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First Sunday after Epiphany - January 13, 2008 - Rev. Gary Strubel

This morning we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, which (for me) always begs the question, why did Jesus need to get baptized in the first place? Indeed, scripture demonstrates that John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance: we acknowledge our faults, resolve to live a renewed life and become ritually washed. But, Jesus was faultless. Even the Baptist appears confused, saying something akin to, “what the heck are you doing here?” But as with everything about Jesus’ ministry, he changed the very nature of Baptism. On the one hand, he didn’t come to abolish John’s baptism, but added another layer of meaning to it. And that is the baptism that we’ve come to inherit in his church.

Indeed, there are still elements of John’s baptism today. Before we approach our lives in Christ, we look back on the lives we led, acknowledge our fault and our need for God, and promise to let go of our previous lives. But the second part of Baptism, the part that Jesus inaugurated, is to begin a new life as a servant of God. At his Baptism, Jesus publicly acknowledges and accepts this servant ministry in an event that has symbolic connections with the servant songs of Isaiah.

Our reading from Isaiah describes the characteristics of the suffering servant. The servant is one who is righteous. He will bring forth justice to the nations; a bruised reed he will not break and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; he opens the eyes of the blind and brings prisoners forth from the dungeon.

It is for this that Jesus responds to the Baptist, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." In the Bible, righteousness is being true to moral conduct and character. For a ruler, it means good government and the deliverance of true judgment. For ordinary people, it means treating one’s neighbor as a covenant partner – neither oppressing nor being oppressed. For everyone, it means keeping God’s will in the law. In fulfilling all righteousness, Jesus doesn’t just perfectly obey laws, but embodies what it means to fully live the kind of life we were created to live. It also means that Jesus fulfills the prophecies of the righteous one, particularly as articulated in Isaiah.

In getting baptized by John, Jesus demonstrates a “servant” role that he will exercise in his public ministry. The connection of Jesus to Baptism isn’t with repentance, but with accepting this servant ministry. The passage even ends with God speaking out of the heavens, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased,” which is a paraphrase of Isaiah; “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.” The apostle Peter echoes these elements in our reading from the Acts of the Apostles (“he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him”). Although it is not a line-for-line comparison of Isaiah, it does demonstrate that Jesus’ ministry had the elements that Isaiah was pointing to.

But, this isn’t just Christ’s baptism, but a baptism his disciples are to enter into as well. Indeed, by consenting to Christian baptism, we consent to share in a righteous life that Christ embodied. Our understanding of the Christian church is that it is the body of Christ – the continued physical presence of Christ on earth. The people who make up the church are to continue the ministry that Jesus began and left for us to continue at his ascension. Thus, the characteristics of righteousness as listed by Isaiah, and embodied by Jesus, are to be the same characteristics exemplified by us. As Christians, we find our purpose in life in being a servant of God. By trying to live our lives in the example of Christ, we embark on the path of discovery in what a truly fulfilling life can be.