The Baptism of Jesus and Our Baptisms

1 Epiphany B  January 10, 2021
Genesis 1:1-5   Ps. 29 
Acts 9:1-7   Mark 1:4-11

Lectionary Link

Today on this first Sunday after the Epiphany, also the Baptism of our Lord and one of the four liturgically designated days for baptism, it behoves us to look at the meaning of baptism.   And first, we might distinguish between the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist, and the baptism which we Christians have practiced for centuries.

What does the Greek word for baptism mean?  It means to immerse.  When one is plunged into water, one disappears and it appears that one has been lost in becoming one with water.  One appears to have become the water.

What does the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist mean?  It symbolizes the identity of the divine with the human which happened in Jesus Christ.  For many centuries, seers, prophet and sages had been speaking about God using human words.  What was behind the use of human words about the great and more-than-human God?  There was the assumption that men and women could speak anthropomorphically about God using human words, human analogies, and human attributes for the divine.

The life of Jesus as representing the fullness of God and humanity in one Being, validated that ancient practice of using human words about God.  Jesus validated that human experience is an accepted way of knowing about God.

So, the baptism of Jesus was a significant moment in his life of the life of God being baptized into  an identity with human life.  In Jesus, we celebrate the direction of God toward humanity.  One of the names from Hebrew Scriptures with which Jesus is identified is Emmanuel, which means God with us.  How much is God with us?  Completely with us as is seen in the life of Jesus.

In the words of the Pauline writings, Jesus is God emptied into human form.  In the words of the Gospel of John, Jesus is the Eternal Creating Word of God made flesh.

Jesus was baptized, immersed completely into human life.  His baptism by John the Baptist is one of many events of the solidarity of Jesus with human life within a particular human community.  So, how far did the baptism of Jesus go?  What happens when someone is held under the water?  They die through drowning.  Immersion in water symbolizes a death.  In the case of Jesus, it was death to grasping a sole divine identity and coming out of the water, one can see his embrace of his full human identity.  This entire transaction is symbolic of what we profess in the incarnation, namely, that human experience is a valid way to come to know about God.  And as we know, the identity of Jesus with human experience took him into death.  To be fully human, one must die, and that is the identity which Jesus took with humanity.  And so, we confess him to be a most capable and valid representative for us before God on our behalf.

If this is the baptism of Jesus, what is the nature of your baptism and mine?  In our baptismal immersion, we express our identity with Jesus.  Immersed in the waters of baptism, we die with Christ and confess like St. Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ."  Raised from the waters of baptism, we confess, "I have been raised with Christ, to be part of a new creation, a new humanity, a new fellowship of people."

Today, let us remember our baptismal covenants, which we will renew today, as we use the Apostles Creed, the baptismal Creed as a confession of our vows.

Today, is a good day to cite the orthodox statement often called "theosis" or divinization.  It expresses the reverse identities which is expressed in the baptism of Jesus and in our baptisms.

The statement is: "In Christ God become human or hominized, so that humans might be divinized or made godly."  To state it in another way on the day of baptism:  Jesus became baptized fully into humanity, so that we might be baptized into Christ as sons and daughters of God.

Let this day be a birthday anniversary for each of our baptisms, as we offer our thanksgiving to God for Jesus Christ, as Emmanuel, God with us, who became baptized fully into identity with our humanity, so that we could be raised to know ourselves as sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.  Amen.