St. John’s United Church

“Hey, Jesus, Come On Down”

(6)John wore clothes made of camel’s hair. He had a leather strap around his waist and ate grasshoppers and wild honey. (7)John also told the people, “Someone more powerful is going to come. And I am not good enough even to stoop down and untie his sandals. 8I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit!” (Mark 1:6-8)

Time sure flies when you are having fun, right? Two short weeks ago we celebrated Jesus’ birth in a manger in Bethlehem. A week later, we were just talking about Jesus being eight days old in the temple last Sunday with aged Simeon and Anna, and then cute little Jesus getting the presents from the Magi, and now look at him. He’s a grown man - maybe thirty years old!
The years between his birth and his baptism are often called “the silent years” or even the lost years. The only story we have about Jesus as a youth comes from the Gospel of Luke where Jesus goes to Jerusalem with his parents around age 12. We’re not sure where he lived these years, though it was probably in Nazareth. What did he do? Well, it is likely that he helped Joseph, as sons often took on the trade of their fathers. Maybe a lot of family responsibility fell on Jesus as it is likely that Joseph died when Jesus was still a youth for we hardly hear anything else about Joseph.
It would be nice to know more about those silent years, wouldn’t it? Others in the past thought so, too, and all kinds of story were told to try to make those silent years speak. For example, one tells of how Joseph foolishly made a bed too short for a client and Jesus miraculously made it longer; or how a little boy made some birds out of clay one day and Jesus made them come alive and fly away. Most recently, Anne Rice, has written a book entitled, “Christ the Lord,” that is about the childhood of Jesus, based on traditions and her own imagination.
So, as much as we might like to linger at the manger, to meditate on baby Jesus, and even reflect on what Jesus was like as a child and youth, the scriptures will not let us. They transport us over the silent years to the banks of the Jordan, to hear the echoes of a voice crying out in the wilderness, a voice the people had not heard in a long time. No one had heard or seen anything like John the Baptizer in many years. Clearly, by where he lived and how he dressed, he was revealing himself as a prophet like Elijah, condemning the powers that be for their corruption and sin, calling upon everyone to repent, to turn their hearts anew to God, for God was coming through the Promised One, the Messiah. 4So John the Baptist showed up in the desert and told everyone, “Turn back to God and be baptized! Then your sins will be forgiven.” 5From all Judea and Jerusalem crowds of people went to John. They told how sorry they were for their sins, and he baptized them in the Jordan River.

