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."
In September of 2005 I had a rather
unique experience. I was invited to sit in with a group of other students at
Samford on a conversation with a well-known and very well-respected Christian
author. Now, to tell the truth, I had no idea who the author was. I had friends
who were telling me how excited they were that this guy was coming to speak in
chapel, and I had friends who were asking me if I had ever read this guy’s
books (I hadn’t). Apparently, this guy was a big deal, so I decided I wouldn’t
blow off the event.
The day came. I woke up from a nap I
had taken after class that afternoon just in time to run over to SIM Forum and
plop down in one of the leather chairs there in that wood-paneled room. In a
chair next to me was an older fellow who looked a little out of place: his
white hair looked like he may have brushed it that morning before walking in
the wind of the day; he was wearing a white, button-down shirt that could have
stood a good press, and his pants were patched together with bits of red and
black bandanas. I figured he was a visitor, perhaps a guest of a professor (or
maybe even one of those eccentric sort of professors you see in the movies),
or, I thought, maybe he’s one of those older students you only see on campus
later in the day, perhaps going to late classes and needing these sorts of
events in order to fulfil university degree requirements.
Whoever he was, I decided it would be rude to just sit there beside him
without saying anything as folks slowly filled the room, so I struck up some
small talk with him. I’m sure I said something about the weather and how boring
these sorts of things could be. I think I even said something about how I had
never really heard of the guy we were all supposed to be there to hear and talk
to. I think I remember him just simply smiling. I’m sure I said something like,
“Well, whoever he is, I expect it’ll be a good time.” He said, “I sure hope
so.”
About that time, my friend Brian (one of the ministers in Student
Ministries and the facilitator of the event) walked over to the older man next
to me and said, “Mr. Manning, I think we’ve got everyone here; if you’re ready
to start, we’ll begin.” The old man I was sitting next to was none other than
Brennan Manning, our guest for the evening, and a man whose books like The Ragamuffin Gospel, Abba’s Child, and
The Furious Longing of God (just to
name a few) have influenced countless believers in their faith journeys. In the
world of Christian spirituality, Brennan Manning was (and still is) a giant. His
grace and humility, however, hid his fame and renown from one who had never
heard of him before. Needless to say, I was a bit embarrassed, but Manning,
with immense kindness, simply smiled. Perhaps he was used to his presence being
a bit underwhelming to those who had never met him before.
I wonder if there were those who shared that sort of surprised
embarrassment that day all those years ago standing by the Jordan River. Perhaps
they had been lured to the river by curiosity (whether it was their own or the
curiosity of friends), and found themselves standing among the ever-gathering
crowd of those who were coming out from Jerusalem and all of Judea. As they
listened to this wild-looking man stand in the water preaching about repentance
and calling down those Pharisees and Sadducees, I wonder what ideas, what
images, ran across their minds when they heard John say in those two verses prior
to our reading this morning: "I baptize you with water for
repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not
worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and
will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with
unquenchable fire."
Think
about it for a moment: John is saying there is someone coming after him—a main
event to his opening act—who is more powerful than John, one who will baptize
WITH FIRE. This sounds like one incredibly powerful and intimidating
individual, one who just may appear cloaked in flames with a sinister-looking
pronged-fork in his hand. John’s description gives one the picture of an
individual who is coming with recognizable power, one whose presence will be
easily recognized, especially given the public display of John’s baptisms.
Yet, Matthew doesn’t tell us about
some great, powerful appearance of this one of whom John spoke. No, Matthew
simply tells us in verse 13: “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the
Jordan, to be baptized by him.” One gets the impression Jesus was
simply standing in among the crowd of those who had come to be baptized, and
after John’s prophetic proclamation he simply, humbly, may his way down into
the water.
Perhaps as he had been in line,
waiting with the other baptismal candidates, someone may have said something to
him like, “Boy, I hope this other fellow who baptizes with fire gets here after
I’ve been baptized, because I think I’d like water better!” Or perhaps someone
had poked him in the ribs and said, “Get a load of this guy! Going on and on
about someone so powerful he can’t even carry the other guy’s shoes. I’d rather
hear from that guy if he’s so much better.” Can you imagine how they all must
have felt when, after all of John’s hype, Jesus steps out of the crowd—not in a
fiery display of John’s prophesied words, but—with the quiet humility of one
coming for baptism?
