Sermon: You Want me to Baptize YOU?

Date Preached: Sunday January 13th 2008

Bible Reference: Matthew Chapter 3, Verses 13-17

It’s probably safe to say that John was as surprised as we would be if we’d read this gospel passage without knowing what was coming. But it needs a fuller context for us to get the sense of dismay:

In the preceding verses John had been saying “I am baptizing you with water for repentance, but the One is who is coming is more powerful than me! I’m not worthy to even carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He’s got his shovel in his hand, ready to clear out the barn – but he’ll burn the chaff with a fire that will never go out.”  

So hang on a minute Jesus – this is Epiphany – it’s all about what the events that revealed who you were to a waiting world – shouldn’t I be baptizing you? And by the way shouldn’t there be a big band to herald the fact? 

Let me try and give you a sense of the shock John must have had. Let me take you back to the early 80s to a concert I attended when I lived on the east coast on the United States. I’d gone to see a rock musician called Dan Fogelberg, who actually died just before Christmas – he was also in his early 50s.

Anyway, there we all were in the Spectrum Stadium in Philadelphia (you know famous for the Rocky fights). Lighters and matches at the ready to light when the music really got going (I think I even had some hair then). Expecting a great rock and roll show – we’d been introduced to the line up of famous musicians that were joining him for the evening, and had enjoyed a support act that really got the audience on their feet. Then the announcer whips us up again as Fogelberg is just about to appear. And as we all stand eagerly awaiting the dramatic start - he walks quietly onto stage alone – no big band – and sits on a stool with a cocktail table next to him, picks up his acoustic guitar and begins to play – gently, softly – music quite different from what we expected. Familiar tunes and lyrics, but played in a new way. Some of the crowd got restless and began whistling – they wanted to dance, to be entertained – but instead there’s this haunting, fragile music. Understandable really –totally unexpected – and people didn’t know how to react. He eventually gave up, couldn’t make himself heard above all the murmuring – so the band joined him and they got what they wanted; what they’d been expecting.

And a similar thing is going on here. John is whipping us into excitement about who’s about to appear.

‘He’s coming!

He’s more powerful than me!

He’ll give you God’s wind and God’s fire, not just water –

he’ll clear up the mess, get rid of the rubbish so only the good stuff is left.

And we’re on our feet – expecting a powerful new leader, maybe even God himself, sweeping into the hall with a great crash and explosion – a blaze of light and colour – transforming everything. 

And instead we get Jesus.  

The Jesus we’ve only met so far in Matthew’s gospel as a baby with a price on his head;

a Jesus who stands humbly before John, asking for baptism – sharing in the penitential mood of the rest of Judaea, Jerusalem and Galilee; a Jesus who seems to be identifying himself, not with a God who sweeps all before him in fiery judgement, but with sinful people who are themselves facing that judgement and needing to repent. 

John, of course, in horrified. He seems to have known that Jesus was the one he was waiting for – but then why would he be coming for baptism? What’s happened to the agenda – the concert billing. Where’s the wind and fire? The clearing out of the rubbish? If anyone should be baptizing – surely it should be Jesus baptizing John, not the other way around. 

Jesus’ reply to John’s questioning tells us something vital about the whole gospel story that’s going to unfold before us over these next weeks.

Yes Jesus is coming to fulfil God’s plan, God’s promises

and yes these are promises that will blow God’s wind – God’s spirit -  throughout the world and bring the fire of God’s judgement on evil wherever it occurs –

and yes those who are trapped in exile are going to be rescued

But not in the way anybody expects.

Where was the baby born?;

who heard the news first?

Where were those wise men from? 

It seems God’s plan involves a very different way of thinking because it’s clear that this is how Jesus must fulfil it: by humbly identifying with the weakness and fallenness of humanity – yours and my weakness; by taking our place – sharing our sorrow at how badly wrong we’ve made it; living our life – and ultimately dying our death? 

What good is that going to do? And how is that going to bring about the result that John and his audience were longing for?  

To those questions Matthew’s answer is to read the rest of the story – but there are already hints here aren’t there? Do you remember what happened when the Israelites came through the waters of the Red Sea? – what did God give them through Moses?

the LAW – confirming them as God’s own people.  

What happens when Jesus comes up from the water of baptism? – God’s Spirit, God’s breath descends on him -confirming his status and declaring him to be God’s son. And what’s this about a dove embodying and symbolizing the Spirit? Well the coming judgement isn’t going to warlike or vindictive with doves around – but after all this is the Prince of Peace – the One who will at last take the judgement – our judgement – upon himself and make an end of it. 

God is full of amazing surprises – he is as Gerard Hughes termed him, the God of Surprises.

If we think we’ve got him sussed, taped, boxed, in a safe, predictable place, we’d better look out, there are storms ahead. Because he doesn’t work according to the world’s agenda. 

The challenge of this passage – and in fact all the Epiphany readings is to learn afresh to be surprised by Jesus. As Tom Wright says, ”he comes to fulfil God’s plans, not ours, and even his prophets seem to misunderstand what he’s up to. He will not always play the music we expect. But if we learn to listen carefully to what he says, and watch carefully what he does, we will find that our real longings, the hunger beneath the surface excitement, will be richly met…As we learn to put aside our own plans and submit to his, we (just) may be granted moments of vision, glimpses of his greater reality. And at the centre of that sudden sight we will find our loving father, affirming us as his children, equipping us too, with his spirit so that our lives many be swept clean and made ready for use.”[1