Sunday 10 January 2021

The Baptism of Jesus
 
Mark 1: 4-11
 

In today’s gospel reading, Mark takes us to the banks of the Jordan, where John is engaged in baptising people, immersing them in the river’s muddy waters.  People are travelling to this spot from all over Judea, from the city of Jerusalem and from all the villages and farms.  Mark gives the impression that large numbers were coming for baptism – it was something of a religious revival.  And coming for baptism must have been a great leveller - when you have to take off most of your clothes and consent to being plunged backwards into a river pool, everyone is equal!
 
But what was the idea behind John’s baptism?   It involved a turning from behaviour that wasn’t in line with God’s Law and committing to follow God’s way afresh.  In Luke’s gospel, John gives an idea of the new actions that were called for after baptism, he says – ‘whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none and whoever has food must do likewise’.  Being lowered into the river, and re-emerging into the light, represented a letting go of wrongdoing and a re-commitment to God’s ways.
 
And then, Mark says quite simply that Jesus came from Nazareth and was baptised in the Jordan.  Jesus had not yet started on his mission and most of the people lining up for baptism wouldn’t have known him.  If there were people there from Galilee who knew him, then probably they wouldn’t have been surprised at his decision.  Given his interest in religious matters, it would have been natural that he would want to commit to God through receiving John’s baptism of repentance. 
 
However, for us, with hindsight, it’s a very different matter.  We know that Jesus always resisted temptation.  He always went God’s way and did not give in to a desire to dominate or manipulate, or to take from others what was theirs.  This being the case, he had no need to receive John’s baptism.  And in Matthew’s gospel, John himself raises this, essentially saying to Jesus ‘why do you come to me for baptism, when I should rather be baptised by you?’.  Therefore, the fact that Jesus did wish to be baptised seems very odd!
 
So why did Jesus want this?  Things start to make sense when we look at what came afterwards.  In his gospel, Mark shows us that Jesus is humble and makes himself available to those around him.  When someone calls out, he doesn’t make excuses and say that he needs to attend prayers at the synagogue, or meet with a religious leader.  Rather, he responds to everyone who crosses his path and ask for help.  Mark relates how he touches a leper and makes him clean, opens the ears of a deaf man using spittle and, from a distance, heals a distressed girl, the daughter of a gentile woman.    
 
At the end of his mission, when he travels to Jerusalem for the Passover, Jesus shows vulnerability in allowing himself to be arrested, knowing he is likely to be condemned and sentenced to death.  And when he is dying on the cross, he experiences a sense of abandonment from God the Father, crying out ‘my God, my God, why have you forsaken me’.  He opens himself to all of our inner turmoil, our struggles and our suffering, our desire to do good and our temptations, the way we inflict pain on others. 
 
In the chapel of the Southwark retreat centre at Wychcroft is an icon of ‘Jesus the Worker’.  He is a young man dressed in overalls with a medical gown on top, and has his arms hanging down by his sides with the nail marks in his hands and feet showing.  He looks out at us calmly - it is as though he is sharing with us his wounds.  In some mysterious way he is enabling us, through his suffering and death, through his scars, to be forgiven, to come close to God.

[You can see an image of the painting here]
 
So, when Jesus is immersed by John in the cloudy waters of the Jordan, he is entering into our experience of pain and abandonment.  He is exposed to the changeable currents of the river.  He feels what the other candidates feel, the sense of being disorientated, of entering a muffled world where you are not sure what is up or down or what is circling around you, where you are frightened of what might hit you, or what might happen if you are dropped.  Like the others, Jesus emerges with dishevelled hair and water running down his face.  By his baptism, Jesus signals that he is with us in the swirling waters, and that, through his death, he will receive our pain and heal all our wounds. 
 
And when Jesus emerges into the light, Mark relates that John, but not the crowd, saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus like a dove, and he heard a voice from heaven say ‘You are my Son, the Beloved, in whom I am well pleased’. 
 
Of course, Jesus always was the beloved Son, even before the creation of the world, but the voice comes now in order to underscore that, in his baptism, Jesus not only identifies with us in our waywardness, but that he also sends the Holy Spirit to help us in our struggles and enable us to emerge from the waters of death renewed and freed from all that would overwhelm us.
 
And so, my prayer for us in this time of continued uncertainty, and as we move through Epiphany towards Lent, is that we would be more able to share with Jesus our inner life, its joys and woes, and to know his healing and the power of the Holy Spirit to help us to overcome, and to grow.
 
Amen.
 
 
Richard Mash
Reader in Training