Reading
Matthew 3:13-end
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’
Baptism and Priesthood
This short account of the baptism of Jesus almost leaves us with a ‘So what?’ feeling. It is just a handful of verses, yet its importance is vital so I want to write about what is taking place in and around not just the baptism of Jesus but also around the saying that often went with baptism and is still echoed in the modern baptism service, ‘Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’ These were the words that John used when he drew people to baptism and they were also exactly the same words that Jesus began his ministry with after John was arrested. So let’s think about this passage and try and deal with some of the questions that it throws up for us.
The first question is about the nature of the baptism that John was offering, which was clearly a Jewish cleansing ritual, except in running water rather than a static bath. John’s baptism was a baptism for the repentance of sins. It was essentially a washing clean but we should ponder first of all what it means and why it didn’t apply to Jesus in one sense, whilst in another it most definitely did. In order to understand this more fully we need to start with two key words: ‘Repent’ and ‘Sin’. Both of these words carry huge layers of historical meaning that are tied up with guilt and shame. Sadly I believe that in some cases both words have been misused by church leaders, in the past and in the present, to levy a degree of control over people’s lives. This has either the effect of stunting someone’s spiritual growth by them not learning to take responsibility for their actions, or of the leader being able to take too much control from someone. Either way is wrong.
As a preacher I can honestly say that it is very easy to make some people feel guilty from the pulpit, and it is sadly all to possible that with some people who already feel bad about themselves it is quite possible to go from a meaningful conviction of a need to change to weighing someone down to the extent that you can then exert your will over them. This is how some cults are born. The reality is that both words, when better examined through scripture, may not mean what we have traditionally thought. The word ‘repent’ comes from the Greek word metanoia and can be most literally translated as ‘to change your mind’. It implies altering how one views the world and how one conducts one’s self with a degree of regret at past conduct. Primarily though it means to change your mind and is indeed a form of conversion.
The word ‘sin’ means literally to miss a target, rather like an inept archer. It’s when you know the right thing but don’t manage to do it. Can you see, therefore, that this is far more about an awareness of our actions, our motivations and our decisions than it is about being weighed down by guilt and shame? Yes we may feel guilty about the things we have done wrong, but the word repent is far more to do with making a decision of the will to change your mind and do things differently than it is about having layers of shame weighed down on you by someone speaking from a pulpit. It is about self-awareness of our actions and motivations, seeing where we are going wrong and choosing to do things differently. Repentance is therefore about being set free to become more the person you were created to be. With that in mind we can see why the people were flocking to John the Baptist to be baptised. There was a sense of renewal, that something was coming, which indeed it was since John came to prepare the way for Christ by getting people thinking and changing.
That, then, is the first issue; the nature of John’s baptism; it was a baptism that acknowledged the need to change our minds about our behaviour and direction. But then along comes Jesus and he demands to be baptised by John. Not surprisingly John baulks rather at this. John’s baptism was one of being washed free of the past having changed one’s mind about how to live in the future. So our second question is, given the nature of the baptism that John was giving to other people, why did Jesus come to him? Jesus, I believe, had no need of this kind of baptism. He knew who he was, where he’d come from and where he was going, and he had never missed the mark but had done what he should. As the Son of God and son of Mary he was uniquely different from John’s other baptismal candidates. There was no need for Jesus to receive John’s baptism of repentance. But what if the baptism of Jesus was a different kind of baptism? Listen to these two verses spoken by God to Moses in Exodus 29: 1 and 4
Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, so that they may serve me as priests... You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and wash them with water.The ordination to the Jewish priesthood was a once and for all washing, or baptism. John’s baptism for repentance could be repeated, but this kind of baptism signified the start of a priest’s ministry. So what I am suggesting is that the baptism that Jesus received from John was, on one level, different from the baptisms that other people received at John’s hands. Theirs were baptisms of repentance but what Jesus received was more a baptism of ordination to the priesthood. It is significant that straight after this the Holy Spirit drove him out into the wilderness to be tested before he began his priestly ministry.
It’s also important that we remember that a priest was called to be a go-between, standing between God and the people, and the High Priest was the one who could once a year approach God, entering the Holy of Holies in the middle of the Jewish Temple, to make an offering for the sins of the people. So by being baptised by John, Jesus was also identifying with the people he would represent when he offered himself as the one who would carry the weight of the disobedience of the people. Jesus’s baptism was therefore both different and the same as the others who came to John. His was a baptism to being High Priest and a baptism of relating to the people he was come to save.
That then throws up a third question. If John’s baptism was normally a baptism of repentance, but the baptism that Jesus received was a baptism into being God’s High Priest, what then is the baptism that we receive?
I think the answer that I would like to give is that it is both, but that the emphasis is actually more towards being a priestly baptism. You might like to think of it like this: John’s baptism came from earth and was directed towards heaven, it was people repenting of their sins, changing their minds and spirits because heaven was near. It was a baptism as a sign of a change of human will. But the baptism of Jesus came from heaven towards earth; it was a baptism of divine will, of ordination to being the High Priest to the world, of being the Father’s go-between. If we look at our New Testament reading we can see how St. Peter refers to this idea of all Christians together forming a royal priesthood. You may recall that the writer of the letter to the Hebrews refers to Jesus as our true High Priest.
When you take these together you can see that when we are baptised, we are baptised into Christ and into his ministry. It is heaven that is opened to us as it was opened to Christ because what we receive in baptism is the grace of God to become part of the royal priesthood with Christ as High Priest. Yes some of us are called to be ordained specifically as priests, but all Christians are part of one royal priesthood which means all of us are called to share in the work of Christ in reaching out to the poor and marginalised, to those who everyone ignores and those who are trodden on by the wheels of government because no one else will speak out for them. We are called to speak Christ’s words of invitation into the kingdom of heaven, and all of that stems from our own baptisms where it is revealed to us that each of us are also beloved of God.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not excluding the repentance of sins from baptism, but that part of being a Christian is not a once and for all aspect but is instead, or should be, an on-going part of our spiritual lives as we continually re-examine ourselves and our motives and allow ourselves to change our minds and spirits. But the baptism that comes from heaven, the baptism of ordination into Christ’s priesthood, that comes once and for all and is a means by which the grace of God can be conveyed on to anyone of any age.
What this therefore means for us is found right in the middle of verse nine of that reading. The verse says:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.Why are we baptised into the priesthood of all believers? It is in order that our lives would be like arrows of light that point towards our God as the One who comes to us and wishes to reside with us and within us. It means that if we are baptised, we are baptised for this ministry because we are baptised into the royal priesthood of Christ and this is what Jesus did. John the Baptist may well have come telling people to change their minds and alter their ways, but when Jesus came, as God incarnate, he went further, not just telling people of their need to change but demonstrating the desire of God to live among the people in loving relationship, to spend time with them, and to call for justice from the oppressors, to help people live lives that were more completely in the way that God had created them to live.
Baptism is therefore the first step on a path of giving ourselves for the needs of others in accordance with the will of Christ, living as he did.
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