OT reading: Isaiah 43:1 - 4
NT reading: Matthew 3: 13 - 17
Do you ever wonder about the childhood of
Jesus? The recognized Scriptures ("the Canon") are silent with the exception of Luke’s
account of Mary and Joseph losing Jesus and finding him in the temple talking with
the elders. Mark begins with adult Jesus walking up to John the Baptist who
baptized him. John gives us much the same account as Mark, except he is not very
clear that John baptizes Jesus. Luke just tells us "Jesus was baptized.” In this
passage from Matthew, Jesus speaks for the first time in Matthew's account and it is the most
detailed description of his baptism.
It is a passage rich with meaning. Matthew
intimates Jesus is aware of the necessity of his baptism and makes it clear we
are dealing with the human Jesus, not the God Jesus. This is important because the
essential parts of human salvation are represented in the humanity of Jesus; namely,
his righteousness that resisted temptation is all human forms, and his death
and resurrection.
All the synoptic Gospels agree that the
heavens opened and the Holy spirit like a dove descended on Jesus as a voice
said, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well
pleased.” Luke suggests everyone heard this. The Gospel of John says John
the Baptist testifies to hearing the words. Matthew and Mark indicate very clearly
this was a voice heard only by Jesus. The words “The heaven’s opening up” are a
Semitic construction for a revelation communicated by God which is why this is
one of the epiphany Sundays.
We might to ask, “What do Matthew (and
Mark) tell us spiritually about the baptism of Jesus?” “How is the act of baptism an important part
of our own spiritual lives?”
In Matthew John the Baptist argues with Jesus about
baptizing him until Jesus tells him, “Let it be so
now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” “To
fulfill all righteousness” does not mean to achieve fully moral behavior; it
means to achieve the complete will of God for humanity. (God is always acting on
humanity, never the other way around.)
These words of Jesus
telegraph to the listening Jews God’s
interaction with Abram before the time that his faith was tested with Isaac and before he was
told to circumcise his children and certainly before the Law existed. God
reckoned Abram righteous solely because of his obedience in following God’s
command to leave his native land and go to Canaan. Genesis 15:5-6 says, “(God) brought (Abram) outside and said, ‘Look toward
heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ Then he said to
him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And Abram believed the LORD; and the LORD
reckoned (it to him) Abram as righteousness.”
The physical act of the baptism of Jesus also recalls
our OT reading, Isaiah 43:2-3, “When you pass through
the waters, I will be with you; … For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of
Israel, your Savior. “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew’s words tell us God did something special here.
“You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” is the revelation to a fully
spiritually awakened Jesus. It is the epiphany of his divine identity and vocation.
Matthew suggests the baptism of Jesus culminated
his spiritual maturity (Luke: at age 30). It flowered fully at his self-recognition
of his divinity and humanity. The importance of the gift of the Holy Spirit in the baptism of Jesus is its presence in
each gospel, and his very next actions, going into the desert and experiencing the temptations, and beginning of his
ministry afterwards. both support the importance of this baptism as the epiphany of Jesus.
Scriptures such as Acts 8:14-17, where
Philip converted many Samaritans, say they had only been baptized in the name
of the Lord Jesus and had not yet received the Holy Spirit that came only when
Peter and John laid hands on them. Later (8:36-39) when Philip baptized the
Eunuch the Holy Spirit came and took Philip away. These Scriptures show that as
happened with Jesus, baptism is subordinate to the reception of the Holy
Spirit.
Given all this, what does baptism mean to
us? Is our baptism different that the one Jesus had? Where does the Holy Spirit
come into play?
Calvin originated most Presbyterian
Reformed Protestant thought. Calvin focused almost entirely on Baptism as the
mark of the new covenant. He was literally dead set on refuting the arguments
of the Anabaptists who believed baptism was a conscious act of will to accept
faith, and on differentiating his ideas from Catholicism but not abandoning
infant baptism. Calvin said circumcision marks God’s first covenant with the
Hebrews. Both OT and Paul’s writing in Romans justify him on this. Calvin concluded
Christian baptism is like Jewish circumcision. It marks the second covenant of
Christ with all humanity.
According to Calvin, if the new covenant
and the old covenant bear an analogous religious connection with God, then we
must understand baptism the same way Jews understand circumcision. It is the
act that marks a child of the covenant signifies selection of God’s chosen
people and subservience to God.
Calvin concludes that baptism is completely
connected to preexisting grace or election of Christians by God, just like God
reckoned Abram righteous. (Abram did not actively embrace righteousness, he was
reckoned righteous.) Calvin then concludes all Christians are similarly
preordained and since baptism is the sign of the covenant and being “set aside
as righteous from before the womb,” we should baptize all Christian children as
the mark of grace. He said even though infants cannot understand the nature of
the act, it can’t hurt them. He even went on to say in his Geneva Catechism of the Church of Geneva (see ref 1), " It is not necessary that faith and repentance always precede baptism" as justification of this position. In spite of his interest in the Holy Spirit, the weakness of Calvin's argument is that it downplays
the revelatory nature of the Holy Spirit in baptism.
