Mark 1:4-11 Jesus' Baptism
The two friends were driving down the East Coast of the South Island, when a sign caught their eye – “Fresh Crayfish for Sale”. A silence from their chatter filled the car as it continued on - and then the passenger said, “Let’s! Just this once! I know it will do our dollar but we might never have the chance again!”
The driver sighed, nodded in agreement and looked for a good place to do a U-turn.
With the crayfish in their possession, they discussed how they might prepare and cook it. This was going to be a seafood feast worthy of a Forever Memory!
They arrived and unpacked the car …. it was time!
“I’ll pour the wine – you go and get Stanley”
“Stanley”?
“The crayfish, duh!”
“Ah ha … why Stanley?’
“I don’t know, he just looks like a Stanley”.
Stanley lay unwrapped and exposed on the kitchen table. He was magnificent – bright orange red armour, fierce antennae, and small lively dark eyes that seemed to be looking directly at them.
They looked back. A shame to cook really - poor thing.
“I wish you hadn’t called him Stanley”.
“Mmm, I know what you mean! There’s crayfish ….. but then there’s our Stanley”.
“Don’t say that! I don’t think I can do this!”
Oh, the difference a name makes! There is a closer link between a name and our identity - our very personhood than we might think. Consider your own names, the ones given at birth and carried through to adulthood. For most of us they evoke a sense of a loved aunt or a grandparent, perhaps a significant place…. Our parents choose our names for a reason. And once called by our name, it is as though we come into being in our own right.
When Jesus came out of the water at his Baptism he heard a voice from heaven that named him, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased”.
Perhaps, for the first time Jesus knew first-hand who he really was. Only he heard the voice, but it was the defining moment that would propel him into public ministry. [Simply scanning the sub-titles in Mark’s Gospel that follows bears witness to that – After ‘The Baptism of Jesus’ comes ‘The Temptation of Jesus’ – then the ‘The Beginning of the Galilean Ministry’ and ‘Jesus Calls the First Disciples’.] The Baptism of Jesus is a Nodal Event; his destiny is set.
And so is that of the world, for here as God promised, is a new beginning. One that speaks of hope and a good future.
[It is no wonder that in the Christian church, water is never just water; our tradition holds it as a symbol endowed with deep significance. As the power of creation in Genesis unfolds, water is present. The river in the Garden of Eden gives life to all the land and it is water that provides the path of liberation in Exodus. Water fills the Jordan River of the Beloved, and it is the very source of life that flows from the side of the crucified Jesus. It is the water of the River of Life in Revelation that signifies the healing of the nations at the end of time.
Water as life. Water that heralds new beginnings; Jesus’ baptism and ours among them.]
There is a real power in new beginnings; we can discover a new freedom in them to become and to grow.
Each January/February many children get ready for a new beginning. They pack their school bags and if they are fortunate there is new stationery, felts that work, and a pencil case with a zip that isn’t broken yet because it was a Christmas present. And off they go – it’s a new classroom, a new teacher – a school that recognises they have reached another level and at best, encourages them on. It’s chance to start with a clean slate.
As adults new beginnings are there also – a nurses uniform worn for the first time changes how people respond to us. A driver’s licence opens up new possibilities for travel. A change of job can empower us to extend ourselves and do more than we thought we could. A new hobby can also surprise us with a friend, a kindred spirit.
Our language has many phrases that indicate the hopeful momentum of new beginnings – ‘start as you mean to go on’, ‘put your best foot forward’, ‘turn over a new leaf’, ‘make a fresh start’.
However, no matter how defining the moment of a new beginning is (in fact perhaps the more defining it is, the more this is the case), something old needs to be put down. We are finite creatures after all.
The baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins that John the Baptist brought to the people in the Judean countryside, including Jesus, was just that. A challenge and a ritual that enabled the ‘putting down’ of unhelpful beliefs and behaviours or simply ones that no longer served a good purpose. It cleared the deck for a new beginning; freed them to turn to a God-inspired way of life.
It was a cathartic experience for the people who flocked to John the Baptist; every aspect of his unusual character and life-style meeting their hunger for a ‘Prophet’. He had the attractional quality of an authentic spiritual leader who walked the talk. Perhaps even the wilderness in which he appeared spoke to them, resounded in some way with the wilderness of their lives.
Which makes it more surprising that Jesus was there at all.
We don’t know a lot about Jesus’ growing up years, but we do know that he was brought up in a family of faith and that Mary and Joseph had some insight that the hand of God was upon him.
So on the whole we struggle to believe that he would need John’s baptism.
And the Gospel writers, each in their own way, are at pains to let us know that John the Baptist, Jesus cousin, is not the main player. He is the support act; certainly a worthy one but nothing more. And as he is aware of this, why then was it necessary for the lesser to initiate the greater.
What is happening here?
Theologian John Shea suggests in his book ‘Following Love into Mystery’ that, “The baptism of Jesus does not focus on the forgiveness of sins by going into the water. It is about coming out of the water and realizing a Spirit-infused identity as the beloved Son of God. The ‘open heaven’ means God has taken the initiative to close the distance between God-self and Jesus. The Greek word for ‘open’ suggests this is not a temporary hole, rather heaven and earth are now permanently in communion. The opening allows the Holy Spirit to descend like a dove.”
This is what empowers Jesus’ ministry, his new beginning.
But for Jesus’ disciples – that’s also you and me – a new beginning through baptism has a two-fold aspect to it because we are, after all, human beings.
First we must turn from all that is not God-honouring in our lives; and then our commitment to following Christ’s strategies of forgiveness and reconciliation is required. It is a decision for a way of life that is summed up in the Greatest Commandment, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind; followed close by the second: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
These are the guiding principles of the Christian community that we are being baptised into, whether as children guided by parents or as adults.
But something is missing – and that is the power within ourselves to live those principles out.
So just as John the Baptist laid his hands on Jesus and the Holy Spirit came upon him at baptism, Jesus laid his hands on St Paul and the Apostles. In turn, we hear in today’s letter to those at Ephesus how, in the name of Jesus, St Paul then laid his hands upon those who had only experienced John the Baptist’s baptism. In doing so, they received the empowerment of the Holy Spirit and what is described following this in the Book of Acts shows just how much of a new beginning this was for them.
Let us consider that only people awake to the spirit can awaken the spirit. If so, then as church, today’s Gospel invites us through the window of Jesus’s life into the importance of Baptism if we are to have a missionary faith. As Christians, we are to be encouraged to participate in many baptisms so that the power of our own once-and-for all baptism can come home to us. Baptized once – yes for sure! But renewed many times. We need that.
Let’s not lose a sense of that first “new beginning” with the Holy Spirit and remember why we are here.
Closing Prayer
God of power and of love, at his baptism you called Jesus your beloved son and sent your Spirit upon him. May we, born of water and of the Spirit, know ourselves to be loved by you. Help us to rejoice in the new life to which you call us. Amen.