Jesus' Baptism

Matthew 3:1-17

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the desert of Judea announcing, ² “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!” ³ He was the one of whom Isaiah the prophet spoke when he said:

The voice of one shouting in the wilderness,
        “Prepare the way for the Lord;
        make his paths straight.”^[a]

⁴ John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey.

⁵ People from Jerusalem, throughout Judea, and all around the Jordan River came to him. ⁶ As they confessed their sins, he baptized them in the Jordan River. ⁷ Many Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptized by John. He said to them, “You children of snakes! Who warned you to escape from the angry judgment that is coming soon? ⁸ Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives. ⁹ And don’t even think about saying to yourselves, Abraham is our father. I tell you that God is able to raise up Abraham’s children from these stones. ¹⁰ The ax is already at the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and tossed into the fire. ¹¹ I baptize with water those of you who have changed your hearts and lives. The one who is coming after me is stronger than I am. I’m not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹² The shovel he uses to sift the wheat from the husks is in his hands. He will clean out his threshing area and bring the wheat into his barn. But he will burn the husks with a fire that can’t be put out.”

¹³ At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River so that John would baptize him. ¹⁴ John tried to stop him and said, “I need to be baptized by you, yet you come to me?”

¹⁵ Jesus answered, “Allow me to be baptized now. This is necessary to fulfill all righteousness.”

So John agreed to baptize Jesus. ¹⁶ When Jesus was baptized, he immediately came up out of the water. Heaven was opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and resting on him. ¹⁷ A voice from heaven said, “This is my Son whom I dearly love; I find happiness in him.”

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Throughout our journey through the Bible in the Narrative Lectionary we have seen that God blesses people so that they can be a blessing to others.  It’s one of those amazing double actions that God is so good at: giving people good things and also a purpose. I’ve mentioned this way back in September (and it just happens to be the title of these devotions) so you can tell I find this to be of great import.  We see it twice in today’s lesson: first with John the Baptist, and also with Jesus himself.

There must have been something about John.  Sure, he had a weird diet and his fashion choices received a lot of attention, but it takes more than these things to get people trooping out into the wilderness.  There must have been something about his words, and the way those words were said, that showed him to be different.  He was literally inspired. The Re:form Confirmation Curriculum shows how you can break “inspired” into two different words: “in,” (which means “in.”) and “spired” (which means “breathed”).  John had God’s Spirit breathed into him and his message was “inspired.”  He used this gift/call to encourage others to “change their hearts and lives.” John was indeed blessed to be a blessing.

And so was Jesus. When he is baptized the divine voice from heaven says “This is my Son whom I dearly love; I find happiness in him.” Whoa…when it comes to have powerful friends and family, that’s about the best you could hope for. Can you imagine all of the advantages, perks, privileges or benefits that an individual could enjoy by being the son who is dearly loved by God?  Jesus will certainly show his power and ability soon enough.  He is certainly “blessed.”

But he uses his blessed state in order to be a blessing to others.  Jesus could have shown his power in many different ways. One would suppose that he could have shot bolts of lightning from his finger in order to fry some annoying Pharisees or called on his father to smite a few Sadducees. If we think this is idle speculation, think about what he says to his disciples in Gethsemane when his is on the point of arrest: "Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then would the scriptures be fulfilled, which say it must happen this way?" (26:53-54)

Instead, Jesus shows his power (and the character of God) by healing, teaching, raising, and helping people.  Above all he shows his power (and the character of God) by dying…for us.  And, thanks be to God, that’s not the end of the story. The power of God will be seen as Jesus is raised from the dead on the third day.

And one more thing: you might be wondering, along with John, why Jesus was the one being baptized, rather than the one doing the baptizing.  Jesus has an answer: “This is necessary to fulfill all righteousness.”  (as if that totally clears it up…) I agree with many commentators who say that Jesus submitted to baptism, even though he didn't need it to have his [non-existent] sins washed away. I particularly like this explanation.  

In this way Jesus' Baptism is yet another example of the INCARNATION: God coming down and taking up our condition.  Jesus COULD have stood aside smugly and said, "Well, baptism is a good idea for all of YOU people who need that sort of thing."  He doesn't do that. Instead he gives of himself, he blesses others, he helps others, he gets down in the mud with us. And he saves us.