Infant baptism upsets a lot of our
Protestant friends for this very reason. They believe baptism is a public act signifying faith and repentance; namely, that we have
voluntarily accepted God's salvation of our lives. Some take it to the extreme and deny universal Christian baptism saying it marks membership and affirmation of
belief of a particular congregation or denomination. I am not interested in
arguing these issues today. I only want to emphasize the sacramental nature of baptism.
I hope we all believe baptism is a
sacramental sign of our relationship to God. I want to explore how baptism is
related to the epiphany of God’s grace poured out upon us.
For Presbyterians, baptism is a much broader
symbol of belief. It is a sign of rebirth. It is a public personal promise made by parents and
congregation to provide Christian nurture to the baptized child or adult. It is
sign of the unity of membership in the Church universal. The baptismal vow emphasizes
that our own relationship to God places the responsibility on us for our
children’s and unbaptized adults’ spiritual life. (If you first publically professed your faith
in the Presbyterian Church as an adult, you would have been baptized. If you are
a professing Christian and have not been baptized you ought to consider it.) If
we are loyal to that baptismal vow, we accomplish the same end, if not more, as
a profession of faith and baptism in the church that does not baptize infants.
For those of you who were baptized, do
you remember your own baptism? A lot of us former Baptists and Pentecostals who
came to the Presbyterian denomination probably do.
I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church.
I remember getting up during the invitation at the end of the service and
announcing to my pastor I wanted to be baptized. It must have been in late
elementary school I am not sure, but I remember it quite well. I remember
standing in the pews and feeling an urge to go down, but I cannot remember any
real conscious reason fort hat decision. God seemed to move me. For reasons I
did not understand, it seemed the right thing to do. I remember many of the
details of my baptism down to the robe I wore, the handkerchief over my mouth
and nose, and the words of institution as I was immersed.
Matthew points out the revelatory power
of baptism. It should invoke the Holy Spirit to reveal our obligation to God to
fulfill the whole of righteousness. What is the whole of righteousness? It is
everything I have preached over the weeks. It is the whole work of God in the
universe. It is awareness of our call to a Christian vocation. It is our
awareness of the demand to apply the greatest two commandments to the nth
degree in our personal life. It is a reminder that adherence to the Law serves
no purpose if our heart is not obedient to the Lord. Jeremiah in 4:4 proclaimed
God’s command, “Circumcise your heart to the Lord.” Isaiah said much the same thing. Paul said we are condemned if we choose to follow
to the Law. Paul repeated Genesis: God reckoned Abram righteous before the law
existed, so Christ reckons us righteous before there were denominations. We
have the same obligation Jesus had at his baptism, to fulfill all
righteousness; that is, to work to effect God’s will on earth, as he desires us
to do.
As Presbyterians, our practice of infant
baptism can put us in a little bind with that obligation. We baptize our
children before they understand its significance for all the good reasons I’ve
mentioned; but if we heed our baptismal vow, we will all provide a fully rich
nurturing environment for our children. So do we need to do for our children?
Part of our obligation to nurture the
children in Christian faith is to teach them so they may make a public confession
of faith and accept the responsibility to participate in the life of the
church. We call that process their confirmation. After confirmation they are no
longer baptized members but active members in the full life of the church. It
is not something to do lightly.
Confirmation is a process of Christian education
of children and newly baptized members followed by an examination by the
session that they enter our congregation as productive members. Did you know
that every active member of the congregation agrees to
(1) proclaim the good
news in word and deed;
(2) to take part in the common life of the congregation;
(3) to lift up each other in prayer, mutual concern and active support;
(4) to
study Scripture and issues of Christian faith and life;
(5) to support the
ministry of the church though giving time, talents and money;
(6) to
demonstrate a new quality of life within and through the church;
(7) to respond
to God’s activity in the world through service to others;
(8) to live
responsibly in personal, family, vocational, political, cultural and social
relationships of life;
(9) to work in the world for peace, justice, freedom and
human fulfillment;
(10) to participate in the governing responsibilities of the
church;
(11) to review and evaluate one’s own integrity in membership, and to
consider ways to increase ways to increase and make more meaningful one’s participation
in worship and service? That is the syllabus for a confirmation class.
It is quite a list of tasks. We should
always recall it when we read of the baptism of Jesus and when we participate
in the baptism and confirmation of members.
Our baptism is a reminder of Christ’s
baptism and our membership in the congregation of believers who have promised
to bring their gifts to these eleven tasks. The most important of task in
regard to our children is to be mindful when it is time for a confirmation
class.
reference 1: John Calvin, Theological Treatises, edited by J.K. S. Reid, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1954, page 134.
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