This Sunday is the First Sunday after the Epiphany, and as we have followed the stories of Jesus’s birth and Jesus’s growing up, we finally find ourselves at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry or, rather, right before Jesus starts his ministry, when Jesus meets John in the wilderness and receives from him his baptism. We have observed during this Christmas season that we may at times have difficulties with the chronology of all the different events concerning Jesus’s childhood and youth, but here, at last, we are on solid grounds: All four Gospels mention Jesus’s baptism as the first thing that happened to him as an adult, as he came out of his hometown of Nazareth.
And it’s a little strange, if you think about it. It’s a little strange because you may have noticed that the text we have just heard this morning, we’ve already heard it a few weeks ago during Advent. The people, Luke tells us, “were filled with expectation“, they were looking for the Messiah and certainly John the Baptist checked all the boxes. Like the prophets before him, John preached repentance to the ordinary people as well as to the powerful ones, he didn’t hesitate to accuse King Herod of his sins, and we know that’s exactly what important religious figures of the past like Amos, Jeremiah or even Isaiah did before him. John summoned the people, gave them life lessons about what they should do and shouldn’t do. As for himself, he embodied this life of asceticism, eating locust and wearing camel hair. He self described according to his mission, a voice crying in the wilderness, and certainly he was loud and he was heard and he was noticed. Among all the things he knew and taught though, there was a thing he was also sure about: he was not the Messiah. The Messiah was still to come and John wasn’t even worth to be his slave. He himself brought water, to wash away the sin, but the Messiah would put the world on fire.
And so, it’s a little strange indeed that as Luke’s readers we know what John and the other characters in the story are still not aware of, and it is that the Messiah is already present among them, coming to be baptized with everybody else, and nobody pays attention to him because they are all seeking for somebody who would stand out and certainly not line up with all the other sinners. For Luke, this is quite consistent with all that has happened so far: Jesus, or at least his parents, were also standing in line for Tiberius’ census at the time of Jesus’s birth. From the beginning Jesus was counted with all the people and the people not noticing. I don’t blame them, if there is a time in my life where I really don’t expect anything to happen is when I am waiting in line somewhere! It shouldn’t have been that different at Jesus’s time: Everybody gazed towards the place where the action was supposed to take place. They would have been very surprised to realize that the Messiah was standing by their side to receive the baptism, and so should we
Let me explain.
All four Gospels agree that Jesus received the baptism of John the Baptist, so we should hold it as a certain fact, and yet have you ever thought why Jesus had to be baptized or maybe chose to be baptized? Why the one who was without sins should seek and receive a baptism of water, a baptism of repentance and purification?
It looks like even John was surprised and not comfortable with that. In Matthew’s version of the story, we actually learn that John tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized, he says to him: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matt 3:14). And certainly, in all his life of asceticism, John was still the sinful one compared to Jesus. So what do you think? Most theologians assume that Jesus received his baptism out of humility, and it could make sense: Jesus wanted to be with the people, and show solidarity. The thing is we know that Jesus did not care very much for displays of piety, he often criticized the Pharisees for praying aloud in public places. Jesus didn’t do piety for the show, or pretend he was something he wasn’t. He didn’t even care much about being a good example.
So what was it all about? We may have to dig a bit further and maybe it would help us to try to understand a little better who was Jesus in order to understand his motivations.
We see quite evidently that there is a difference between John and Jesus. John is the assertive one. He taught, he preached, he knew just what to do and had a piece of advice for everybody, King included. He was only six months older then Jesus and yet Luke tells us, by the time Jesus received his baptism, John had already finished his ministry, having been locked in jail by Herod for his bold proclamations. I think we all have somebody like that in our life, a cousin, a sibling or maybe a friend who does everything before us and better than us! And this is why I love a comment I read that puts in perspective all of Jesus’s character. This commentator said: If John knew everything, maybe Jesus was the one who doubted. Maybe Jesus wasn’t so sure about himself. And it seems that it makes sense if we think about it: After his little escapade to the Temple when he was 12 years old, Luke tells that Jesus withdrew to Nazareth and stayed obedient to his parents(Luke 2:51). Why did Jesus came to receive the baptism if he was the Holy One of God? Well maybe because he wasn’t so sure about that to start with.
