Sermon - Baptism of the Lord (1/12/2020)
Is. 42:1-9; Ps. 29; Acts 10:34-43; Mt. 3:13-17.
If it’s not too impertinent, I’d like to ask a question: If Jesus is the Son of God, why does Jesus have to go to John the Baptist in order to be baptized? If Jesus is the human being who never sinned, why does Jesus get baptized if he has nothing to repent from? It’s an interesting question, at least to me, and according to today’s gospel passage even John the Baptist asked it: I should be baptized by you, says John the Baptist, so why are you coming to me?
And my puzzlement is not diminished by the response Jesus gives to John: “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Which is kind of cryptic, isn’t it? It sounds like: It’s the right thing to do, so just do it. Which is not much of an answer to John’s question. It’s more of a command: Don’t ask questions, just do what I say because I say so.
Now, I hope that’s not all that Jesus was saying. Because it would really make for a dreadful sermon. “Become righteous by performing rituals you don’t understand” – that’s not anybody’s definition of good news. But, I don’t think it will surprise you that I think Jesus is saying something much more interesting than it might seem. And there are two specific words that make me think this.
The first of them is the word “fulfill.” The baptism of Jesus “fulfills” all righteousness. We are still early in our reading of Matthew’s gospel this year, but we have already run across this “fulfill” word a lot. “This happened to fulfill what was said through the prophet.” And, as we have been seeing, when Matthew says this, he is trying to show us how Jesus is connected to the revelation of God in the Old Testament. So this word is a hint that we should look for some passage of the Old Testament that will fill in the meaning of what Jesus is saying or doing in this passage.
Usually Matthew tells us which passage to look at. Today Matthew does not, but it’s the voice from heaven that is saying something familiar to those who know their Hebrew Scriptures: “This is my Son, my beloved one, in whom I am well pleased.” Which is a pretty close match to the beginning of our first reading today from Isaiah: “Here is my servant, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations.”
What this means, I believe, is that Matthew wants us to think of this text from Isaiah that we read this morning as a description of the mission Jesus is undertaking at his baptism. So, for example, Isaiah says of this servant of God, “He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street.” And Jesus will not cry out and shout at people, even as John the Baptist did, but will work quietly, without drawing attention to himself. “A bruised reed he will not break, a dimly burning wick he will not quench.” Jesus does not come to judge the wounded and the imperfect, but to heal them and lift them up.
“He will faithfully bring forth justice; he will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth.” And what does Isaiah say that justice of God looks like? ”I have called you in righteousness, I have given you as a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.” It looks like God setting the world right.
So when Jesus tells John the Baptist that his baptism will “fulfill all righteousness,” he isn’t saying “this is what God wants and you’ll be righteous if you do it.” He is saying that his baptism will reveal him to be the servant of whom Isaiah spoke who will bring God’s righteousness into an unrighteous world, who will tend the bruised reed and build up the dimly burning wick, who will open eyes that are blind and release prisoners from the dungeon, who will not draw attention to himself but quietly heal what is broken and make the world right.
The other key word in what Jesus says to John the Baptist is another one you may have seen before. John objects to Jesus’s request for baptism, and Jesus tells John “Let it be so now,” and then Matthew says John “consented.” The same Greek word that is translated both as “let it be” and as “consented” is one of my favorite Greek words: aphés. It can mean “let be,” “release,” or “let go,” sometimes in a general way, and sometimes specifically it can mean “forgive.” It’s the word we use in the Lord’s Prayer “forgive us” our trespasses; it’s the word Jesus speaks from the cross, “Forgive them, they know not what they do.” Let it be, let it go. So John objects, Jesus says, “Let it go,” and John “lets it go.”
John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus by proclaiming judgment: The Messiah is coming, judgment day is near, get right with God while you still can. And when Jesus came to the Jordan River, Matthew tells us that that John would have prevented Jesus from being baptized. In John’s world, righteousness meant Jesus doesn’t get baptized because he doesn’t need it. And if it were up to John, Jesus would not have been baptized.
But Jesus said: Let it go, John, let it go. The way that God is going to make the world right is the way of Isaiah’s servant: I’m not going to shout in the streets or quench the dimly burning wick. I’m going to open the eyes that are blind and release the prisoners from their dungeons. I’m not going to grow faint or be crushed until God’s purposes are accomplished. If you have an urge for judgment, let it go. And John let it go.
The baptism of Jesus, like our own baptism, is not about the worthiness of what we bring to the waters. It’s about opening our eyes to the reality of how God is working in the world to make everything right: quietly, without coercion, withholding judgment, with understanding and healing, by opening eyes and flinging wide prison doors. It comes when we hear the voice from heaven: You are God’s beloved child, in whom God delights, on whom God’s spirit is given. God’s word is true, and can always be trusted.
But Jesus did not have to get baptized for himself. His own righteousness was not at issue; John was correct about that. Jesus does not enter the Jordan River to seek the forgiveness of his sins, but to seek the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus is responsible for none of this world’s brokenness, but he goes to the Jordan River to take responsibility for repairing the world. And for those of us who also have been baptized, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said, we also are invited not to dwell on our “own needs, problems, sins, and fears,” but rather to allow ourselves “to be caught up in the way of Jesus,”* in the way of the servant of whom Isaiah spoke, who does not draw attention to himself but heals and forgives and so enacts the righteousness of God.
To those who, like John the Baptist, are worried about who deserves what, Jesus says: Let it go. This is how we, together, will fulfill all righteousness: by looking beyond our own needs and failings, by hearing the Word from heaven that we are God’s beloved children in whom God delights, by allowing ourselves to be formed into the image of the servant of God of whom Isaiah spoke, by being attentive to the work of the Spirit hovering over the world and making all things new. John let go of his worries and let God do the rest. May we do the same.
* - Letters and Papers from Prison, 361-62.