Jesus, the Beloved Son; We Beloved Children of God

1 Epiphany B  January 11, 2015

Genesis 1:1-5   Ps. 29

Acts 9:1-7   Mark 1:4-11

Lectionary Link

  Today, we commemorate the baptism of Jesus.  You and I have been baptized in part because we have been taught to follow and imitate the life of Jesus.  Jesus was baptized and so have we been baptized.  If it was good enough for Jesus, it is good enough for us.

  Today, we might ask ourselves why Jesus was baptized.  For us we are used to assuming that Jesus had of the all of the theological self-reflections which is a part of the biblical writings of the New Testament.  We assume that Jesus had all of the theological reflections of the later church and so we simply imagine Jesus having all and more of the theological reflections about himself.

  I suspect that Jesus was one who manifested all of the limitations of his time as it pertained to the kinds of knowledge and information and religious practice that were available to him at the time.

  We can speculate now about why Jesus who was the perfect Son of God had to be baptized by John the Baptizer.  If he were perfect, he would not need to repent so how could the baptism of John even be needed or relevant to him?  And this question was of course raised by the presentation of his baptism in other Gospels.

  I believe that the presentation of the event of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptizer is evidence of the baptismal practices of the early church and is in part a rationale for those practices.

  Like us, the early churches practiced baptism.  Why?  Because they inherited the practice of baptism from the practice of John the Baptist and his community.  The Jewish practice of the time was to require a “significant rite of proselyte baptism” for non-Jews who wished to become members of the Jewish community.  And sometimes entire families participated in these proselyte baptisms.

  But why would John the Baptizer require that Jews undergo another water rite?  It is as if his insistence upon this further baptism was calling into question the religious authenticity or the validity of their faith which they had passively received by being born into families of practicing Jews.

   So you feel secure with God because you were born into a Jewish family?  That is not enough; automatic or accidental Judaism does not mean that one has necessarily attained to an understanding of one's identity as a son or daughter of God.   John the Baptizer was saying that even if one was a Jew, one had to undergo another kind of proselyte baptism.  One had go beyond “automatic” ethnic Judaism and authenticate one’s relationship with God with the promise of an intentional commitment to be better today than one was yesterday.  You can reside within the herd of Judaism and know a natural birth, but that is not enough; one must intentionally embrace the experience of being a son or daughter of God.

  The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist shows us that John and Jesus were close.  Jesus did not have an ego-problem in submitting to the baptism of John.  And John had no ego problem in recognizing that Jesus was a teacher of a different sort who could advance his followers into further teaching beyond his own expertise.  John the Baptist wanted his students to graduate from his program and matriculate into the school of Jesus Christ.

  The presentation of this smooth and transition relationship between John and Jesus was an indication that many of the earlier followers of Jesus had first been followers of John the Baptist.  It also meant that the followers of Jesus were continuously welcoming followers of John the Baptist to become followers of Jesus because of this close relationship between the two.  In fact, John the Baptist interpreted the meaning of his life as being the one who would prepare the way or be the set up person to introduce Jesus into the lives of the people of his time.

  That Jesus submitted to the baptism of John is an indication of his love and respect for John and also an indication that he participated in the community of John the Baptist even to the point of being baptized by him.

  Jesus had such a high regard for John the Baptist and John for Jesus that the followers of John knew that to follow and respect John the Baptist would mean that they could follow Jesus and still be honoring their first mentor, John.  In a sense, John the Baptist was treated by the Gospel writers as the respected and loved prophet “emeritus” in the community of Jesus Christ.

  But the most telling aspect of the baptism of Jesus is the heavenly voice which declares, “You are my son, the beloved.  With you am I well pleased.”

  This is the telling aspect of baptism for the early church which practiced baptism.  It is to be a significant reality for each of us a well.  We need to know a telling and authoritative voice from the parallel and heavenly realm proclaiming an affirmation to each of us:  You are my son and my daughter, beloved ones, with you I am well pleased.

  This heavenly voice is recorded in the Gospel for the baptism of Jesus because it is meant to the declaration for each of us.  Yes, we have automatic status of birth into our family situation, our natural families, but this is not enough.  Each of us needs to know the affirmation that we were born into the family of God and have discovered God as our heavenly parent.  When we discover our identity with our heavenly parent we be can affirmed with such ways to make up for anything that is lacking because of the imperfection of our nurturing environments.  To be affirmed by our heavenly parent is to take on responsibility for our own lives; it means we don’t allow ourselves to blame people who have not always been perfect for us.

  We are privileged to know about the event of proclamation of the Jesus as God’s Son, because he as our older brother in God’s family, showed us to the way of knowing our own identities as sons and daughters of God.

  It takes the parallel kingdom of God to raise us as sons and daughters of God as we have to live in the world of our natural birth.  I wish to each of us a happy birthday as I congratulate each of us on our baptisms which were the realization and subsequent celebration of our membership in the family of God.  For this experience we can truly be thankful for the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ.  There is no reason to confess Jesus as the special and unique Son of God, if we don’t honor him by joining him as his brothers and sisters, and as sons and daughters of God.  Jesus came and realized his unique status as Son of God in order to share completely this wonderful realization of membership in the family of God.  Amen.