First Sunday after Epiphany – the Baptism of Christ

Mary Holmen

So, here we are at the first Sunday after the Epiphany. This Sunday closes off the celebration of the Christmas season. The Western church gives primacy to the story of Jesus’ birth, but for Eastern Christians, today is the high point of the season. It is known as the theophany – the occasion when Jesus is revealed as God in human flesh. Epiphany puts theological teeth into the Christmas story of angels and shepherds and even wise ones. What do those stories actually mean?

Today is also the beginning of the season of weeks after Epiphany. From now to the beginning of Lent, we will have the chance to reflect on accounts from the gospels that tell us something about who Jesus is. We will read and hear accounts of events, or actions, or sayings of Jesus that show us, yes, this really is the Son of God. We begin today with Jesus’ baptism and the heavenly voice telling us, “This is my beloved Son.”

There are four things that I draw from the story of Jesus’ baptism, four statements that I find to draw out its meaning.

1.  Jesus’ baptism is the occasion of his call to ministry.

That call is described by Matthew and echoed by our other readings today. Matthew says that God’s Spirit was given to Jesus, and a voice announced for all to hear, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” These words echo the words from Isaiah: “Behold my servant...my chosen, in whom my soul delights.” It’s almost like an official introduction – here he is; this is the one. Further, God says, “I have put my Spirit upon him.” It is the Spirit who gives power to the servant, power to Jesus, to do the task he has been given.

I don’t think there’s much doubt that Jesus understood his own ministry in terms of the Servant of God as portrayed in the writings of Isaiah. Isaiah describes his task: to bring justice and healing. This is nothing less than a total reordering of the world which God is bringing about. The message of the Servant is salvation and hope – opening the eyes of the blind and freeing the prisoners. That is how Jesus understood his mission. Peter’s sermon in the reading from Acts is a summary – God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power; Jesus went about doing good and healing. Even Jesus’ words to John in the gospel reading show this understanding. In saying “It is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness”, Jesus states that he will put God’s plan of salvation into effect. This plan, of course, will lead ultimately to his death – and we may remember that Jesus referred to his death as a baptism. Jesus’ baptism is the occasion of his call to ministry, the ministry of a servant.

2. In his baptism, Jesus identifies with those whom he has come to serve.

Why was Jesus baptized? Part of baptism involves cleansing and purification. It was required for Gentiles who wished to become Jews, part of the process of changing from an outsider into one who belonged. Jesus did not need to do that. He already belonged to the covenant people. The baptism of John was for repentance and forgiveness. Jesus did not need to do that either. He did not need to confess any personal sin. He did not need to wash away any corruption or impurity. Christians have always believed that Jesus was without sin.

In his baptism, Jesus chooses sides. He chooses to be identified with sinners, with outsiders, with the brokenness of individuals and of the world. He accepts our sinfulness, our alienation, our brokenness as his own, because it is the only way he can heal and liberate. At his baptism, Jesus identifies with the ones he came to save. God acts in calling Jesus and commissioning him; Jesus acts in choosing sides.

What we have said about Jesus’ baptism has consequences for our understanding of our own baptism. So –

3.  In baptism, God gives us the Holy Spirit and calls us to ministry – each one of us and all of us together. We are adopted as God’s children – God’s sons and daughters – and commissioned as God’s servants.

Every time we renew our baptismal covenant, our baptismal relationship with God, we promise to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbours as ourselves. We promise to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. Every time we baptize someone, we pray that God will teach them to love others and will send them into the world in witness to God’s love. We are given the Holy Spirit in baptism in order that we may be empowered to carry out our ministry. The ministry to which we are called is the same ministry of service that Jesus carried out. We are to proclaim healing and hope to a broken and hurting world. We are to bring justice – to work with God and each other to remake the world so that it becomes as God intended it to be. We are to set free those who are in any way oppressed. Such an agenda does not usually result in great popularity in the world. It may indeed be a baptism of fire that we undergo. But it is the Christian mission. Our baptism is the occasion when we are called to ministry – our ministry which is God’s mission.

In Jesus’ baptism, God acted by calling and empowering him, and Jesus acted by taking sides. So too in our baptism, God acts by calling and empowering us. And –

4.  We act by choosing sides.

Also part of the baptism liturgy are questions that ask us to make a decision, to make a commitment. As Anglicans, we are so used to seeing baptism administered to babies that we’ve come to think of it almost exclusively as a rite of infancy. It is not. Baptism requires a commitment of faith. It is first and foremost about an adult commitment, and is administered almost by extension to the children of believing parents. The next time we celebrate the sacrament of Christian initiation, take a look at the order in which the candidates are presented. Adults and older children who can answer for themselves are presented first, and they are asked, “Do you desire to be baptized?” Infants and younger children are presented second, and the parents and sponsors make promises for what they will do to ensure that the child they present is brought up in the faith and life of the church community. Then follows a series of questions which those who are able to speak for themselves answer, and those who present and sponsor infants and younger children answer on behalf of the child. All six of these questions ask us to take a stand against evil and for God.

In our baptism, we choose sides. We make our allegiance to God as God is known in Jesus. We commit to following him and no one else. We become one with Christ. And in becoming one with him, we also identify ourselves, as he did, with the people to whom we minister, the people we are called to serve. We take sides with the poor, the oppressed, the outsiders and the alienated.

That is the meaning I find in the story of Jesus’ baptism:

1. God calls Jesus and gives him the Holy Spirit for the ministry of a servant.
2. Jesus identifies with sinful individuals and with the brokenness of the world.
3. God calls us in our baptism and gives us the Holy Spirit for a ministry of service.
4. We identify with Jesus and at the same time with the lowly of the world.

Because we have been so used to associating baptism with infancy, and because most of us were likely baptized as infants, we probably didn’t realize what we were doing or what God was doing on that occasion. The Christian life is a process of discovering more and more that we are God’s children and God’s ministers, that God both calls us to do God’s work and gives us the power to carry out our task. On the day of our baptism, God looked at us and said, “You are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.” Each and every day, that voice sounds again, “You are my beloved child”, even if we forget or drown it out or ignore it or lose our way. We are part of God’s new creation that has been pronounced “Very Good!” In everything we do, may we reveal God’s glory in demonstrating God’s love for all of creation and all its inhabitants. That is what Epiphany season is all about.