The Water's Fine (1-9-2022)

In the movie O Brother Where Art Thou? there is scene that sticks in my mind as the perfect illustration for the text today. In this scene the three main characters (Everett, Pete and Delmar) are trying to figure out what their next move is. They have escaped from prison chain gang and are on the run. While they are arguing, they find themselves surrounded by a large group of people dressed in white and singing on their way to the nearby river. The three walk with the group to the river to see what is going on there. What they witness is a large baptism in the river.

Now while watching this, Everett shows his cynical side and proclaims that hard times (this is during the Depression) make people believe anything. What he does not see is the hungry, wistful faces of his two companions. They are watching this whole scene unfurl with a look of desperate longing. Suddenly, Delmar thrusts his hat to Pete and runs into the river. He wades up to the preacher, cutting into the line (but nobody seems to mind), and begins to talk to him. The man smiles, nods and dunks Delmar in the muddy river water, holding him under for just a few seconds to make sure things take. Delmar comes up and grabs the preacher asking him something very important.

He then wades back to his companions who ask him what is going on, that they have “bigger fish to fry.” Delmar says that his sins have been forgiven, that they have been washed away and that it is the straight and narrow now for him. When asked again what he is talking about, he states that the preacher told him that all his sins were washed away, even the Piggly Wiggly he “knocked over in Yazoo”. When reminded that he claimed that he was innocent of that charge, Delmar pauses to think for a moment and then states, “Well, I was lyin’. And that has been forgiven too.” With a huge smile on his face he invites the other two to “Come on in boys. The water’s fine!”

Now you may be wondering what this has to do with our text for today. How is a movie from 2001 going to apply to a text from the first century?

Imagine the scene on the Jordan River. There is John the Baptist preaching his message of repentance. The people are gathered around, some are asking what they need to do to avoid the judgement. John tells them that they need to turn and repent, to make a full 180 in their lives, to stop taking advantage of their fellow countrymen or those whom they lord over. And the people are coming to be baptized and wondering if this is the one whom they are waiting for, the Messiah.

John knows this and explains that he is not the Messiah. That he is lower than the low, not even worthy to untie the Messiah’s sandal. And that the one who is coming will baptize with the Spirit and fire. Like one who separates the grain from the chaff by tossing it into the air and letting the wind do its work. What is interesting here is that the words used for Spirit and wind are the same. John is giving a metaphor that the people will understand. The Spirit is the separating wind. Chaff, when it has been separated from the grain, is gathered up and burned. The people understand these metaphors and flock to the river to be baptized, to live a new life of true repentance. John’s message resonates with them and makes them want what is offered. And when we think of John, it is of a wild eyed, unkempt prophet who is calling down fire and brimstone on them all. But what if John’s delivery is nothing like that? What if his message is delivered with the urgency of a man who knows there is something coming and he wants to tell as many as he can before the Messiah shows up? There can be an urgency without yelling and scaring people. There can be a message of repentance delivered without fear. John does not have to resort to theatrics to get his message across. As the scene from the movie illustrates, if the message is from the Spirit, then that is all that is needed. And as we know, the people come and believe.

And in this group of people comes the one whom John is awaiting. But before we meet Jesus as the one whom John is talking about in his message, John is taken out of the picture. Luke tells us that John has been arrested and that is pretty much the end of John’s ministry at least in Luke’s gospel.

The next thing we know, we hear that with all the people who were baptized, Jesus was baptized. No telling us who did it, no explanation of John’s protest, nothing like that. Just that Jesus was baptized. Had he stood in line with all the other people to be baptized by John? Had the people looked at him wondering what sins he had committed that he needed to be there while thinking that their sins might not be so bad but that they were covering their bases? Luke has given us such an extensive introduction to Jesus, that we are surprised that there is little mentioned about the baptism. But there is something here that we sometimes miss. Jesus came to be God with us, to know our sufferings and to be human with us. After his baptism, he is praying, and the Spirit comes down in the bodily form of a dove and a voice tells him that he is beloved. Could Jesus have been praying for those whom he waited with in line to be baptized? Luke points out that Jesus prayed at critical points in his ministry: when he chose his disciples, when he was transfigured, before his arrest, on the cross. This is the beginning of his ministry and here he is praying. And with the prayer there are two things that announce that this is one whom John was telling the people about. The Spirit comes down to let the world know that the Spirit rests in this man and that he is no ordinary man. That this baptism is no ordinary cleansing from sins. The second is that announcement that this man is the Son and Beloved of God and that God is pleased with him. And from now on baptisms are never to be the same.

If we go to the text in Acts, we find that baptism now involves the Spirit. The people in this text had been baptized had only been baptized in the name of Jesus. They had not received the Spirit as yet. But when they do, things change for them. They are no longer for themselves. They have been claimed as part of the family and they are now to live like that. When Jesus was baptized it was not for himself. It was not to show that he had sins that needed to be washed away. It was to begin his ministry. It was to show that he was here to be with us and to be a part of us.

What are we looking for? Is it for one who will come and take away all our troubles and sorrows? Is it for one who will give us what we want when we want it like a grand concierge in the sky? Or are we looking for someone who was and is willing to be a servant and who calls us to service?

And what does our baptism mean to us? It calls us to be a part of a larger family that is marked with the calling to come to God. It is not we who chose God but God who chose us. Our baptism brings us to God and the family that is brought together with the Holy Spirit. But baptism also shows us that our sins have been forgiven. That they have been washed away. What could be a greater than that?

With the baptism of Jesus there was a note of expectation from the people. They were looking for the Messiah and thought they had found him in the prophet John. But John told them that he was not the one. The one that came after him was found to start his time as Messiah in prayer. Not raising an army to take on Rome or to at least throw out the family of Herod, but praying. What kind of Messiah would this be? Would he really lead them out of their time of darkness as had been promised? He would, but in ways that were unexpected. He shared this life with those around him, he lived among them and shared their hurts, their joys, their tears and their laughter. He never shied away from doing the things that they did and the work that made their lives what they were. He even shared their baptism though he had no sins from which to be cleansed. He was the king, the beloved son. When he was baptized, it was a time of both sovereignty and service. Sovereignty in the fact that he was the Beloved son of God. Service in that he prayed for those to whom he would minister and then went out and did just that. What kind of man was this? One who calls us to be baptized in the Spirit to be a part of his kingdom and to tell us and for us to tell others to “come on in, the water is fine”. Let us go down to the river and pray. Amen.