to our level. Just as in Gethsemane three years later, Jesus was deferring to the Father’s will for the period of time that He was incarnate as a man.

To show beyond a doubt that Jesus’ baptism did indeed fulfill all righteousness and begin the new era of the kingdom of Heaven on earth, the completeness of the Trinity was on hand for the occasion. Jesus, obviously, was there, the second person of the Trinity who had taken on human flesh.

The Holy Spirit was there, as we read, “[Jesus] came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him.”

And the Father was there, as this week’s gospel reading concludes, “A voice came from the heavens, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”

So this was it, the official beginning of Jesus’ ministry. The official start of that amazing and glorious event in history where God Himself would take on all the sins of humanity and make Himself an atoning sacrifice so that we would not perish. It was the beginning of the redemption of fallen mankind.

Did you ever notice that all religious systems throughout history teach people how to pull themselves up to God, while Christianity is the only one that teaches that God lowered himself down to our level? When you think about it, how can weak and sinful mankind possibly succeed in raising ourselves up to heavenly heights? How can we, on our own, reach God’s level of spiritual perfection? You might as well ask a newborn baby to pilot a 747 jumbo jet.

But God loved us so much and did not want to see us lost for all eternity. He had a part of His own divine being take on human form (and if you think I’m gonna try to explain exactly how the concept of the Trinity works, forget it!). He lowered Himself to save us.

What tremendous love God showed us. He agreed to take on our sin, pay the price for our transgressions, even though we do not deserve it at all. And all He asks in return is that we put our faith in Him, and let His Spirit flow through us and guide us here on earth.

This week’s gospel marks the beginning of the most remarkable three-year period in human history. God Himself walked the earth and showed us the way back home. It doesn’t get any better than that.

©2008