January 4, 2015: Flight to Egypt

Matthew 2:13-23

¹³ When the magi had departed, an angel from the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up. Take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod will soon search for the child in order to kill him.” ¹⁴ Joseph got up and, during the night, took the child and his mother to Egypt. ¹⁵ He stayed there until Herod died. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: I have called my son out of Egypt.^[a]

¹⁶ When Herod knew the magi had fooled him, he grew very angry. He sent soldiers to kill all the children in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding territory who were two years old and younger, according to the time that he had learned from the magi. ¹⁷ This fulfilled the word spoken through Jeremiah the prophet:

¹⁸ A voice was heard in Ramah,
    weeping and much grieving.
        Rachel weeping for her children,
            and she did not want to be comforted,
                because they were no more.^[b]

¹⁹ After King Herod died, an angel from the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. ²⁰ “Get up,” the angel said, “and take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel. Those who were trying to kill the child are dead.” ²¹ Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. ²² But when he heard that Archelaus ruled over Judea in place of his father Herod, Joseph was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he went to the area of Galilee. ²³ He settled in a city called Nazareth so that what was spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled: He will be called a Nazarene.

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There’s a scene in the hit T.V. show Friends that reminds me of our lesson for today. One of the characters, Phoebe, walks into her apartment while her friends are coming to the end of watching the Disney Classic Old Yeller.  If you have seen this movie, you already know why they are all crying.  The family dog (“Old Yeller”) has fought off a wolf that was about to attack the family.  Unfortunately, however, he has contracted rabies because of the wounds he received in the fight.  All of Phoebe’s friends have seen this before and they all know that “Old Yeller” will have to be put down. It’s a very sad ending! 

Phoebe doesn’t understand why they are so upset.  She says, “Why are you all so upset, it’s Old Yeller, it’s a happy movie!”  When they ask what she means, she goes on to say “Happy family gets a dog: frontier fun.” She believes that Old Yeller fights off the wolf and that’s the end of the movie. This mistaken notion comes from her childhood: her mother had always turned off the TV and said, ‘The End!” before the sad part came. I suppose her mom wanted to shield her from the sadness.  But now she sees the actual, very sad, ending.  She even tries to yell, “The End! The End!” but it doesn’t work and, inevitably, the dog is shot.

As we read our lesson today, the tail-end of the Christmas story, we might feel a bit like Phoebe.  As kids we learn about the “Three Wise Men” or “Magi” who travel to Bethlehem, we hear about how “Evil King Herod” is fooled and little baby Jesus escapes with his family to Egypt.  Many children’s versions of the story often leave out verses 16-18 where Herod has all of the little boys in Bethlehem (ages two and under) butchered.  It is a truly awful scene, certainly worse than Old Yeller, but we might have a similar reaction to Phoebe: “Wait, that can’t be in the Christmas story! The Christmas story is meant to be happy! It’s meant to be hopeful! What kind of world do we live in?!?!”

Sadly, the answer is that we live in a world where children are extremely vulnerable to exploitation, slavery, starvation and death. All you need to do is watch the news to find out that what happened in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago is certainly not an “exception” to history, it is the rule. How many countless mothers for thousands of years could be described with the words: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and much grieving. Rachel weeping for her children, and she did not want to be comforted, because they were no more.” ?

There are two very pertinent questions that arise from a reading of this passage.   What does it say that Jesus and his family escape when so many other children don’t?  And also, why does it always seem like there are always Herods in this world who aren’t defeated like we hope they will be. To answer these questions, I turn to a sermon my father gave on this very passage many years ago. He spoke of two things:

1)     Jesus and his family will indeed escape Herod’s soldiers while other children won’t. His time has not yet come.  But there is a cross in his future. Many years from now he will not run from the pain and suffering that is handed down from the powers that be.  He is with us in our suffering.  

2)     For all of his vicious, deadly and frightening attempts to remain in control Herod ultimately lost the power he held. Herod is dead.  He is no longer king.  The Lord of Life, Jesus Christ, is enthroned on high and will never be replaced. 

Herod is dead. Jesus is alive.  Herod has lost his power. Jesus never will.