Titus 2:11-14,3:4-7 & Luke 3:15-16,21-22
If you take nothing away this week, take away in your mind that image of Jesus Christ quietly on his knees on his own and his father reaching down from heaven with the Holy Spirit and saying to him, you are my son, the beloved. That is is the relationship that you have with God.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen,
Today’s gospel reading prompts a huge question, if Jesus was born without sin, if Jesus was the Son of God, then why on Earth did he need to go and be baptised? Why did Jesus need to be cleansed of his sins? That’s why we come to baptism. So why did Jesus need to? That question has been in the minds of Christians throughout the ages.
And when you start reading around it to try and find out what the earliest Christians thought about this question. This is kind of like the beginning of theology. People asking questions about Jesus and his life. Then the answer the early Christians came to is wonderful. It’s just perfect.
The reason Jesus went to be baptised is because his mother told him to.
And I love that as an answer, because anybody who grew up in a culture, in a matriarchal culture – and I’m Welsh, which let me tell you, Mums are very much in charge. When Mum says, you need to go, do something off you go and do it. And I can see many mothers in the room nodding right now when Mum says, you need to go, do something, go and do it. And the reality is we can understand it because we’ve also known baptisms like that, haven’t we?
And it’s generally Grandma who says, Why on Earth haven’t you had this child Baptised yet? And so I love the humanity of that answer, and it builds on that concept of the Holy family that we have been attempting to understand over the last few weeks. That family who travelled together to be registered in Bethlehem, that family who couldn’t find any way to stay, that family who huddled together in the warmth in the stable, that family who gave birth to Jesus Christ, that family who went out into the world and lost Jesus when he was twelve and found him in the temple.
That family who when the wine ran out at the wedding, Mary said to Jesus, Will you go and sort this out, to which Jesus replied, but my hour has not yet come.
Well, this is the answer to that statement in the wedding of Cana, Jesus hour had now come. And that is the answer to the question, why was Jesus baptised? It was because his hour had come. A great movement towards God had started across Israel. A great movement towards God had started and was being pointed at by John the Baptist.
Now was the time that Jesus declared himself publicly and said, Here I am the Son of God here to proclaim the good news of God, my Father. And the story continues from this point. This is the hour. At this point, Jesus was about 30. This is where he begins his public Ministry.
He goes from this place into the temptation in the desert. He’s recognised by everybody else he calls his first disciples. He performs many healings. Ultimately he ends up at the cross. He comes back to us again. Then he ascends into heaven.
But this. This is where it starts. The baptism of Jesus by John is the moment that that feeling of expectancy. That feeling of expectancy we pick up in the beginning of the Gospel of Luke is fulfilled.
But right there, right at the start of Luke, we’ve already got things being skewed and said, AHA, you thought that John was the Messiah, but here, straight away at the start. No, it’s not John. It’s Jesus. And everything that John does points to Jesus. And it’s just sets up everything in the Gospel of Luke.
And the baptism of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke is slightly different to the other Gospels. So last year I think we had Matthew and the heavens opened and thundered and a Dove descended. And the voice of God said, this is my son in whom I am well pleased, Mark. Not Matthew. But in Luke it’s far quieter.
“Now when all the people have been baptised and while Jesus, after his own baptism was at prayer, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily shape like a Dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my Son, the Beloved. My favour rests on you.”
No tearing asunder of the heaven here, no booming voice to the crowds, but a quiet, personal revelation in the moment of baptism. It’s one of the most striking and powerful images of the Holy Trinity of God, the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
My favour, rests on you.
Today, as we were sprinkled with the water of baptism, as we were sprinkled with that Holy water, we stand before God, just as Jesus did, asking and praying that His favour will rest on us. That moment today of the water being sprinkled. That moment when you come to receive Jesus Christ in the Sacrament, you are in the same place as Jesus Christ at prayer.
In this gospel of Luke, it is a single thread that carries from you all the way back to Jesus. In that moment, that moment of quiet prayer. When God says My favour, Jesus on you.
The New Year is full of new starts. The New Year is full of exciting possibilities. The New Year is full of expectancy. The New Year is full of opportunity.
The New Year is full of opportunity to renew your relationship with God. To make our relationship with God clear.
The second reading helps us understand how we do that. How we get to that moment where we are on our knees in prayer as Jesus was in the gospel. We are told to live a good life, to give up everything that doesn’t lead to God and have no ambition except to do good.
Amen.
If you take nothing away this week, take away in your mind that image of Jesus Christ quietly on his knees on his own and his father reaching down from heaven with the Holy Spirit and saying to him, you are my son, the beloved. That is is the relationship that you have with God.
Hold that and carry it through this year.