Epiphany 2 (2023)

Inro

What is in the Text.

[1] The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Takes a different tact from Matthew and Luke. Infancy Narratives where popular Genres for Pagan Myths…but Mark is going to make sure that his Roman Audience Understands Jesus is a different entity.

[2] As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, [3] the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”

What is interesting about this quote is how different it is from the way we quote the OT. We have the pleasure of books with chapters and verses, all collected, Mark and Peter would have had scrolls with different sections but none of the Chapter and verse we have come to rely on

We have an invocation of the Name of Isaiah, a quote from Exodus and a quote from Micha. And with this we are preparing the way for Jesus the Son of God.

The Accuracy of the quoting seems to be less important and what is more important is that we would understand that Jesus comes to us our of God’s ongoing work, he is now connected to and the predecessor of the Law, the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets. Jesus is the Next step our of the OT witness. And in case you are not yet sure or have not yet followed that argument, you have the appearance of an OT prophet, the last of the OT prophets, John the Baptist who is going to capstone the OT

[4] John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. [5] And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. [6] Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

If I talked about an overly tall figure with a long beard and a stove pipe hat, many of you would know that I am invoking Abraham Lincoln. I could talk about a British secret agent in a tux drinking a martini…James bond. A man from the dessert in animal skins eating an austere diet shouts Old Testament Prophet. The OT called on the people to repent, and if non jews wanted to repent and join they would be baptised…

John is calling is doing all these thing including calling Israel to a Gentiles repentance of baptism. He wants Israel to know that they continue in there unbroken streak of living out side the covenantal agreement. They did not do what they ought. And he tells them that a better baptism with the true transformative work of the Holy Spirit attached. The New Covenant in Ezekiel is signaled by the out pouring of the Spirit....and here it comes in the Better Baptism of Christ.

[7] And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. [8] I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

[9] In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. [10] And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. [11] And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (ESV)

Now the Other Gospels spend a lot of time with John, the other Gospel where written a little after Mark…at least with thing, so all this being recorded within 25 years of Jesus death, and who John is and what his role was seems to have been a question Matthew, Luke and John are needing to answer for early Christian communities. Mark quickly uses John to show that the Revelation of God in Christ will stand on the OT, then Mark moves on…he does not seem to need to answer John the Baptist questions…the true epiphany here is the New Testament Revelation of Jesus as a member of the Triune God, bringing the beginning of a New Covenant for all nations, signaled by baptism and the Holy Spirit.

He is baptized, and he sees Heaven opened, he is locationally where haven and earth meet…a new temple space. The spirit that hovered at creation (quick note) hovers down, and the voice that created all things, speaks and initiates a new creation, a new Israel, with a new sacrament. Not only is he initiating God’s next phase, he is God’s pleasing son…he does what God does… like the son of a shoe maker makes shoes, the Son of God has Godlike capabilities.

The Baptism of Jesus Points to Jesus the Son of God, His initiating the New Covenant and how we to can be brought to that covenant as full participant.

So we are gathered here to focus on and make much of…to worship. And the editors of the ancient lectionaries borrowed but the English Book of Common Prayer saw it fit that we would continue our Epiphany journey here.

We need to know who is revealed, Jesus, God in flesh.

The whole Bible is about Jesus…The problem with obsessing with application is sometimes we put our selves at the center of the narrative. We read this text and we argue about baptism of Repentance vs. Holy Spirit. We read this text and we think about how to be brave in our proclamation like John the Baptist. And those are fair questions to ask…but let us first obsess with who is this man? Jesus of Nazareth, for whom God says I am well pleased, for whom the Spirit descends, for whom the wind and the waves obey, who raises the dead, who forgives his enemies on the cross, who rises from the grace…God answers, this is my Son with whom I am well pleased.

We need to know what this revealed entity is doing…initiating a New Covenantal order: Repentance and the forgiveness of sins, that goes out to all the nations.

The union of Heaven and Earth is Lost in the Garden of Eden. And God begins the work of reconciling that with a person, Abraham, a Family Isaac and Jacob, then an ethnic nation, Israel, and how with all the nations, for whom the Holy Spirit can be enjoined.

And we need to know how to participate in that new Order, receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The Anglican tradition, along with our Reformed, Lutheran, Roman, and Orthodox neibors looks to the early church to help interpret baptism. And that research leads us to this statement on Baptism...

Baptism is not only a sign of profession, and mark of difference, whereby Christian men are discerned from others that be not christened, but it is also a sign of Regeneration or New-Birth, whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive Baptism rightly are grafted into the Church; the promises of the forgiveness of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed, Faith is confirmed, and Grace increased by virtue of prayer unto God. (Art. 27)

The Baptism of Jesus Points to Jesus the Son of God, His initiating the New Covenant and how we to can be brought to that covenant as full participant.

Today’s text begins with the call to Repentance. I want to point our eyes to the cross to finish. John reminds us that following Jesus into Baptism begins with repentance. That is changing from the patterns of this world and living in the way of Jesus Christ. We fail, we live selfishly, we but the focus on us instead of him. We behave in ways contrary to God’s commands, breaking the 10 commandments, literally for most, and in our hearts for all of them. So Jesus who perfectly lives the commands of the Old Covenant faithfully, dies and takes our place, passing through death and then rising again in victory. I we want to be part of the family of God, we have to pass through death with him and in doing so we inherit everlasting life. Saint Paul in his epistle to the Romans tells us how pass through death with Jesus so to have everlasting life.

Romans 6:3–4[3] Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? [4] We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (ESV)

We are both Spiritual and physical creatures, and by confessing Jesus as Lord we declare our spiritual allegiance to Jesus, and by passing through the waters of Baptism we physically do the same and are brought into New Covenant life. Brothers and Sisters if you have not yet been baptised, please do, follow Jesus through death and into everlasting life. Amen? Amen!