It reminded me of this story about a saint, I think it was Therese of Lisieux. She told in her autobiography that when she was a child, she would go to confession and accused herself of all sort of sins just in case. Well, if you grew up a catholic as I did, you know about that. You have to go to confession, and you have to find something to say to the priest, so as children, most of the times, we would make something up or just pick a sin or two that weren’t too embarrassing like we accused ourselves to have eaten to much candy! But this isn’t what it was about with Therese. She was just so worried she had offended God. She thought: I don’t think I did this, but maybe I did. She wasn’t afraid to be punished, or even afraid to be a bad person, but she loved God so much she was afraid she may have caused some kind of sorrow to God’s heart, even without knowing it. And I am thinking: Well, maybe that’s the great mystery, maybe that’s why Jesus chose to receive a baptism of repentance. Out of humility, maybe, because he wanted to be in solidarity with the people and not come out as the one who had it all figured out, but maybe also he got baptized because he was not so sure about being a holy person and because he loved God so much he was worried he could have grieved God by something he said or did. I know this isn’t the way we often think about Jesus, but I can’t imagine Jesus thinking of himself he was just perfect as he was, maybe, and again according to Luke, as a person he wasn’t all over the place like his famous cousin, rather like his mom, Jesus was the quiet one, the one who spent time observing, reflecting and pondering what the Scriptures were all about and if they, by any chance, they really could have been about him. Maybe, despite everything he had been told about the wonders at his birth, he still wasn’t sure.
I think this is interesting that, even if Luke tells us the same story about Jesus’s baptism as the other evangelists, he tells it to us a little differently: In Luke’s version, it does not seem that the voice of God coming from heaven is for everybody to hear, and the sign of the dove for everybody to see, right there at the second John poured water on Jesus’s head. Rather, God’s revelation happens later, when all have been baptized and Jesus has withdrawn to pray. In Luke’s, it’s like Jesus received this revelation about being God’s beloved as if it was only meant for him to hear, maybe because he was the one who needed to hear this. It is quite amazing to realize that this is this baptism that will be the starting point of Jesus’s ministry. it’s like he needed confirmation from God before he could start anything. And I love that God says that God is pleased about Jesus when Jesus hadn’t done anything yet, because it could mean that it was indeed Jesus’s great humility and fear of having hurt God that pleased God more than anything Jesus could have done.
During this season of Epiphany, we have started a new class talking about doubts. And one thing we generally assume is that for Christians doubt is not such a good thing, or if it’s not good or bad, it is at least something we have to overcome to find real faith. But what if the condition for finding true faith was rather to assume like Jesus that we are not the holy one, that we aren’t better than anybody else, and rather that other people have something to teach us? What if the way of pleasing God was not by being so certain about God, rather what if it we pleased God when we do not take God for granted, when we don’t assume that God is necessarily on our side? Instead of thinking of ourselves as the good ones, what if we were genuinely afraid of causing sorrow to others or hurting God’s heart? I am not talking about this self destructive, paralyzing way of second guessing everything, rather I am thinking about how we could accept our doubts in the gentle way Jesus did, not taking all the space with our opinions and certainties, and even with our supposed holiness, and instead make room for God to be God, opening up to new possibilities. I don’t know how it is for you, but the few epiphanies I had in my life happened when I considered the possibility I might have been wrong about something. People, Churches and Nations may have much to gain these days by not assuming from the start that they are God’s elected or favorite, by not assuming that God is systematically on their side. We often lament a lack of faith in our world today but maybe it has to do with our incapacity as believers to cultivate a healthy sense of doubt and leave room to experience God anew and let God reveal God to us.