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Luke 3:7-17, 21-22  (The Message)

When crowds of people came out for baptism because it was the popular thing to do, John exploded: “Brood of snakes!  What do you think you’re doing slithering down here to the river?  Do you think a little water on your snakeskins is going to deflect God’s judgment?  It’s your life that must change, not your skin.  And don’t think you can pull rank by claiming Abraham as ‘father.’  Being a child of Abraham is neither here nor there—children of Abraham are a dime a dozen.  God can make children from stones if he wants.  What counts is your life.  Is it green and blossoming?  Because if it’s deadwood, it goes on the fire.”

The crowd asked him, “Then what are we supposed to do?”  “If you have two coats, give one away,” he said.  “Do the same with your food.”

Tax men also came to be baptized and said, “Teacher, what should we do?”  He told them, “No more extortion—collect only what is required by law.”

Soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”  He told them, “No shakedowns, no blackmail—and be content with your rations.”

The interest of the people by now was building.  They were all beginning to wonder, “Could this John be the Messiah?”

But John intervened: “I’m baptizing you here in the river.  The main character in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out.  He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives.  He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God;  everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”.....

After all the people were baptized, Jesus was baptized.  As he was praying, the sky opened up and the Holy Spirit, like a dove descending, came down on him.  And along with the Spirit, a voice: “You are my Son, chosen and marked by my love, pride of my life.”

Last week we read the readings for Epiphany, which actually fell in the middle of last week, and we discussed Incarnation – the en-flesh-ment of divinity in the human person of Jesus of Nazareth.  Today’s reading telling of the baptism of that same Jesus is simply a continuation of the same story – notwithstanding that 30-odd human years passed between the two episodes.  We are still talking about the very same thing.

For thirty-one or so years from the visit of the magi Jesus lived an entirely normal life for his time and place.  For thirty-one years he rose in the morning and did whatever it was he did and then went to bed again at night – just like everyone else around him.  At least we assume he did – based on the fact that he attracted no attention, no one ever mentioned him in the writings of the time – and the only comment we get on those quiet years - except the one brief story when he was twelve –  comes in the next chapter of Luke after Jesus’ first speaking appearance when he read from Isaiah in the local synagogue and the people were suddenly astonished to hear how well he spoke:

All who were there, watching and listening, were surprised at how well he spoke. But they also said, “Isn’t this Joseph’s son, the one we’ve known since he was a youngster?”

It would appear that until his baptism in the Jordan, no one had ever paid a lot of attention to him.  No one expected great things from him.  He was just a guy, like any other guy.  

Bu then, one day, he was drawn into the desert to hear the new preacher, John, who was preaching fire and brimstone and calling the people to repentance – calling them to be baptized and washed from their sin – and to hurry up about it because one was coming who was going to toss out the trash from the world and burn it.

Since this is a continuation of last week’s story – it really is – you’ll see why when we finish here – I want to read you just a little more poetry from John Shea.  This bit is from another poem titled The Man Who Was a Lamp:

Jesus came out of John
as surely as he came out of Mary.
John was the desert soil
in which the flower of Jesus grew.
John was the voice in the wilderness
who taught Jesus to hear the voice from the sky.
John would push sinners beneath the water
and Jesus would resurrect them on the waves.
John was the fast
who prepared for Jesus, the feast.

No man ever less a shepherd than John --
yet loved by one.
If you are surprised that Jesus came from John,
imagine John’s prophetic puzzle
when the predicted “wrath to come” came
and he said, “Let’s eat!”
John expected an ax to the root of the tree
and instead he found a gardener hoeing around it.
He dreamt of a man with a winnowing fan and a fire
and along came a singing seed scatterer.
He welcomed wrathful verdicts,
then found a bridegroom on the bench.
When John said, “There is one among you
Whom you do not know,”
he spoke from experience. *

John knew someone was coming, but he, no more than any of the rest of us, knew who that “someone” would turn out to be.  John expected “an ax to the root of the tree and instead he found a gardener hoeing around it.” He looked for “a man with a winnowing fan and a fire and along came a singing seed scatterer.”  John, like most of the Jews of the time, expected a king or a general – they desperately wanted a king-slash-general – and what they got was ... a guy.  John looked for wrath, and and what he found was someone inviting us all to a meal.

And Jesus?  What was Jesus expecting that day, out there in the desert?  Did he really expect that voice claiming him as Beloved Son?  Or was he as surprised as everyone else?  As Barbara Brown Taylor puts it: Jesus goes into the waters of the Jordan a carpenter, and come out a Messiah.  He went into the water a private person and came out God’s person.  The voice from the heart of God makes it clear – at least to those with ears to hear – who this Jesus guy is.  “You are my beloved Son, with you I am very pleased.”  Both these phrases come from the Hebrew Scriptures – describing the promised Messiah.  Those who heard the words would have recognized their reference.

One question that come down through the centuries, is “why was Jesus baptized?”  He clearly had no sin from which to repent – what was the point?  And here again, I’m going back to Barbara Brown Taylor, because she has the best answer I think I’ve ever heard:

It is as big a mystery as the Christmas mystery of the incarnation. Why did he become human when he could have stayed God?  Why was he baptized with us when he could have stayed on the banks of the Jordan and supervised?  Why does he come to us where we are, over and over again, when he could save himself the grief, the pain, the death, by insisting that we come to him where he is?  

Because he loves us, that is why, and because he is, unbelievably, pleased with us, and because he has come to lead us through the waters of life and death into life eternal.  It has never been his style to shout directions to us from some safe place of his own.  He has always led us from within our midst, joining us in the water, in the mud, in the skin to show us how it is done. **

And that, I believe is our answer.  That is why we remind ourselves of these precious stories at Christmas and Epiphany and Baptism Sunday.  This is why this guy Jesus works for us – because he has always loved us enough to do the hard work of showing up where we are – and joining us there.  He has always led us from within our midst, joining us in the water, in the mud, in the skin to show us how it is done. 

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*  John Shea, Starlight: Beholding the Christmas Miracle All Year Long, (c) 1992
** Barbara Brown Taylor, Mixed Blessings, (c) 1986