2017 01.08 Matthew 3:13-17 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? 15 But Jesus answered him, Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness. Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased. 1
Re-membering Baptism I can still remember it clearly. It was during my first semester of seminary, in my Old Testament class. In fact, it was right before the midterm exam was about to start. I should say that the Old Testament class at Princeton Seminary is foundational and formational to a student s identity. The class is a rite of passage. Almost every student takes the class their first semester of their first year, all at the same time in one classroom. When I took the class there were about one hundred students. Some students had come fresh from undergraduate programs. Others, like myself, came back to school after being in the workforce. We were different in many ways, but we shared this common experience of taking Old Testament. It was an intense class. It was sort of like I imagine basic training to be in the military. Not that it was at all physical, but in the same way that the military breaks down new recruits in order to rebuild them in the military s image, Princeton Seminary tries to break you down intellectually and then rebuild you in their image. Part of that breaking down comes with the first assignment, which is a short paper of no more than one thousand words (about four pages). The assignment is simple. You just have to analyze and interpret a passage of Scripture. Students can choose from a range of passages, but it doesn t matter. Virtually everyone gets the same grade rewrite. It s the professors way of saying, Welcome to graduate school. Seeing that red R at the top of your paper serves as a reminder that you re not in an undergraduate program. This is graduate school. The standards are higher. Much to the students disappointment, the highest grade possible with the rewrite is a B. After the first paper, the next major assignment is the midterm exam. For many students, the midterm is their first exam of seminary. With the rewrite still fresh in their minds, and the midterm looming, some students begin to question themselves, wondering whether they belong at seminary. Therefore they study for the midterm as if their lives depend on it. They gather in all-night study groups. They share 2
copies of exams from previous years. They memorize outlines of entire books of the Bible. They study ancient maps so that they can distinguish Moab from Edom. The black student union even held a prayer breakfast for students so that they would be both spiritually and physically fed before the exam. Yet no matter how much you study, there is guaranteed to be a question that you didn t prepare for. I still remember mine: In the book of Exodus, what were the names of the two Hebrew midwives who disobeyed Pharaoh s order to kill every newborn Hebrew boy? For the life of me I couldn t recall them at the time, but I ve never forgotten their names since then: Shiprah and Puah. The studying continues until the last possible moment. Even just minutes before the start of the exam, students can be seen poring over their notes, trying to cram one more bit of information into their already overstuffed brains. It was during those minutes right before the start of the exam that I saw her walk into the room. She was a second-year student. That meant that she had already endured what we were about to go through. She entered the room casually, without drawing attention to herself. She didn t say a word. She quietly grabbed a piece of chalk from the blackboard and began to write. She wrote this one phrase [SLIDE]: Remember who you are and whose you are. Then she left as quietly as she had entered. Remember who you are and whose you are was her way of saying, it s just an exam. It doesn t define you. Your worth as a human being will not increase or decrease depending on your score. God will not love you any more if you do well, or any less if you don t do well. She was reminding us that our identity did not lie in a number on a piece of paper. We were more than a number. Our identity lay in the God who had already claimed us regardless of how we did on the exam. Remember who you are and whose you are is a matter of identity. Today we read about Jesus baptism. Baptism, both Jesus baptism and ours, is also a matter of identity. When Jesus emerges from the waters of baptism, a voice from heaven says, 3
This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased (Mt. 3:17). All those gathered at the water s edge learn of Jesus identity as the Son of God. In a similar way, our baptism serves to remind us of our identity as children of God, as people who have been claimed by God and set apart for God s mission in the world. Baptism is a physical reminder of who we are and whose we are. There are certain events in the life of Jesus that appear in all four Gospels, e.g., the Passion of Christ (his suffering and death) and his resurrection. Jesus baptism is another. All four Gospels describe an encounter between Jesus and John the Baptist at the Jordan River. Despite the common subject matter, each Gospel writer depicts the encounter differently [SLIDE]. In Mark and Luke, there s no dialogue; Jesus and John don t say a word. The only voice heard comes from heaven. In the Gospel of John, John the Baptist never actually baptizes Jesus. John describes a previous encounter that he had with Jesus, which sounds like it could ve been his baptism. John says, I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him (Jn. 1:32). It s clear that John is describing something that already took place. What s more, John is the only one who talks. Jesus remains silent while John goes on at length testifying to Jesus identity as the Lamb of God. Matthew s might be the most curious of the four Gospel accounts [SLIDE]. I say curious because only in Matthew do we see this exchange between Jesus and John. Only in Matthew do they both speak. When John speaks, he shows a great deal of deference to Jesus. He makes it clear that Jesus is his superior. He even tries to prevent Jesus from being baptized because he doesn t feel worthy to perform the baptism. When John sees Jesus come to him for baptism, he says, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? (Mt. 3:14). John clearly recognizes Jesus as his superior. Jesus responds by saying [SLIDE], Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness (Mt. 3:15). These are the first words spoken by Jesus in Matthew s Gospel. They form our first impression of him. You know how when 4
