Epiphany- The Baptism of Jesus
The English word "Epiphany" comes from a Greek word that has the implication of "appearing", "revealing", “manifestation”, or “showing”. When we suddenly realize something, we say we have had an “epiphany”. So, the season of Epiphany focuses on ‘revealings’. In particular, the season of Epiphany is about God breaking into the world through Jesus. It is a season where Jesus is revealed as the Messiah and God’s Son. … On the feast of the Epiphany (on Jan 6th) we focus on the visit of the Magi, where we see Jesus being revealed to the nations of the world, as represented by the Magi. … Today, we focus on the revealing of who Jesus is through Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist.
At the beginning of our reading we see the people
“filled with expectation” and “all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah” (Lk 3:15).
The air is full of expectation. They feel the oppression of Rome, and they yearn for the promises of God to be fulfilled that will release them. They had come back from exile in Babylon about 500 years earlier (538BC). It was during the Babylonian’s destruction of the Temple that the Ark of the Covenant was lost, and when they returned there were some who questioned whether God’s presence returned to the new temple. … They soon had to deal with the Greek king Antiochus the 4th who set up a statue of Zeus on the altar of burnt offerings in the temple not even 200 years earlier, which resulted in the Maccabean Revolt (167-160BC). So, they have been dealing with turmoil for quite some time. … They are on the edge of their seats, waiting for the messiah to be revealed. As people come to hear John and to be baptized by him, they wonder if John is the one they have been waiting for. Jesus even sees John as wearing the mantle of a prophet (Matt 11:9; Lk 16:16). So it is a natural question to have for those waiting in expectation.
John responds to this by saying that he isn’t the one. He says,
“‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
John’s baptism is pointing to another baptism that is about more than water. St. Ambrose says that John’s baptism is
“a type of the law, because the law could denounce sin, but not pardon it”.[1]
John’s baptism is for repentance- it is a preparation for what is about to come. John’s baptism doesn’t have the power to deal with the problem.
And John is soon removed from the public stage by being placed in prison because John accuses the ruler Herod Antipas (the son of Herod the Great) of unlawfully being with his brother’s wife, as well as rebuking him for other evil things he’s done. (Herod shared the duties and privileges with his brothers, as the Jewish province had been divided into four regions, and all of it was under Roman Authority. So, their power relied on Rome recognizing them as rulers.) John’s imprisonment foreshadows the danger Jesus would soon face in his own ministry. So in the midst of the story of Jesus’ baptism, we have a foreshadowing of political danger. The spirituality of John and Jesus do not allow us to escape the political realities of the world- rather, it is a spirituality that immerses us in the messiness of humanity.
Before John is imprisoned, however, Jesus joins the crowds that are being baptized by John. Jesus identifies with the crowd- The mass of humanity that is dealing with the twisted knots and dead-ends of the complexity and interconnectedness of sin.
… There is a TV show called “The Good Place” and in one episode they do a good job of showing how even a good act can have a complex web of sin underlaying it. At one point they examine the act of giving flowers to your grandmother (season 3, ep. 11). In modern North America, that might mean the flowers are grown thousands of miles away, grown with chemical fertilizers and pesticides that are dangerous for the ecosystem, picked by underpaid workers, and then transported by fossil fuel burning trucks. So, that good act has also polluted the environment and taken advantage of vulnerable people. … Humanity is caught in a complex web of Sin, where even our “good” actions, on some level, might be reliant on sin.
Our “good” actions could also have sinful motivations underlying them- maybe they are barely conscious motivations. Surely, we can imagine some less-than-pure motivations for buying a grandmother flowers. Maybe there is a competition with other grandchildren as to who the favourite is? Maybe they are bought out of guilt and rather than being given out of love they are given to release us from feeing negligent? Maybe they are part of an attempt to get into grandma’s will? We can do good things for less-than-good reasons. …
This isn’t to say that we shouldn’t attempt to do good in the world. It’s just to say that sometimes these things are very complicated. This is what we mean when we talk about “original sin”. The world is so complex and polluted with sin that even the attempt to do good can be polluted by sin. We can be left in a position where all our options feel connected to sin. It’s as if you can choose any shirt you want in the mall, but they are all made in a sweatshop. Choice is there, but choice outside the would of sin is not one of the options. … The mass of humanity that is dealing with this mess is coming to John for baptism, to repent of it, to be washed and prepared for God, … and Jesus comes with them, identifying with them, as one of them. He identifies with those who are struggling with a world infected by sin. He doesn’t add to the mess the way we do, but he identifies with it and deals with the mess that humanity has made. When he is immersed in the waters, he is immersed into humanity and into humanity’s mess.
Jesus is to become who Israel was meant to be in the face of the mess of the world- to triumph over the temptations, and be a light to the world. He is the embodiment of the true Israel. He will do what Israel was called to do, but failed to do. … Israel was meant to be a blessing to all the families of the world (Gen 12:3), so Jesus’ genealogy that follows this reading doesn’t just go back to the patriarchs, but all the way back to Adam. Jesus goes into the water as a representative of humanity, not just Israel.
After his baptism, while he is praying, he sees heaven opened and
“the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased’” (Lk 3:22).
Which refers back to Psalm 2:7-
“‘You are my son; today I have begotten you”,
which may have been used as a part of the coronation ceremony of Israel’s king. It is an indication that he is the Messiah- this anointing by the Holy Spirit, was his anointing to be the awaited king.
A number of the early commentators here see, not only the revealing of the Son as the Messiah, but also the revealing of the Trinity, which would also later be the formula Jesus gave his followers to use when baptizing- They were to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Mt 28). These commentators saw the voice of the Father, the Son in the water, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.
Some of these early commentators also saw the dove as pointing to the dove from the Noah story, which returned with the olive branch to show that the flood was over, and that new life was once again growing. The dove was a sign of a new beginning. And in Christ, that is what is happening. In Christ we will receive a new covenant.
Epiphany is a time of revealings. We see Jesus revealed, and we get glimpses of who he really is. And the good news is that we see, revealed in Jesus, a new beginning for us. Jesus leads us into a new covenant. In our baptism, we are baptized into his life, so we can draw strength from him and what he has done as we lead our own life. He represents us in those waters as our King, as our Messiah, and he invites us to share in his victory as citizens of his kingdom. AMEN.
[1]
Exposition of Luke 2.68
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