I imagined it shocked them, puzzled
them, and made them scratch their heads. I know Jesus’ actions there at the
Jordan still cause us to wonder exactly what was going on. It definitely gave
John a reason to pause and even argue a bit with Jesus. Matthew tells us in verse 14: “John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you,
and do you come to me?’" Perhaps John wanted to save himself the
embarrassment of baptizing the one whom he just claimed to be more powerful
than him. Maybe John, having known all along who Jesus was, thought it was
unnecessary and even backwards that he should baptize Jesus. Whatever the case,
John tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized, and what happened next may
have shocked John and those watching on the banks of the river as much as the
subtle way Jesus appeared among them. “But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now;
for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then [John]
consented. And when Jesus had been baptized…”
What did Jesus mean when he
said, “…it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness”?
One might quickly jump to some conclusion that Jesus is saying that he needs to
be baptized in order to be made righteous, to show that he has repented of any
wrongdoing. But that is inconsistent with what we know and believe about
Jesus—in the words of the author of Hebrews: “[Jesus is one] who in every
respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” Christ had no sins for
which to repent, and thus no need to be baptized in an expression of such
repentance.
I think we may find the meaning
behind Jesus’ words in the scene that unfolds AFTER he is baptized by John: “…just
as [Jesus] 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. And a
voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well
pleased.’” In one awesome moment, we see all persons of the Trinity
present: the Spirit descending like a dove, the newly baptized Son, and the
voice of the Father, a voice that expresses the Father’s pleasure in his
Son…after he has been baptized. What is it about this event—Jesus’ baptism—that
is so important, so awesome, that the Father speaks from heaven and the Holy
Spirit descends? What is it about this event that garners such divine,
Trinitarian attention? Why is this the moment when the Father declares his
pleasure in his Son Jesus?
Because this is the moment when
Jesus shows us whose side he’s on. There, at the Jordan River, Jesus has every
right to stand in the place of John, shouting for repentance, shaking his
finger at those hypocritical Pharisees and Sadducees. There, at the Jordan,
Jesus would have been within his divine right to walk across the sin-tainted
water and proclaim to those sin-stained gawkers on the shore that they were all
bound to a train that would bust hell wide-open. Jesus could have stood above all
the lowly sinners there at that river and put them all in their place
concerning their relative positions in righteousness. In the words of the late
New Testament scholar, Leon Morris: “Jesus might well have been up there in
front standing with John and calling on sinners to repent. Instead he was down
there with the sinners, affirming his solidarity with them, making himself one
with them in the process of the salvation that he would in due course
accomplish.”[1] In
other words, there at the Jordan River, Jesus makes it clear whose side he’s
on—he’s on the side of sinners.
Jesus is on the side of sinners.
That’s the statement he makes there in the water. At his baptism, Jesus
identifies with us sinners. At his baptism, Jesus shows us that the kingdom of God
is a kingdom founded on humility and selflessness. In his baptism, Jesus puts
actions to the words of one of the earliest hymns of the Church, recorded by
the apostle Paul in his epistle to the Philippians: “Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard
equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being
born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and
became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the
name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in
heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
With his baptism, Jesus shows that
he is on the side of sinners. He’s on your side, our side. What that means for
us is that God is on our side, that God identifies with the sinners. It means
that whenever you begin to feel that your place is above those you deem to be
unrighteous or unworthy, when you feel that your place is above ANYONE ELSE,
you ought to remember whose side Jesus is on. Whenever you feel as if you have
earned the right to cast judgment on others, whenever you feel as if you are
entitled to a position of power and influence within the church or outside in
the world, remember that the only One who truly holds such power willingly gave
it up to show His love for you. The only one who holds the power to create time
and space, once went under the waters of baptism to show his love and devotion
to sinners. He once was baptized by his cousin in a muddy river in order to
fulfill all righteousness by siding with the sinners he came to save.
Let us pray…
[1]
Leon Morris, The Gospel According to Matthew
(The Pillar New Testament Commentary). Eerdmans Publishing Company: Grand
Rapids, MI (1992) p.65.
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