Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist
One test that biblical scholars use to determine the historicity of gospel
passages is whether the passage would have embarrassed early Christians. If so,
scholars tend to accept the incident as historical. They presume early Christians,
like most people, preferred to remember what flatters rather than embarrasses.
Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist might have embarrassed early
Christians for two reasons. First, John’s baptism, in part, symbolized a person
being cleansed or forgiven of her/his sins. Yet many early Christians,
advocating what would become the orthodox Christian view, believed that Jesus
was without sin. This view, contested in some of the gnostic gospels, is
explicit in both the epistle to the Hebrews[1]
and parts of our liturgy. If without sin, why would Jesus choose to be baptized
by John? Second, John was a political rabble rouser subsequently beheaded by
Herod. Yet as Christianity progressed toward becoming the Roman Empire’s established
religion, Christian leaders increasingly sought to portray Christianity as
supporting the political order.
Nevertheless, early Christians regarded John’s baptism Jesus as sufficiently
important to include it in the gospels.[2] So,
why is Jesus’ Baptism important?
First, Holy Baptism is not only about forgiveness but also, and perhaps
more significantly, about initiating or incorporating new members into the
Church, the Body of Christ. The 1950s discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls and archaeological
evidence about the Qumran community that owned those scrolls provide vital but previously
missing historical context for understanding Christian baptism and its theology.
First century Jews “revered water for its liminal qualities, believing it had
the power to transport a person or object from one state to another: from
unclean to clean, from profane to holy.”[3] They
baptized individuals to symbolize not only forgiveness from sin but also to
incorporate the baptized into their community. Contemporary Jews still use
ritual baths for those same purposes.
The Book of Common Prayer’s liturgy for Holy Baptism describes baptism
as a symbolic cleansing from sin – the water is an outward and visible sign of
an inner and spiritual grace – and as God adopting the baptized person into God’s
household.[4] Adult candidates for baptism may find the symbolism of forgiveness and cleansing most
powerful. In the early centuries, individuals occasionally postponed their baptism
until death approached, wrongly fearful that God’s forgiveness was most liberal
or assured in Holy Baptism. One little known reason that Episcopalians, like
most Christian traditions, rarely immerse people in Holy Baptism is that battlefields
were often arid places. Dying soldiers sometimes wished to receive the
sacrament; Christian theologians responded by deciding that water’s symbolism rather
than the quantity of water conveys God’s grace. For other adults and the parents
of children, diminishing belief in both hell and original sin condemning the
unbaptized to hell mean that the theme of adoption into God’s family is frequently
Holy Baptism’s most important aspect.
Multiple centrifugal forces, including the internet and political
polarization, today erode community, isolating individuals and increasing
loneliness. Christian community is perhaps more important than ever before. One
current debate in the Episcopal Church is whether an unbaptized person may
receive Holy Communion. On the one hand, we want to be an open and inclusive
church. On the other hand, we gather at the altar as the people, the family, of
God in Christ's name. Holy Baptism is the source and declaration of our Christian
identity, a child of God who intentionally tries to walk the Jesus path. Parenthetically,
if you wish to be baptized, your clergy will happily assist you.
Second, we practice baptism in obedience to Jesus’ teachings and
example. In this, we emulate his example of obeying John the Baptist’s
prophetic call. Be warned: following Jesus is dangerous. John the Baptist was
beheaded. Jesus was crucified. Following Jesus challenges us to love our
neighbor as much as we love ourselves, to return good for evil, to prioritize
God over worldly idols.
German Lutheran pastor H. P. Ehrenberg was instrumental in establishing
the "Confessing Church," the group that refused to capitulate to
Hitler’s takeover of Germany’s established Lutheran Church.[5] Every
Thursday evening, people from Ehrenberg’s church met to immerse themselves in
the tradition and in the classic creeds and Reformation confessions of faith.
He called those meetings a "rehearsal" for whatever might be coming:
"We came to realize that instruction itself already contains the seeds of
fellowship, of true community. In our case it was as important as the final
rehearsal of the orchestra: a sort of 'performance before the
performance.'"
Ehrenberg in his autobiography describes something that took place at a
summer camp for teenage girls. A "united service" for Catholics and
Protestants was held in a room dominated by a large picture of Hitler hung on a
wall. A young Lutheran girl, recently confirmed, could take it no more. She
tore down the picture and smashed it against the wall, shouting, "Thou shalt
have no other gods but me."
The remarkable thing was not that she smashed Hitler's picture, nor even
that she had the courage to confess the First Commandment, but her preparation
beforehand to do both.
Jesus’ baptism reminds us to prepare ourselves – to rehearse our
identity as a Christian member of God’s family and to practice walking in Jesus’
footsteps. We prepare, we rehearse, by attending worship, receiving Holy
Communion, participating in an education or formation program, actively supporting
an outreach ministry, loving an unlovable co-worker or neighbor, or otherwise
re-enacting some aspect of the gospel story. Then when the time of testing
comes, we like the girl who smashed Hitler’s picture, will discover the love, grace,
and strength to say no to temptation, to put the well-being of another ahead of
selfish aims, to walk with humility and honesty instead of arrogant dishonesty,
and to follow God’s leading.
May we become such a people, a living community of Christ's saints.
Amen.
Sermon
preached on the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord
Parish of
St Clement, Honolulu, HI, January 13, 2019
[1] Hebrews
4:16.
[2] Luke 3:21
and parallels.
[3] Reza
Aslan, Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth (New York: Random
House, 2013), Kindle Loc. 1485-90.
[4] Book
of Common Prayer, pp. 299ff.
[5] H. P. Ehrenberg, Autobiography
of a German Pastor (London, 1943), pp. 48, 50, 64.
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