Isaiah 42.1–9 Acts 10:34-43. Matthew 3.13–17
‘Jesus answered John, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.’ Matthew 3.15
St. Luke tells us that ‘Jesus, began his ministry, when he was about thirty years of age’
The ‘hidden years’ of Jesus’ childhood and adolescence are now past.
The moment has now come for Jesus to be revealed as the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one of God.
Father Trevor reminded us in his homily last Sunday that the gospels are not primarily biographies of Jesus in the modern way we speak of biographies today.
The intention of the four evangelists in their gospels is to reveal who Jesus Christ is in his humanity and his divinity, through the record of his earthly ministry, his passion and his resurrection. This begins with his baptism, described in all four gospels
The Baptism of Jesus in the Eastern Orthodox Church is known as the ‘Theophany’of Christ. It is celebrated on the 6th January.
‘Before the day of Baptism Christ was not known to the people,’says St. John Chrysostom.
‘Our God, the Trinity, has this day revealed Himself indivisibly; for the Father bore witness to His parenthood with manifest testimony, the Spirit descended from heaven like a dove, and the Son bowed his head to the Forerunner [John the Baptist] and was baptised.’
As one Orthodox writer puts it: The mystery of the three Persons in one Godhead, which is beyond all understanding, was made manifest not spiritually, but plainly in sensory forms. ‘that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—‘ says St. John in the opening of his first letter.
Here in the West we keep 6th January as the Solemnity of the Epiphany with visit the Magi who are the first Gentiles who come to worship the Christ child. Consequently in the West the Epiphany of Christ to the Magi marks the beginning of the mission to the Gentile world.
The Epiphany shows how worship and mission are integral with one another. What we hear and see, what we say and sing, what confess with our lips and believe in our hearts and the grace we receive in sacraments, we are called to reveal in our daily lives in the world.
So Epiphany or Theophany?
Both words tell us how God reveals himself in the person of Jesus Christ.
How we are to respond to this great revelation of God being made flesh and dwelling among us?
First, we are to recognise and acknowledge who this Jesus is, who reveals God presence in the world.
Secondly God in Jesus Christ recognises and acknowledges us ‘no longer strangers and aliens,’ but as His adopted sons and daughters.
Today Jesus arrives incognito among the crowds at the river Jordan. But when he steps forward for baptism, John immediately recognises who Jesus is, and tries to prevent him saying to him, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
Jesus then says to John, ‘Let it be so for now, for it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.’
This is the only time in the gospels that John the Baptist and Jesus ever speak directly to one another. St. Matthew alone understood the significance of this exchange and includes it in his Gospel for two reasons.
First, John the Baptist recognises Jesus’ divine nature and because of his divine nature Jesus has no need of baptism for the remission of sins.
Secondly, St. Matthew tells us that John tries to prevent Jesus from receiving baptism. But Jesus answers him saying, ‘Let it be so for now.’
The Son of God he knew that his mission is to fulfil the will of the Father. This begins by his identifying himself with the whole race of sinful humanity and to take upon himself our sins. The Servant Isaiah speaks about at the beginning of the first reading today submits himself freely to John’s baptism saying, it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness: As the Servant of God Jesus now fulfils the righteousness that God as revealed the Law of Moses and the Prophets of old.
Already here we see revealed the Suffering Servant who would complete on the Cross the work of our salvation and that of the whole world, putting an end to sin and death.
In response to his act of total obedience and willing submission to the Father’s will, the heavens open and the Spirit descends on Jesus and the Father’s voice is heard from heaven saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’
St. John sums up all that is happening here when he writes, the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.
By his own baptism Jesus establishes the sacrament of Holy Baptism as the means of grace by which we enter into eternal life and the kingdom of God and the hope of glory.
The simple yet precious element of water, without which nothing on earth can live, Christ sanctifies as his sacred body touches the water of the Jordan. And so it is through water in the rite of Holy Baptism that the Church continues Christ’s mission today. Of this we were reminded by the sprinkling water, asperges, at the beginning of Mass this morning.
St. Matthew tells us at the close of his gospel, the risen Jesus appears to the disciples and he tells them : “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’
As we begin a New Year, with all its hopes and fear, these words of the risen Christ bring us the encouragement and strength to go forward in faith and hope and in that peace of God that is passes all understanding, which keeps ours hearts and minds in the knowledge of the love of God.
Now in everything may God be glorified through Jesus Christ our Lord and in the power of the Holy Spirit who purifies our hearts. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Father Andrew