“Going Public”
Isaiah 42:1-9
Matthew 3:13-17
The curtain has
closed and the lights have dimmed on the birth narratives of the Christ
child. And now the curtain draws back
again. The lights come back on. Time has passed. It is now twenty years later. The baby born in the manger is now an
adult. His early childhood, teenage and
young adult years remain a private episode unknown to us. Now we see him as a grown man coming from
It seems odd doesn’t it that Jesus
would want to get baptized by John.
After all, John’s baptism was of repentance for the forgiveness of
sins. Certainty, the one who is God with
us needs no such baptism. Should it not be the other way around? John thought so, and all but refused to do
it. But Jesus tells him it is
necessary. It has to do with fulfilling
all righteousness. Jesus, the Son of God,
the Word of God in the flesh, is stepping out of his private life. He is taking up his vocation and embracing his
identity as God’s servant. And so he is
baptized. The Spirit of God descends
upon him, and his identity is now openly revealed to all those around him,
“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus is beginning his ministry. He is going public.
From the
moment the story of Jesus’ baptism was recorded by Matthew, the church
understood that Jesus was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. Jesus was the servant Isaiah had promised to
He would open the eyes of the
blind, bring release to the prisoners, feed the hungry, make the deaf hear and
the lame walk again. He would bring
justice and righteousness, freedom and peace, joy and an enduring hope. Regardless of opposition and threats and force,
and in many cases in spite of them, he would not grow faint and he would not be
crushed. In him, light would overcome
darkness. Love would overcome hate. Grace would overcome sin. And life would overcome death. He is the one God promised to God’s
people. He is the long awaited Messiah.
But over the passing of years,
biblical scholars have taken another look at Isaiah’s words and they have
realized that Isaiah speaks of the servant not only as a person, but also as
the covenant community. Even today this
debate continues with the rabbinical scholars in Judaism. Of course, this is probably not a surprise to
you. I have heard people say to me
countless times that the Jewish faith relies on the community, whereas the
Christian faith is about the individual. But would it surprise you to learn
that this debate is also found within Christianity as well? Is the servant one person – the Messiah – or
the Messianic community?
The answer is yes. Both are correct. Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of
God, the one on whom the Spirit of God rested to do God’s work of justice and
bring righteousness to all people. But
Jesus was sent not only as the Savior of the world and the light to the
nations, he was also sent to call to himself a community in which his Spirit
continues to work. The servant is both
individual and communal, both Messiah and the Messianic community, both Jesus and his church, the Risen Christ and you and me
as his body in this world.
The story of Jesus’ baptism is the
story of identity and calling and servanthood, the
story of the servant of God going public with his ministry of reconciliation
and redemption. But it is also our story
as well. It is not just about Jesus
going public, it is about you and me, Christ’s church, going public as well
with the same ministry of reconciliation and redemption. After all, isn’t this what baptism is all
about – identity, calling, servanthood? Through the waters of baptism, we too have
been identified as God’s beloved children, we too have been called to a new way
of life in faithfulness and obedience, and we too have been sent out as
servants of Jesus Christ into the world.
Not just we as a collective of individuals, but we as the Messianic
community.
For too long, we American Christians
have so overemphasized the individual nature of the Christian faith that we
have made it a private matter between me and my god. We have Americanized the gospel of Jesus
Christ to the point that being a Christian does not mean that one has to be
part of the Christian community. Even
salvation itself has become a private matter.
What else explains the negative reaction of some people to the Biblical
truth that there is such a thing as an elected and chosen people?
But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is
both individual and communal. It is both
about you and me and us together. This
is what baptism is all about.
Through the waters of Baptism, each one of us has been
baptized with the fire of the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own
forever. It is the common denominator
between Christ and ourselves, between you and me and the person sitting next to
you, between us here at Finley and all the saints from every time and
place. It is baptism which points us to
the fact that we are more than just individuals, we
are first and foremost a people, God’s people.
It is baptism that unites us the Jesus Christ and to each other with a
bond that cannot be broken. It is
baptism which calls God’s chosen people to go public with the message of Jesus
Christ, to work for justice and righteousness, to feed the hungry, cloth the
naked, and bring freedom to the oppressed, to care for the bruised and nurture
those whose light is flickering, to be a servant to the least and the lost and
the left out, to be the body of Christ’s very self in the world.
There is a
reason why we do baptisms in front of the congregation, because it is to be a
public event. It is for the community as
much as it is for the individual being baptized. How many of you remember your own baptism? I don’t remember being baptized. I was six years old when I got baptized. But we don’t have to remember our baptism in
order to know that we part of the community of faith. Every time we see a baptism we are reminded
of our own baptism. We are reminded that
we too belong to the covenant of grace just as everyone else does, that we are
part of something much larger than ourselves and our own little sphere of
influence. We are reminded that
identity, calling and servanthood is not just about
individuals, but about a community who together worships God, who together
serves our Lord Jesus Christ, and who together is sent out everyday into the
world as a witnessing congregation of the good news of the Gospel.
Every Sunday,
I stand before you at the end of worship and I say these words, “Go out into
the world in peace, honor all people, love one another, and glorify and serve
the Lord in all that you say and in all that you do.” These are not just empty words to close out a
worship service, they are reminders of our vocation and calling as baptized
people, they are reminders of our vocation and calling as a community of
faith. Each of us has a role to play in
how we live out this charge, but each of us cannot do it alone. It takes all of us to live out this
charge. It takes all of us individuals
to be a community and to live out our common baptism, just as it takes all of
us to go public with our ministry and mission.
Without the community, there would
be no one to serve. Without a person to
serve, we cannot be servants. When we
are not servants, we have missed one of the key components of discipleship and
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We simply
cannot be a loving servant and faithful witness without the sense of the
communal nature of our faith. Being a
servant people is what the servant Messiah taught us to do and to be.
Jesus came to the