Isaiah
42: 1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10: 34 – 43; Matthew 3: 13 - 17
This is a homily by
Fr. Gene Tucker, given at St. John’s Church in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday,
January 8th, 2017 (Epiphany 1, The Baptism of Our Lord).
“TO FULFILL ALL RIGHTEOUSNESS”
(Homily text: Matthew 3: 13–17)
With
Christians around the world on this Lord’s Day, we will hear and consider the
event which begins Jesus’ public ministry: His baptism by John the Baptist in
the Jordan River. This event is put before us on the First Sunday After the
Epiphany in each of our three cycles of readings from the Bible.
The
Lord’s baptism fits well into the overall theme of the Epiphany season. In this
season, we mark the ways in which Jesus is made known to the world. The Lord’s
baptism is the opening scene in this divine drama. From the point of this
first, public event in Jesus’ life, He will go out into the wilderness to be
tempted by Satan, and from there, His ministry will begin to unfold.
In
this homily, let’s begin by looking at the importance of Jesus’ baptism, first
in terms of what this baptism tells us about the relationship between John the
Baptist and Jesus, and then in terms of what this baptism meant to the very
early Christians. Finally, we should examine in some detail Jesus’ statement to
John about “fulfilling all righteousness”.
We
begin by considering the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus.
There
is evidence in the New Testament that the very early Church struggled with what
to make of John the Baptist’s importance as compared to Jesus’ importance. In
the Book of Acts (19: 1 – 7), we discover that there is a group of disciples in
the city if Ephesus who adhere to John’s teachings and leadership, practicing a
baptism like that of John. This may be proof that, long after John’s death and
after the Lord’s own death and resurrection, pockets of disciples were to be
found here and there, maintaining their allegiance to John.
So
perhaps it’s not surprising that the Gospels contain statements that make it
clear that John was simply the one who prepared the way for the Lord. John is
the lesser, Jesus is the greater. Matthew presents the relationship quite
clearly by recording the conversation between John and Jesus as they stand near
the waters of the Jordan, as John tells the Lord that it should be the Lord who
is doing the baptisms, not the other way around. John himself charts the future
course for his own disciples and those of Jesus, saying, “He (Jesus) must increase,
I must decrease.” (John 3: 30)
The
Lord’s baptism must have been very important to the early Church, for Jesus’
baptism is included in the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark and Luke. (Though John
does not narrate the Lord’s baptism, he does tell us that Jesus’ disciples were
also baptizing once the Lord’s public ministry got underway. See John 4: 2.)
The
early Church emphasized the importance of following the Lord by doing the
things the Lord did. Every facet of life was to be governed by learning about
and by doing the things the He did in His earthly ministry. So it is no
surprise that following the Lord’s example by being baptized was an essential
part of being a disciple of Jesus. In time, as the Church developed a fuller
understanding of its sacramental ministry, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper
(Eucharist, Mass) became known as the two Domenical
Sacraments (domenical deriving from the Latin word for Lord Dominus, and denoting the fact that the
Lord Himself instituted both Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.)
St.
Paul picks up the idea of imitating the Lord in his exposition on the meaning
of baptism as we find it in Romans 6: 3 – 11. There, Paul tells us that to be
baptized is to experience a death like Jesus’ death, and to be raised up afterward
is to be united to the Lord in a resurrection like His.
In
the very early years of the Church’s existence, baptism was often done “in
Jesus’ name”. (Acts 19: 5 offers proof of this practice.) In time, however, it
became the custom to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit, using the formula we read in Matthew 28: 20.
Now,
let’s return to today’s Gospel text, and to Jesus’ statement about “fulfilling
all righteousness”. I will admit that I’ve wondered what that statement means,
nearly all my life.
Perhaps
the meaning and the answer to the question lies in a careful examination of the
nature of John’s baptism, which was somewhat like the Jewish ritual baths that
the Law of Moses required at certain points in a person’s religious observance.
But John’s baptism was unlike those ritual baths in some significant ways.
Here
are some of the differences:
- Private
vs. public observance: The Jewish ritual bath was something that a person
did themselves, in private. John’s baptism is a public affair, one which
involved public confession of sins (can you imagine standing in the water with
John, telling God – and everyone else within hearing range – what things you’d
done?).
- Outward purity vs. total purity (inner and outer): The Jewish ritual
bath guaranteed that a person was outwardly pure, and was able to enter into
the Temple in Jerusalem in order to take part in the observances which were
required by the Law of Moses. By contrast, John’s baptism required a moral
turnaround in life, a turnaround that united a person’s inner life with their
outward actions.
- Personal vs. communal action: We remarked a moment ago that the Jewish ritual bath was done privately A person administered the rite to oneself. But John’s baptism required that at least two persons be present, the one administering the baptism and the one receiving it. (It’s worth saying, at this point, that all of the Church’s Sacraments require someone to administer them (the minister) and someone(s) to receive them. No sacramental act can take place with just one person present.)
Jesus’
public ministry will follow the pattern we’ve just observed above: He
consistently attacked the pious attitudes of the Pharisees, the scribes, and
the priestly caste for their love of outward holiness, which stood in sharp
contrast to their inner depravity and wickedness. One of the Lord’s sharpest
attacks can be read in Matthew 23: 2-3, where we read this: “The scribes and
the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you. But
not the works they do, for they preach but do not practice.” These are the
ones, the Lord, said, who love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have
the best seats in the synagogues (Matthew 23: 6-7).
Jesus
insists that those who come into the Kingdom of God must live a thoroughly
integrated life, one in which a person’s inner self and outer self are
characterized by holiness.
Another
way in which the Lord requires righteousness is in the ways in which His
disciples will relate to one another and to God. When He was asked what the
greatest commandment was, He said that the greatest commandment was for a
person to love God with all of one’s heart, mind and strength. But then He
added that the second most important commandment was related to the first one:
A person was to love others in the same ways that they love themselves.
(Matthew 22: 37-40)
With
the poet and Anglican priest John Donne (1553- 1631), we can say that “No man
is an island, entire of itself.” We are connected, one to another in the divine
love that Jesus came to give us, and we are united to the Lord in baptism and
to the Father through the Son.
Surely
these things must be an important part of fulfilling all righteousness.
AMEN.
