We are still at the beginning of this new year. Many people make new resolutions or take up new disciplines at this time. At the beginning of this particular new year we may all be desperately hoping for a positive way forward for the world and an end to the suffering, restrictions and isolation that the Covid 19 virus has brought. We are all also reeling from the recent events in Washington DC with the astonishing scenes of the storming of the Capitol. There is chaos and suffering all around our world. We yearn for a new beginning.
You may have noticed that two of our readings this morning speak about 'beginnings'. The opening verses of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, tell us that 'in the beginning' God created the heavens and the earth. Everything that exists has its beginning in God's creative word. Mark's gospel opens with the words: 'the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.' The coming of Jesus marks a new beginning.
We heard the first few verses of Mark's gospel a few weeks ago in Advent when we focused on the witness of John the Baptist. John's ministry makes it clear that the new beginning in Jesus does not come out of the blue but is related to God's purposes in the past through the people of Israel. John the Baptist straddles the Old Testament and the New Testament; he is a prophet like Malachi and Isaiah whose words are quoted in these verses. Like many of the prophets of old he brings an urgent message of repentance; a plea to wake up and turn around.
In John's ministry this call to repentance is expressed through baptism. Crowds of people are drawn together to listen to his uncompromising message and large numbers are baptized in the River Jordan. The water signifies washing and cleansing but water in the Bible also symbolizes chaos, struggle, suffering and death. The Psalmists often spoke of the torrents going over them, of suffering overwhelming them like a flood. Those who were baptized by John were not sprinkled by a few drops of water on the head, but plunged into the murky depths and up again, a dramatic action symbolizing death and life, a radical change of direction. The people of John's day may also have been reminded of the people of Israel crossing the Red Sea and later the River Jordan as they leave slavery in Egypt and journey to the freedom of the promised land. As people are baptized in the River Jordan they move from the slavery of sin to the freedom of forgiveness.
But John's message was more than a call to repentance and baptism in the Jordan, dramatic as that was; he also proclaimed the coming of the one 'more powerful than I'. 'I have baptized you with water', he says, 'but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.' John points ahead to Jesus who in the very next scene of the gospel comes to John to be baptized himself.
The first time we meet Jesus in Mark's gospel is at his baptism; this is the beginning of the account of Jesus' life and ministry and it is highly significant. We are focusing on Jesus' baptism today.
We might perhaps be puzzled and wonder why Jesus needed to be baptized. If baptism was a sign of repentance, a turning around from self to God, and a washing away of sin, then why should Jesus be baptized? Jesus did not need to repent of his sins or turn around from himself to God as he lived in perfect obedience to his Father. In Matthew's gospel, John the Baptist expresses his shock and surprise – are you coming to be baptized by me? He wants to resist this as it doesn't seem right, but Jesus insists. Jesus chooses to be baptized, to plunge down into the murky depths, the overwhelming torrents, representing the chaos of sin, suffering and death in order to fully identify with us. Jesus, the Sinless One, repents with us and for us.
His choice to be baptized and to be fully identified with us is a costly one. Later, not long before his betrayal, Jesus speaks to his disciples of his suffering and death as a 'baptism' that he must go through (Mark 10. 38). Jesus' baptism in the Jordan points ahead to the baptism of his death on the cross, and his rising to new life.
Here, right at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, we see a foreshadowing of his death and resurrection. As Jesus comes out of the water, he sees the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him, which perhaps echoes the opening verses from Genesis we heard earlier. In some translations we hear that 'a wind from God swept over the face of the waters'. But the Hebrew word ruah can also be translated Spirit; 'the Spirit of God hovered over the waters'. The Spirit of God is like a mother bird hovering over the waters. Just as the Spirit of God brings life to the formless void at the beginning of creation, so Jesus is filled with the life giving Spirit even as he is plunged into the darkness of sin and death. In Jesus, there is a new creation.
At his baptism the Spirit comes upon Jesus and the heavens are torn apart. It is as if the curtain is drawn back to reveal what is really going on. Earth and heaven are brought together in Jesus. In the blessing for Christmastide we are reminded that Christ 'by his incarnation gathered into one things earthly and heavenly'. Here at his baptism we see this truth revealed again. As the heavens are torn apart, it is as if a window is opened to a different reality; 'God's dimension behind ordinary reality' as one commentator puts it. Here we see for a moment what is really going on.
This window into heaven and the coming of the Spirit are accompanied by a voice, 'you are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.' Jesus is the Son, the Beloved, in whom God delights. This echoes words from Isaiah (42.1): 'here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.' Jesus is not detached from the struggles of earthly life; he is the one who gives himself in humble service. As the beloved Son, he also takes up the vocation of the suffering servant in Isaiah, who brings forgiveness to his people through his suffering and death.
What does all this say to us?
The baptism of Jesus is a sign for us that Jesus is both the Son of God, the anointed one, in whom God delights, but also the one who is fully identified with us, who is plunged into the murky depths of chaos, suffering, sin and death with us and for us. He is with us in the mess, the chaos, in all that overwhelms us, in order to bring us to a new beginning, a new hope, a new life.
The baptism of Jesus reminds us of the new beginning, the new identity we have in him; because he fully identified with us, we can be fully identified with him. We too have been baptized and we are united to Christ. The same words the Father says of Jesus, are true for us. We too are God's beloved son, or God's beloved daughter, and he is pleased with us. We are God's beloved children and God delights in us. Not because of our achievements, not because we have proved how interesting, good, virtuous or loveable we are. He loves us because he loves us. No matter how much of a mess we make of our lives, despite our failures, self-centredness, and self-deception, despite the dark secrets of our hearts which perhaps we don't even acknowledge to ourselves - what one writer calls 'the slum within' – we are loved and God delights in us. He loves us because he sees us as we are in Christ.
Most of us will not be able to remember our baptism and we may not think of it very often but it does not mean it is not significant. Today we had hoped to baptize Delali, Joana and Edem Agoba. This has been postponed but we hope to be able to celebrate that joyful occasion soon. Please do pray for them as they prepare for their baptism. Many of us will remember Rachel's baptism a few months ago and her moving testimony.
Baptism is a new beginning, but one which we need to grow into every day in our Christian lives. We are in Christ, and because we have been united with him, we can be assured that whatever chaos and sin and suffering we go through, there is forgiveness, freedom and new life in him. This hope is not just for ourselves but for the whole world, indeed the whole created order. God created the world in the beginning, and brings about a new creation in Christ. No matter what mess the world is in, God's Spirit is continually at work to bring life out of chaos and death.
In Christ, we begin to see differently, to have our eyes opened to the heavenly reality, 'God's dimension behind ordinary reality' in our daily lives and the life of our world. Let us pray that our eyes may be opened more fully to perceive the grace and truth of God in the midst of the everyday. In Christ, we receive the life-giving Spirit even in the midst of struggle, uncertainty and anxiety, and even when we feel the torrent has gone over our head. Empowered by that Spirit we are called to humbly serve God's good purposes, remembering that in Christ, we are each one of us God's beloved child.
As we go into this new year, let us remember that there is always a new beginning in Christ. May we hear those words ringing in our ears, and go back to them day after day: 'you are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter, with you I am well pleased.'
Helen Marshall