Genesis 1:1-5
Mark 1:4-11

The lectionary is a listing of Scripture readings selected for worship on a given Sunday or occasion.  Beginning with Advent the lectionary readings seek to trace the life of Jesus during the course of a year.  Having just celebrated the birth of Jesus on Christmas and the visit of the magi last week, which probably occurred two years after Jesus’ birth, today’s text jumps forward thirty years to focus on Jesus’ baptism.  Wow, thirty years in three weeks! What’s the hurry?  The hurry is that Jesus’ life and ministry are what were important to those early disciples known as The Way.  Actually, the birth of Jesus was not important to the followers of Jesus until at least thirty or forty years after his death. 
           
Scholars now generally agree that the first, if not the last, question to ask of the birth stories of Jesus in the gospels is not, “Did it really happen that way?” Instead we ask, “Why did the early Christian community see fit to include the birth story in their witness of faith?  The gospels are rightly understood to be witnesses of faith, not historical reports.  The selection of materials in forming the gospels was not primarily determined by any biographical interests. (Schubert M. Ogden, “The Star of Bethlehem,” The Progressive Christian, vol. 182, no. 6, November/December 2008, p. 10-11.)
           
The farther one goes back in the tradition of Christian witness and theology, the less one finds concerning Jesus’ birth and parentage.  The gospels were formed backwards beginning with the resurrection.  Thought, interest, and speech about any significance related to Jesus’ birth also develop backwards, many years after Jesus’ life had ended.  Only after the early Christian community had come to believe in Jesus as the decisive re-presentation of God’s own gift and demand did they begin in retrospect to look for any extraordinary phenomenon to signify his birth.  (Schubert M. Ogden, “The Star of Bethlehem,” The Progressive Christian, vol. 182, no. 6, November/December 2008, p. 10-11.)
           
The events in Jesus' life which the early church highlighted were not nearly as important as the interpretations given to these events.  Great events come just like any other events.  They happen and only in retrospect do people discover that something of out­standing importance had occurred.  Interpretations always are made the aft side of events.  When I think of a significant event in my life I can recall many of my feelings since the event but I have great difficulty identifying my feelings preceding the event.  Get­ting on the other side of an event is even more difficult when one or more of the persons involved are unavailable to tell what hap­pened and how they felt.
           
This is the situation with Jesus' baptism.  Thirty years after the resurrection of Christ, several people considered it worthwhile to write about some of the events that occurred in Jesus' life.  His baptism is one of those events.  Reporting the baptism of Jesus indicates its importance.  Obviously the event was important to Jesus and perhaps he described the event to his disciples.  No doubt this underscored the value of the event for those who decided to compile written witness of Jesus' life.  It is reasonable to conclude that some of his family and friends witnessed his baptism and gave early followers their impressions and interpretations.  In whatever manner the descriptions of this event were first formu­lated, the church has interpreted and reinterpreted the meaning of Jesus' baptism for more than twenty centuries.
           
The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist is beyond question, but it is not beyond problems.  This event is a problem in the Gospels although the authors make no effort to cover, excuse, or hide either the event or the problem which the event raises.  John gives ample evidence in his gospel of the ministry of John the Baptist, but nowhere does he even hint that Jesus was baptized by John.  Mark is the oldest gospel and in it John's baptism is described as one of repentance and he goes on to say that Jesus was baptized by John.  Mark has no record of John's resistance to Jesus' request to be baptized.  The problem of Jesus being baptized by John whose bap­tism signified repentance was not a problem for Mark.  Perhaps his writing helped surface the issue.  Luke quickly but briefly records that Jesus was baptized.  Matthew most acutely feels the problem of Jesus being baptized by John.  His record of John refusing to baptize Jesus indicates the struggle which Matthew had.  His strug­gle probably is indicative of the struggles which many of the followers of the Way were having with Jesus' baptism by 60 or 70 of the Common Era. I have mentioned the varying levels of interest in Jesus’ baptism to help us see that there was not unanimity on the significance or the meaning of Jesus’ baptism.
           
