When a biographer begins their account of a life the first thing want to do is they want to establish who the person really is. They can do this in a number of ways. By the locality and community into which the person was born or by the person's ancestors. The gospel writers all had their own ways of establishing who Jesus was and his credibility. Let's take a quick look at each one. Matthew begins with a very exhaustive and exhausting genealogy. There are no less than 17 verses and 28 generations listed in grizzly detail beginning with Abraham and finishing with Our Lord. And if you are ever having trouble with insomnia then I can highly recommend this as a marvellous antidote. Luke was keen to establish Our Lord's credibility to the Jewish community for which he was writing and has Jesus born at Bethlehem. Then Jesus is quickly marched off to be him circumcised and go to the temple for the Jewish rite of purification. So Jesus has ticked all the synagogue boxes. John has the exquisite prologue that was read at Christmass eve. “The word was made flesh” leaving the reader in no doubt about the divinity of Jesus and his close relationship with His Heavenly father.
But in this morning's gospel we have Mark establishing who Jesus is with the account of Jesus' baptism. So the story is not just about two guys splashing about in the murky Jordan river. This is Mark's way of showing his readers who Jesus is and this baptism story will do so in several ways. First Remember that Jesus doesn’t need baptism. Jesus is the son of God, the divine the perfect. So how come Jesus is undergoing baptism, in fact he insists on it when John gets all coy. And quite rightly says “No I need to be baptised by you cousin Jesus”.
Answer. Jesus is there in the waters of the Jordan to be baptised not for himself, but for us. He takes our humanity into the waters of baptism and therefore death, in order that when it is our turn to go into the waters of death we may come out triumphant and rise again. Jesus is being baptised for you and and me and that is very good news indeed. Now that tells you what Mark is saying about Jesus. Jesus is the one who will go to extraordinary lengths to be with us in all our murk and yuk and especially our death. Jesus is our saviour and very closest friend who is with us in good times and in wretched.
The next thing Mark tells us about Jesus is that Jesus has a unity with the Holy Spirit. And the spirit descends on Jesus like a dove and in the very next verse that we don’t get in this morning's gospel, the same Holy Spirit drives Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted. Odd,… isn’t it that the Spirit can be around when it's all joy and fantastic, but also ask the most challenging things of us. Another thing that Mark tells us about Jesus is that he is God's son, the beloved and God is very pleased with him.
And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” John the Baptist and those who were waiting for baptism all heard those words. Remember that they were waiting to confess their sins. So Jesus is for everyone and in a loving way those who know that they get it wrong. So there is hope for the guy that winks at me in the mirror each morning.
So what else is going in this story?
There is a transition. The private quiet life of Jesus is over and can never be recaptured. Jesus cannot go back to how things used to be. Jesus transitions from a hidden life to a public ministry. A new era has begun. John the baptist was the last of the prophets pointing to the Messiah. God is now doing something new in His son. What happened in the Jordan is a bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament era of grace and truth. So you see by halfway through his first chapter Mark has already told us and his community heaps about who Jesus was and established Jesus credibility as the messiah.
This feast of the baptism of Jesus concludes the Christmass season. We have learnt that in the person of Jesus, God has taken us on. When we understand this, when we know this, when we live this, then you and I have the potential to also be transformed.
Something to think about ..What if … what if God is already saying to you today “You.. are.. my… beloved child, with whom I am well pleased.” “You are my beloved child, with whom I am well pleased.”
Doesn’t that have to change us? Aren’t we also being ‘transformed’? And isn’t the world already being transformed?