you meet someone for the first time you form an immediate impression? Not only their appearance, but their words as well, leave an impression with you. The impression can be positive or negative. She has an artistic look. The way he talks, he s so full of himself! Just as we form an immediate impression of someone in person, we do the same with Jesus as we meet him here in Matthew s Gospel. Our first impression of Jesus is of someone who is concerned with righteousness. Righteousness is a theme that we will see repeatedly in this Gospel. Each of the Gospel writers emphasizes a particular aspect of Jesus ministry. If you were with us a year ago at this time, when we began our journey through Luke s Gospel, you heard that Jesus first-recorded public words in Luke are to proclaim good news to the poor and the year of the Lord s favor on all who are oppressed (Lk. 4:18). With those first words, Jesus shows his concern for the poor and the outcast, a theme that we saw throughout Luke. Matthew chooses to highlight Jesus concern with righteousness. This will become even more apparent in a few weeks when we read from the Sermon on the Mount in chapter five. There Jesus says, Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (Mt. 5:5) and blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake (Mt. 5:10). Still later in the Gospel we will hear Jesus command the crowds to seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (Mt. 6:33). (By the way, that was the verse on the bookmark that I received at the New Year s Eve service.) Righteousness is one of those words you hear in church and know is important, even if it s meaning isn t exactly clear. So, what is righteousness? Basically, it means behavior that is in keeping with God s will. What did God will? In the Old Testament, God willed to be in relationship with Israel, even when Israel was not faithful in the relationship. And in the New Testament, through Jesus, the Son, God wills to be in relationship with the entire world. 5
That relationship will begin with Jesus baptism. Jesus submits to baptism by John, not because he needs to be cleansed of sin and repent (more on that in a moment). Jesus agrees to be baptized because it s in keeping with God s will for him and for the world. It s not for his own sake that he is baptized, but for ours. Why? What do we get from Jesus baptism? In his baptism, Jesus identity is revealed. When he emerges from the water the heavens open and a voice says [SLIDE], This is my Son (Mt. 3:17). As depicted in Matthew, this is a public event. John the Baptist and the rest of the crowd gathered around him hear the voice. In fact, the voice is directed to them. That s why the voice says, This is my Son. By contrast, in Mark and Luke the voice is directed to Jesus and says, You are my Son. With the voice saying This is my Son, Matthew wants to emphasize that this proclamation from heaven is heard by all who are gathered at the river not just by Jesus, but also by John and the whole crowd. The word This indicates that this is a public proclamation of Jesus as the Son of God. With this public proclamation of Jesus identity Matthew is making the point that Jesus is not the Son of God in isolation. He is the Son of God for us. He is the Son of God who identifies with sinners so much that he undergoes baptism, even though he has not sinned and even though he has no need of repentance. It will be the same with the cross. On the cross, Jesus also identifies with sinners, even though he is innocent of any crime and is not deserving of death. Jesus baptism and crucifixion are like bookends to his life, a life lived on behalf of sinners from beginning to end. For sinners like us, baptism itself is a beginning and an end [SLIDE]. It is the beginning of new life a life lived in Jesus Christ. And it is the end of any claim on our part that our lives belong to us. In baptism we die to ourselves and to our sin, and we are risen with Christ. We are sealed with his Spirit. That seal means that we are bound to him. We belong to him. We are his. He has made us his own. In baptism we become aware of our identity as God s beloved. 6
This is true not only of the individual being baptized but of the whole church. We tend to think of baptism as an individual experience, whether for a child or an adult. To some extent, that s true. In baptism, the person being baptized makes certain vows, promising to live a life devoted to Christ. (For children, of course, parents makes these vows.) But baptism is also a communal experience. That s why at baptism, in addition to the vows of the person being baptized, the entire congregation makes a vow. Together, as one, we vow to guide, nurture, and encourage the baptized person to know and follow Jesus Christ and to be a faithful member of the church. Baptism, you see, is about membership, but not just membership in the local church. In baptism we are made members of the body of Christ. We are joined to him. We abide in him. Because we abide in him, his peace becomes our peace. His life becomes our life. His death becomes our death. His resurrection becomes our resurrection. His mission becomes our mission. His love becomes our love. All of this happened at your baptism. Don t you remember? Probably not. Many of us were baptized as infants. If you were, you probably don t remember your baptism. But baptism is all about re-membering. Let me be clear here I m not talking about remembering; I m talking about re-membering [SLIDE], as in putting back together something that was broken. Our relationship with God could have been forever broken by sin. God could have allowed our sin to define us and to separate us from God and from one another. Our identity would have been forever broken by sin. It would be like looking in a cracked mirror. We would see only the distorted perspective of sin. We would never see ourselves as God sees us. But in the waters of baptism God re-members us. God repairs our relationship with him, a relationship that had been broken by sin. God re-members us, i.e., God joins us to Jesus Christ. In that re-membering we are given our identity as children of God. We learn who we are and whose we are. And so I encourage you remember your 7
baptism. Remember that you belong to Jesus Christ [SLIDE]. That is cause for great joy. 8