Epiphany: Jesus Is Baptized by John

Matthew 3:1-17

In our text today, we carry on in the story of Jesus as told to us in the gospel of Matthew.

Intro to Matthew?

Jewish writer, assuming readers understand the Jewish context

Jewish writer, demonstrating from the beginning that God’s plan to include Gentiles has been there from the beginning. Ancestry includes 4 gentile women. Birth story includes Joseph the adoptive father. Matthew 2 - which we skipped - includes the Magi from “the East” … they don’t follow Yahweh and we don’t really know what becomes of them. They return home by another way… but home again. Then Jesus & his parents flee to Egypt. They seek and find refuge in a land where their ancestors once lived as slaves. And after a short period of exile, they return home. In Matthew 3, we pick up a couple of decades later. Jesus is no longer a baby or even a child. Likely, he’s about 30 at this point.

His cousin John is raising quite a stir. A fashion influencer and foodie - John is described in such a way as make the readers remember Elijah. Elijah is the signal that the Messiah is imminent.

Let’s hear this third chapter of the gospel of Matthew. Kids, you’ve got the text there in your activity packs if you want to follow along as Mary comes to read.

Will you all stand for the reading of God’s Word?

Matthew 3:1–17 NIV

1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ ” 4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

So this cousin of Jesus, dressed in a way that bring Elijah to mind has is preaching. And John’s message:

Repent! The kingdom of heaven has come near!

Why does Matthew use the phrase Kingdom of Heaven - in Mark & Luke we hear “kingdom of God” language, but in Matthew “kingdom of heaven”

Same kingdom. A cosmic reality (not just an individual thing)

And Matthew may be taking special care to avoid using the name of God, mindful of his Jewish audience, and potentially of his own desire to not use the name of God, as was (and in some cases still is) Jewish practice.

Kingdom of heaven is “Matthew’s preferred phrase for the reality of God’s universal rule now being inaugurated in Jesus’ life and ministry.”

Repent - Baptism of Repentance

Notice that people are coming to John to be baptized from Jerusalem, throughout Judea and all around. This is like a bookend to the end of Matthew’s gospel where Jesus will send his disciples to go Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 NIV

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

So baptism will remain as a sign and symbol and marker of moving one’s allegiance from the Empire of Rome to the Empire of Heaven The Kingdom of Heaven will not just be a nice idea about God being in charge of things, but will have personal and community and even political consequences.

And so, the Kingdom that is coming near demands a turning - a change of heart and life

Repentance - turning away, but also turning towards something! Turning toward the Kingdom of Heaven - and to the King of the Kingdom… this makes all the difference. And this is why repentance is different than a new years resolution. Resolutions tend to inhabit the realm of “I really should”… whereas Christian repentance is to catch a glimpse of Jesus (and His Kingdom) and be transfixed which results in a turning, a change of ones orienting point in the world/or the Empire. Whether the Empire of Rome, the Empire of self, … towards the Kingdom in which God’s universal reign is welcomed and celebrated.

What’s your posture/orientation to Jesus? Repent!

What’s your “next step” towards Jesus?

Have you been baptized?

Yes? Let’s remember our baptism! In baptism we have died with Christ and been raised with Him. And baptism is a reminder that we BELONG to Christ.

No? What’s preventing you? If you haven’t begun to follow Jesus yet, that’s okay. But if you have, baptism is the beginning of your journey of faith! Let’s chat!

John denies this Baptism of Repentance to some religious leaders.

Throughout Matthew’s Gospel, we’ll hear from and about the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Here’s my challenge to you (and to me!). Don’t dismiss the Pharisees & Sadducees as “those Jewish folks who just don’t understand and who refuse to see”…

Why? Well, first of all, it’s a faulty reading.

Secondly, as this text shows, there are a lot of Jews in the story. Many of them coming to confess and turn and be baptized by John. It’s the religious leaders who he criticizes as not having had a change of heart and mind and simply coming to participate in a ritual without any inner transformation.

Commentator Dale Bruner offers a helpful tip: He writes that we must see ourselves in these folks who are called out…otherwise, we’ll miss the point of Matthew’s gospel. Bruner suggests that if the terms “Pharisees and Sadducees” tend to enable us to think of them as “THEM” (and not US), to try calling them the Serious and the Sophisticated

Jesus surprises John (and us!)

So, John is preaching and people are responding with confession & repentance. And John turns some awa

And in his baptism, Jesus models what turning towards righteousness looks like and identifies with humanity in not just “avoiding sin” but pursuing

Baptism and Eucharist. Two ordinances

We belong to Christ and we feast with Him.

You have told us, O God, what is good.

And we confess that we have strayed from your path,

we have turned away when your way is difficult, or inconvenient, or uncomfortable.

And we also confess that it’s easy, week after week,

to admit those purposeful diversions and ask your forgiveness,

but harder to truly commit ourselves to turning back to you.

For if we are fully honest,

it is inattention and apathy that draw us away.

We breathe the air of empire

and everywhere we look the world encourages us to give in and give up,

and we confess that sometimes we just don’t have the energy to resist.

Yet still you reveal your kingdom of heaven among us,

still you walk ahead of us on the path of justice and truth and compassion,

still your love pours out and invites us to a different way of life.

Forgive us for the ease with which we abandon that life you offer,

and the lazy shorthand we use to justify ourselves.

Forgive us for holding on to the things you are trying to change,

while also refusing to put in work that would bear fruit.

Re-orient us once again this day, and strengthen our resolve to put your love into action.

We ask in the name of your Beloved Son, Jesus the Christ. Amen.