Through the centuries a variety of interpretations have been given regarding Jesus’ baptism.  What seems the most plausible is that Jesus grew as a human being and faced life as a human being.  His awareness of himself, who he was and who he hoped to be, were gradual developments that came through deepening awareness during his years in Nazareth.  In hearing the preaching of John the Baptist, Jesus heard the Word of God that struck a responsive chord in his life.  Perhaps then he recognized that the opposite of repentance was to stay the course.  He heard in John the Baptist’s word the clear call by which Israel could and must change the course. He sensed a new age was ushering in for his people and for the world and John the Baptist was sounding forth the call to people in a way that it had not been sounded for generations.  Jesus saw the new age coming and sensed his desire and need to be part of that age. He stepped forth to be baptized, signaling a beginning. 
           
In that sense Jesus redefined the form‑‑baptism‑‑as he later pointed out that when forms, old wine­skins, had lost their usefulness and flexibility to carry the substance, new wine, then the old wineskins should be thrown away and new wineskins should be used.
           
Baptism was an outward, visible sign of Jesus' commitment to ministry.  The Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, have a similar sequence of events:  the preaching of John the Baptist, the baptism of Jesus, Jesus' sojourn in the wilderness, the calling of disciples, and the expansion of ministry.  The Synoptic writers intentionally portray the ministry of Jesus as beginning at his baptism.
           
Jesus had been questioning who he was?  "Who am I?" is a question every human being asks in some form.  In a sense an answer really cannot be given to this question.  The best a person can do is to tell others the direction in which he is marching.  This is what Jesus did in being baptized.  He was baptized to signify the completion of his covenant with God saying to God and to himself, "This is the direction I am going."  At his baptism was the time when the anchor was lifted, the cables were cut and Jesus' life set sail into the deep, charting a direct and difficult course.  It was a course that he knew not every turn or every event but it was a direction toward which he chose to move.  Jesus may have been as surprised as anybody at what was happening to him and at what eventually happened to him. 
           
Not only did John's baptism of Jesus inaugurate Jesus' minis­try but also revealed its unexpected nature. Jesus interpreted baptism as repentance, and self‑denial that eventually led to his death.  John invited people to be clean.  Jesus called people to die to themselves in order to care for and love others.  Jesus used the word baptism to refer to his own impending death (Mar 10:38).  He redefined the form and suggested that baptism is not as much water that washes as it is the flood that drowns.
           
Jesus' baptism also was a time of blessing, acceptance, approval, and assurance.  Mark and Luke suggest that the communica­tion of the blessing was between God and Jesus when they record "You are my beloved son in you I am well pleased" (Author's translation Mark 1:11 and Luke 3:21).  Matthew has the voice announcing "This is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17) which seems to be his attempt to reconcile John's baptism of Jesus by suggesting that the blessing was for all who were present to hear.  What the writers record is that God affirmed and approved of Jesus before he ever did anything.
             
Through the centuries the church has viewed Jesus' baptism as his inauguration, commissioning, and ordination to ministry.  In this regard Jesus' baptism was a beginning.  It was not an ending nor was it an end in itself.  Jesus' baptism was an outward expression of his inner commitment.
           
Certainly because Jesus was baptized is why baptism became important as the early church was forming.  Various New Testament writers use a rich variety of meanings for baptism:  forgiveness, rebirth, cleansing, death, resurrection, refreshment, adoption, light.  For the early believers, baptism was patterned on the death and resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:38, Romans 6:3‑4, Galatians 3:27, I Corinthians 12:13).  In the biblical record of the early church baptism means that the one being baptized is dying to the old life in sin and rising to a new life in Christ.  Baptism signals a reshaping and redirecting of one's thinking because of the impact that the awareness of God's presence has had on the individual's life.  Baptism is an act of commitment and promise in which the old life is buried and the believer is raised to a new life‑‑new in direction, purpose, and objective.  Baptism is an outward, visible sign of the inward, invisible grace of God at work in a person's life.  The words of Goethe are apropos:  "The highest cannot be spoken; it can only be acted."  Baptism serves as a seal of the promise of God's love, care, and presence. Baptism has become a symbolic way of saying, "I am ready to grow.  I willingly entrust myself to God's creative power to grow me beyond where I am."  Thus baptism has become the signal of the dawning of a person's faith in God which completes the covenant relationship.  When we baptize infants, we are simply acknowledging that they are gifts from God created in God’s image.  By baptizing infants, we are setting them on a path and entering into a covenant with them.  Their parents, godparents, and we as a community of faith are covenanting together to keep these infants in an atmosphere of learning and growing in their wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of God.  This is done with the understanding that the infant at some point will make his or her own faith decision and commitment. 
           
