January 9, 2005
       (Jimmie Johnson)


Isaiah 42:1-9

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the LORD, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

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Matthew 3:13-17

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 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. 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. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

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The death of Christ on the cross is assumed in the Bible Belt to be what Christianity is all about. But Presbyterians have at our best followed the lead of godfather John Calvin who taught that it is the totality of Jesus that saves us. Who Jesus is as God’s Son is about more than his dying. The totality is not only the cross but the birth of Jesus, the life of Jesus, his teachings, his temptations, his baptism, too. The totality of Jesus is validated as the defining expression of God becoming weak in power in order to become strong in love. It is the totality of the generosity of God in Jesus that saves our bacon as persons and as the human race and, if it doesn’t sound too heretical, perhaps saves God’s bacon, too, in terms of establishing God as power understood as love. It is a power that, in the end, will also experience the judgment of telling the long story of his love in order to answer what are now all the unanswerable “why” questions.

Does the baptism of Jesus shed any light of hope in a dark world? For me, his baptism says Jesus understands his mission as God With Us as being not a control freak but a redemption freak. I don’t know what self awareness Jesus possessed as regards his divinity. I don’t know how much he understood who he was in relationship to God. But what I do believe is that when Jesus sought baptism, he believed he was bringing the friendship of God to us. He believed he was taking our side. He believed he was linking his future with our past and present, the future which God can give us over death and over our failures and fears and all the powers that oppress and practice domination. The baptism of Jesus is big for us, big because it means Jesus was neither ashamed nor afraid to say, “In the Name of God I stand with you. I stand beside you. I am one of you. I am your brother.”

If Jesus is the Holy Hiddenness in the flesh, then his willingness to submit to baptism is to be received as a promise from God that we can become less fearful, less fearful about other people, less fearful about death or the challenge of life, less fearful about our sexuality, less fearful about our money, or lack of it, less fearful about our failures, less fearful about fear. When Jesus is baptized, it is another proclamation of the Holy Promise: “Be not afraid.”

Lastly, when Jesus says he wants to be baptized to “fulfill all righteousness,” I believe he is saying he is going to live and practice God’s will until it is all fulfilled and completed so that we all, God and we, can move together, as one, to the other side of forever so that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ. Jesus says, by his baptism, that he will not accept a free pass, no exemption from the fiery trials of life.

A long journey stretched out in front of Jesus as he waded into the river, a journey he still takes with us, a journey he still travels, a river he is still crossing, holding on to humanity and to each of us till we all cross over. As long as human hearts break, his will always be the first. If that is not true of God’s heart, then I don’t want to believe, for what a lesser god it would be.

I believe someday for heaven to become heaven not only will we all have to tell the truth of who we are and what we did, but so will God. God, too, will have to give an account to our human questions born of tears. God will have to answer for tsunamis and for crib deaths and for Alzheimer’s, for babies burned and tortured. Even those cruelties originating in evil human agency, will, I suppose, be answered for because all human beings at some time wonder: “This creation, this gift of life, was it worth it to you, O God? The cost your creation has paid was it worth it?”

When Jesus is baptized, I believe it is the promise that he will see it through and us as well till heaven roars with joy and love is so profound for all that broken hearts are the most distant of memories, God’s included. And then there shall be no more tears. And God in Jesus will have fulfilled his baptism. And all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.

 

 


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