Perspective: Remember Your Baptism

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Remember Your Baptism

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?

Micah 6:8 (NRSV)

I wanna love because You loved

I wanna give because You gave

I wanna reach my hand out to the lost

Because I know Your hand will save

From "Only You Can Save" by Chris Sligh

Not long before Jesus began His own ministry, a revival had broken out in the region of Judea.  People were flocking to the wilderness to hear the preaching of an eccentric prophet named John.  Many committed to changing their lives, and they were baptized in the river as a symbol of their fresh start.  John pointed to someone who was coming after him, saying, "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."¹

One day, Jesus went into the wilderness to be baptized.  John recognized Jesus as the one about whom he had been speaking, so he was initially hesitant to baptize him.  He argued that Jesus should be the one baptizing him, but Jesus insisted on being baptized.  As Jesus ascended from the waters, the heavens were ripped open; the Holy Spirit descended from Heaven in the form of a dove and landed on Jesus; and a Voice from Heaven proclaimed to everyone present, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."²

These events are meant to call to mind a certain passage from the Book of Isaiah.³  This passage is the second in a series of songs that describe a certain servant of God.  This Servant Song begins,

Here is my servant, whom I uphold,

my chosen, in whom my soul delights;

I have put my spirit upon him;

he will bring forth justice to the nations.⁴

Basically, the Gospel writer is telling us that Jesus is the chosen servant of God in whom God's soul delights, the servant on whom God has placed God's Spirit.

The song continues,

He will not cry or lift up his voice,

or make it heard in the street;

a bruised reed he will not break,

and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;

he will faithfully bring forth justice.

He will not grow faint or be crushed

until he has established justice in the earth;

and the coastlands wait for his teaching.⁵

This song is quoted in the Gospel of Matthew in reference to Jesus' ministry of healing.  Like the servant described by the prophet, Jesus showed mercy to the weak.  To the "bruised," he brought healing, and, to the "dimly burning," be brought renewed strength.  Like the servant who would not grow faint, Jesus tirelessly healed many people of their ailments.  Like the servant who would not cry out in the streets, Jesus was humble and discrete, often telling the people he healed not to tell anyone what he had done for them.⁶

As one calendar year ends and another begins, people commonly make resolutions to better themselves in some way during the new year.  Around the same time, people in churches around the world read about Jesus' baptism as they remember their own and contemplate what it means to them.  When we remember our baptism, we remember that we too are beloved children of God with whom God is well pleased.  I think that maybe remembering our baptism is also an opportunity for us to remember that, like Jesus, we too are called to be servants of God.

People wonder why Jesus needed to undergo a baptism for the repentance of sin if He had nothing of which he needed to repent, as Christians generally believe.  John the Baptist seemed to have the same question.  Some scholars suggest that, through baptism, Jesus was identifying Himself with the people He had come to save.⁷  One of the pastors of the church I attend recently suggested that Jesus was baptized to set an example for the rest of us to follow.⁸  When we follow our Lord through the waters of baptism, we too take on the mantle of a servant.  As followers of Christ, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to do what He did: to work for justice, to share kindness, and to live a life of humility.

As we look toward the future, remembering what brought us to where we are today, may we not forget that we have been called to be agents of healing in a broken world.


Notes:

1. Matthew 3:1-12 (NRSV)
2. Matthew 3:13-17 (NRSV)
3. William Barclay.  The New Daily Study Bible: The Gospel of Matthew, Volume One.  2001, Saint Andrew Press.  p. 69
4. Isaiah 42:1 (NRSV)
5. Isaiah 42:2-4 (NRSV)
6. Matthew 12:15-21
7. Barclay, p. 69  (See also Matthew for Everyone, Part 1 by N.T Wright.  2004, Westminster John Knox Press.)
8. Jonathan Tompkins.  "Happy Re-Birthday!"

Bautismo de Cristo was painted by Juan Fernández de Navarrete around 1567.