At first glance, you might think that we have moved on from Christmas — the trees are down, the lights are put away, the presents unwrapped and the trash collectors have hauled away all the torn paper and opened boxes. But what if today’s story is in actuality the same story? What if the story of Jesus’ baptism, although different in its detail, is, in essence, a Christmas story? Think about it. Mark’s Gospel has no manger in Bethlehem, no angels, no shepherds. Rather, Mark’s gospel begins with John the Baptist preparing the way for the mightier one. It quickly moves us to witness the heavens being torn apart and the intrusion of God into our earthly reality. 9About that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. 10As soon as Jesus came out of the water, he saw the sky open and the Holy Spirit coming down to him like a dove. 11A voice from heaven said, “You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you.”
But, isn’t that Christmas? I mean, what would you call the tearing open of the heavens and God breaking down the protective barriers between the divine and the human? What would you call it when God is no longer confined to some safe sacred place? What would you call it when God is loose and at work in the world? That’s Christmas — God with us — disturbing and comforting Emmanuel.
We make the birth of Christ a very important and special event. But only two books in the Bible give us the Christmas story — Matthew and Luke. In contrast, there are at least 6 books that talk about Jesus’ baptism - Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Romans. In the scriptures, it would seem that Jesus’ baptism is a more important event than his birth. Perhaps that should be a clue for us. Perhaps, we should give greater emphasis to Jesus’ baptism and, also, to our own.
In Mark’s’ story, we find John baptizing the crowds. People came to John seeking a once-and-for-all cleansing from sin. Being Baptized by John was a sign of purification and repentance in preparation for the new age of the Kingdom of God. It is in this context that Jesus comes to John seeking to be baptized. Jesus is baptized in solidarity with all those being baptized by John. Jesus’ baptism by John is a sign of his identity with the people of Israel. This mightier one does not remain aloof, distant. No. Now God is at work among us, Emmanuel. This is Jesus’ ordination for his mission.
Now, John had caused a stir. His message rang loud and clear, exciting many, frightening others, and making not a few of the religious leaders nervous. But he was having an impact. So many people were tired of the way things were, even tired of their religion and their rituals. There was a spiritual hunger, a spiritual void that John addressed, identified, and challenged the people to recognize and begin to do something about. Many were responding. We don’t have numbers, but it’s likely that many who did come out to hear him were touched and challenged by what they heard, and then sought baptism under his hands in the rivers of the Jordan. Here, in John’s ministry, was a fresh new movement toward God - an openness to a new experience with God.
So Jesus senses, in this fresh movement toward God and the growing messianic hope it stirred, that it was time for him to begin his work. But how does he do that? Well…, he chooses to come on down to the Jordan and to go out into the river with sinners to be baptized! Rather than saying to the Baptizer, “John, you’ve done a good job. You’re a class opening act, but the real star is here now,” Jesus is baptized with sinners! His Public Relations team, if he had one, would have been pulling out their hair, doing spin control, trying to limit the damage of such a foolish act. For who in the world would ever get that picture of a soaking wet carpenter from Nazareth out of their minds? How would that inspire a following? Get him elected? Make him rich and famous? He was blowing it big time. Or was he?
Yes, that’s all most people saw that day - the son of a carpenter, hair matted and robe sticking to his body, water dripping down into his eyes and from his beard. But they did not see into his heart, into his mind. For, as the water covered him and he stood with it pouring from his body — waters contaminated by the sins of many — he saw the Spirit of God coming on him like a dove, filling him and empowering him for the work ahead. Best of all, he heard the voice of God saying, “You are my Son, my beloved; and with you I am well pleased.”
Now, when Jesus heard the voice of God speaking, I wonder if it wiped whatever smile he had right off his face. Why? Well…, being such a good exegete of the prophets, Jesus had to have heard the voice of Isaiah (42:1) in that voice saying, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom I delight . . . ” Jesus would have realized that he was being baptized to servanthood — to fight injustice; to reach out and touch the outcasts; to sit at dinner with the tax collectors and prostitutes, not the congregation’s Chair of the Board; to be that flickering candle struggling to withstand the hurricane forces of sin and death; to give sight to those who cannot see God through all the muck of the world; to open the ears of those whose hearing was deadened by the hucksters and politicians; to bust the prisoners out of the slammer and to bring them along to serve a hot meal down at the Loaves and Fishes restaurant; to bend, but not to break; to be cursed, and to give back a word of grace; to wrestle death, and to leave it lying on the tomb’s cold hard floor, as he strides out into God’s morning. No wonder the heavens are ripped apart at Jesus’ baptism!
It was in that experience, that Jesus received divine confirmation that this was, indeed, the time for him to begin his ministry and just the right way to begin it. He was not to establish an exploratory committee, hire PR persons and consultants, seek his own rights and privileges, and seek to be served. Rather, he was to humble himself and become a servant. It reminds me of something Henri Nouwen wrote about frequently – the “downward mobility” of Jesus. Nouwen wrote, “Jesus began his public ministry by identifying with sinful humanity in the muddy waters of the Jordan. He spent his whole life this way. He “emptied himself” of his divinity in order to more fully and completely identify with our humanity.” Dale Bruner, in the first volume of his two volume commentary on Matthew, expresses it this way, “I like to consider Jesus’ baptism as his first miracle — the miracle of his humility. The first thing Jesus does for us is go down with us. His whole life will be like this. It is well known that Jesus ended his career on a cross between two thieves; it deserves to be as well known that he began his ministry in a river among penitent sinners.”
The Good News for us this morning is that Jesus did not choose a throne far from the banks of the Jordan, far from sinners, far from you and me. Instead, he came down to the river, waded into the waters with us, for that’s where we were and that’s where we are. All his life, he chose to be baptized with us - to feel our pain, to bear our sins, to reach down into those waters and to lift us up from them as new creations, newborn children of God. That, my friends, is love. That’s what Jesus sensed his life would be all about - being with us, taking on our pain and sin and past, and somehow, transforming us by the power of God’s grace and love. Here is a Lord, a Saviour, a Messiah unafraid of our sins, unafraid of becoming contaminated by the waters of our baptism. Willingly and lovingly, he chose - and continues to choose - to stand with us so that we might stand with him in God’s own presence and love for all time.
Do you remember you’re baptism? Maybe you do and maybe you don’t. Perhaps, you were too young to remember the day itself. But do you remember what it meant?

When you were baptized, God came to you, ordained you for ministry. God called you and gifted you with all that is needed for a life of discipleship. God birthed you into the body of Christ, the one holy catholic church, and commissioned you to work for the kingdom. At your baptism, the Holy Spirit was active, brightly shining, creating faith, forgiving sins, nurturing life. At your baptism, God words, like the water, were warm and cleansing and life changing. “I am the One let loose in the world. I have come to break down the barriers that separate you from me. I have come to break down the power of the sin that cuts you off from your Creator. I have come to break down the power of death that has had the ultimate power to separate you from me. You are whole! You are forgiven! You will live forever! Indeed, you are my child with whom I am well pleased!”
So, when you are frustrated and not certain what you ought to do or go…, when you wonder about life and love and loss…, remember your baptism. When the days seem dark and the nights long, remember your baptism. When there are so many voices and you wonder who to listen to, remember your baptism. When you are searching for something or Someone mightier than all the powers and principalities that spoil your every dream, remember your baptism. And give thanks to God for this wonderful gift. Amen.

Acknowledgements: Bass Mitchell, Paul Lutz, Thom Shuman

A meditation preached by the Rev. Myra Garvin at St. John’s United Church, Brockville
Sunday January 8, 2006 – Baptism of Jesus – Year B