Baptism is a signal that one is beginning his faith commitment to God just as Jesus' baptism signaled the beginning of his faith commit­ment to ministry.  A person does not know at the beginning of a journey all that is in store for him on the way.  Jesus did not know all that would unfold during his ministry. He had no idea that his disciples would have such a difficult time learning or that religious leaders would be so resistant to change.
             
The baptism of Jesus was not regarded as greatly important at the time of the event, but much later the early church began to look back to the event and highlight its significance.  The event was not nearly as important as the interpretation of the event or the meaning assigned to the event.
           
From the biblical information available we can conclude that Jesus' baptism signaled his commitment of faith in his relationship with God which was a consummation of the covenant relationship.  His baptism pointed in the direction in which Jesus was marching.  He was setting sail on a course of life.  It was a course that turned out to be very difficult and disturbing but a course on which he was willing to remain in spite of the many offers he was given to live differently.

Jesus' request to be baptized by John surprised many as they began to think about what this request might mean. It counters anything that anyone would have expected the Son of God to say.  It is such a diffi­cult request that Matthew has John refusing to baptize Jesus.  Through the centuries this has been a difficult word of Jesus with which the church has had to deal.  Some, like the author of John's Gospel, have not heard it as germane and found no need to mention it.  Others, like Mark and Luke, see Jesus' baptism event as impor­tant and report it in a rather matter‑of fact style.  But there are those, like Matthew, who wrestle with the question of why was Jesus baptized.  As Matthew tells it, right in the middle of the Jordan River Jesus is challenged to change the course of his ministry before he ever began but he refused.  Jesus was interpreting the event of his baptism as a consummation of his faith in God which was essential to complete his covenant relationship with God.   
           
Jesus' baptism signaled the direction he was moving.  There were many times during the three years that followed when he was tempted to abort his mission.   
           
What event has served as a signal in your life of the direction you were going like baptism signaled the direction for Jesus?  What event marked the beginning of your ministry, your serving God?  If that event is anything like what most people have experienced, it was not until some time later, perhaps even years later in retrospect that you began to interpret that event as the beginning of your service to God.  And that event became the defining event that expressed the meaning and depth of your commitment to relate to God and to look at the world and live in the world affected by your relationship with God and your commitment to God.  I suspect that no one event in your life totally defines your relationship and commitment to God.  My guess is there are a handful of such events that evolve out of a singular event that set your life moving in a direction. 
           
The defining event for me occurred nearly fifty years ago when I seriously weighted the options of law, medicine, and ministry as vocational options.  When I came out of that time of discernment, with a decision to pursue ministry and later reflected on that decision, I realized that that discerning process was the defining event for me and set my life on a course, in a direction of how I would relate to and serve God. The defining event for Jesus was his baptism and it became a defining event years after the event.  What is that defining event for you?  How have you interpreted and reinterpreted that event through the years?  Today is an excellent time to reexamine that defining event and subsequent connected events as a tool to help set the direction you will live your life going forward.  Explore how Jesus’ baptism and your defining event intersect.  Use that intersection as a helpful place to stop, look around, and discern the direction you will live your life as you move forward through 2009 and beyond. I find it helpful to explore Jesus’ commitment and our own and identify what connections there are between these commitments.  What about you?  What are the connections for you?