Posted on 01/13/2008 10:53:44 AM PST by Charles Henrickson
“Baptized with Sinners, Anointed for Service, Manifested as God’s Son” (Matthew 3:13-17)
On this first Sunday after the Epiphany, the Gospel reading every year is the account of the Baptism of Our Lord, that great event when our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. Heaven was opened. The Spirit of God descended on Jesus like a dove. And the Father’s voice came from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Today I want to say three things about this baptism, three things on which your very salvation depends: In his baptism, Christ was “Baptized with Sinners, Anointed for Service, and Manifested as God’s Son.”
I: Baptized with Sinners
“Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, 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 thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented.”
This was a baptism that shouldn’t have taken place. After all, who were the people John the Baptist was baptizing? Sinners! People coming confessing their sins. John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. So what was Jesus doing there? He didn’t have any sins to confess. He didn’t have anything to repent of.
John the Baptist recognizes this difficulty, this incongruity. At first he tries to prevent Jesus from being baptized: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” John, whom Jesus would later call, “the greatest among those born of women”--even John had to confess his inferiority and his own sinfulness when standing next to Jesus. How much more do we? Yes, you and I do have sins to confess, many of them, sins that stain our soul and separate us from God. But not Jesus. He is the holy and sinless one, the only one. Jesus alone kept God’s law perfectly. No sins to confess, no need to repent. John the Baptist knows this, and so he wonders why Jesus comes to him to be baptized.
Jesus understands what John is saying, but he says to go ahead anyway: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” “To fulfill all righteousness,” that’s why Jesus is coming for baptism. God’s righteousness, his acting in history to save and deliver his people, the righteous plan God began in the Old Testament--that righteousness now is being fulfilled in the coming of Jesus. His being baptized is part of that fulfilling. Jesus now is setting out on that course, here at his baptism.
How so? By being baptized with sinners. That’s a sign of how Jesus would complete his course. By standing in the place of sinners. God’s righteousness, his acting righteously to save sinners, would be fulfilled by Christ standing with us sinners and taking our place. From his baptism to his crucifixion, that’s the route this righteous course would take. Christ takes our sins upon his own holy shoulders and carries them to the cross, where he will suffer and die in our place. That saving mission is shown right here in his baptism. Fulfilling all righteousness in this way, Jesus is simply fulfilling his name: “And you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
II. Anointed for Service
“And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. . . .”
In his baptism, secondly, Jesus Christ is anointed for service. In other words, Jesus is set apart as the Christ. He is anointed with the Spirit. This marks him as the Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. That’s what the word “Christ” or “Messiah” means: “The Anointed One.”
What was so special about being anointed? In the Old Testament, certain men were anointed--literally, they had oil or ointment poured over their heads--when they were marked or set apart for particular holy offices. Prophets, priests, and kings were anointed. The anointing showed that they were God’s choice, that they had God’s blessing, that God would empower them with his Spirit for the office which they were there entering.
For example, David as a young man was anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the king of Israel. He was marked and set apart for that office. Later, the prophet Nathan told King David that one of his sons would one day be the great King, the ultimate King who would usher in God’s everlasting kingdom. This son of David, the long-promised King that the people were looking for, came to be known as the Messiah, the Christ.
“The Anointed One.” That’s who Jesus is, that’s who he is revealed to be when the Holy Spirit descends upon him and rests on him in the form of a dove. Jesus is anointed with the Spirit, marking him as God’s choice and empowering him for the ministry he is about to begin. Jesus is anointed as the Christ, the Messianic King, anointed for service.
So when Christ comes, he announces the arrival of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus brings the kingdom of heaven to earth. He brings the blessings of the kingdom in and through his ministry. Our Lord’s baptism is about that, too: The Christ, the Messiah, being anointed for servanthood.
Centuries earlier the prophet Isaiah had written: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him. . . .” And that Spirit would empower the Messiah “to open the eyes that are blind” and to do all the other signs that showed the new age had arrived. Well, in his ministry Jesus did just that--opened the eyes of the blind, both literally and figuratively. So when Jesus here is baptized and the Spirit rests on him, he is being anointed and empowered for that messianic ministry of mercy.
The apostle Peter would later put it like this, in the Book of Acts: “You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”
Those healings and acts of mercy that Christ performed were signs of what his saving mission will accomplish ultimately: The whole restoration of human beings and of creation itself. Taking our sins and death from us, Christ gives us in their place wholeness and healing and life. The works of mercy he does during his public ministry betoken what is in store for all of us: The full blessings of the kingdom, eternal life in heaven forever.
III. Manifested as God’s Son
“. . . and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’”
Who is Jesus? Who is this fellow being baptized with sinners and anointed for service? At his baptism, Jesus was manifested, made known, “epiphanied,” as the Son of God. That’s a third thing this baptism is about, namely, Jesus’ identity.
You know, in a sense, Israel had been God’s “son.” In fact, we read in Exodus 4: “Thus says the Lord, ‘Israel is my firstborn son.’” As God’s son, Israel should have been expected to obey God’s will. But of course, Israel failed, miserably. Israel broke the covenant, time and time again, and forfeited its standing as God’s son.
But now here comes Jesus. He is Israel reduced to one. And he will do what Israel failed to do. Jesus will be God’s obedient son. How often did Jesus say, “I have come to do the will of the one who sent me.” And so he did. Above all, that obedience to his Father meant Christ embracing his entire saving mission--even to the point of going to the cross and dying for the sins of the world. Knowing all too well what he was about to face, the obedient Son would pray, “Not my will, Father, but thine be done.”
Christ’s acceptance of the saving mission, with all the suffering and sacrifice it would involve--that is why the Father says here, in the voice from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” The Father is affirming and approving his Son, who has come to carry out God’s righteous, saving plan.
But the amazing and astounding thing is, not only is Christ God’s “son” in terms of his obedience, he literally, truly, is God’s Son in his very nature! From everlasting to everlasting, he is the only-begotten Son of God, the second person of the Trinity. This one baptized with sinners, taking their sins upon him and even dying on the cross--this is God’s own Son! Jesus in his person is the eternal Son of God come in the flesh. That’s who this man Jesus is!
The God-man, and none other--this is your Savior! Therefore, my friends, you can be absolutely sure that your salvation is secure in him. Your salvation does not depend on you and your fumbling efforts. Rather, it depends on him, and he is absolutely reliable. He paid the perfect sacrifice for your sins. His holy blood covers it all. His resurrection shows that it is so, guaranteeing you everlasting life with him. And in your baptism, all the benefits of Christ’s salvation are delivered to you, and you are joined to him. Take comfort in that, my friends!
Yes, you have a Savior you can count on. Our Lord’s baptism shows you this very thing--three things, actually: For in his baptism, Christ our Savior was “Baptized with Sinners, Anointed for Service, and Manifested as God’s Son.”
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, 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 thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Ping.
Thank you
Same reading as at Mass today, and I wondered then (I’m afraid I’m easily distracted), why a dove? Nowadays a dove symbolizes peace, but the symbolism comes from this reading. So why a dove then? Wasn’t it just another bird?
The sacrifice paid by Christ brings Peace between God and mankind. His righteous wrath is assuaged and we can rejoice in the confidence that we are heirs to Heaven, itself. The Holy Spirit in the form of a dove signifies that bridge.
He, Christ, is “the Peace of God that passes all human understanding”
I understand that part (as much as one can) - I’m just curious as to why God chose the form of a dove in particular, as opposed to any other bird (though probably not a hoopoe - they look kinda goofy). I was hoping Charles had picked something up in seminary about that.
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