The Son of God
Commentary
A celebration of the baptism of Jesus always stands at the head of the Epiphany season, for it marks the beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry. There are the elements of glorious revelation: the descent of the Spirit and the voice from heaven. But there is also an embracing of common humanity. Why was Jesus baptized? He didn't have sins that needed forgiving.
Great theologians have pondered this question, but none have come up with better answers than a group of uneducated peasants who discussed it in Solentiname, Nicaragua. The wonderful book The Gospel in Art by the Peasants of Solentiname (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1984), edited by Philip and Sally Scharper, records their conversations regarding this and a number of other stories in Luke's Gospel.
Why was Jesus baptized?
Mariita: "To give us an example. He didn't need baptism, but we did and he did it so we would."
Old Tomas: "Out of humility. He was with his people, with his group, and he wasn't going to say, 'I don't need this, I don't have any sin.' Not Jesus, he goes along with the others."
Alejandro: "Out of solidarity. So he wouldn't be separated from this group."
Ernesto: "Accepting his call. At other times, Jesus spoke of his death as a baptism, or 'bath.' He means that his true baptism would be that of his death, his blood bath, and this is what he accepted when he accepted his calling as the Messiah."
Isaiah 43:1-7
This text is preceded by harsh words of judgment against a rebellious and unrepentant Israel (42:18-25). Together, the two oracles present a paradigm of law and gospel. Our lectionary chooses to present only the gracious words, but we do well to note that the prophet did not find the two themes incompatible (any more than the third evangelist does in our Gospel lesson for this day).
The poetic structure of the passage is revealing. It is a simple chiasm, a poetic form that is very common in the Bible and would have been immediately recognizable to its original readers. A chiasm may be diagramed like this: A B C B' A'. In such a poem, the middle element (C) is emphatic, accented by the outer structure. Think of a painting (C) enclosed by a matte (B, B') and a frame (A, A'). Modern audiences are not attuned to chiasm and often miss the significance of this device.
Let's unpack this one:
A -- speaks of God as creator (v. 1a)
B -- speaks of God as redeemer (vv. 1b-3)
C -- the reason God creates and redeems (v. 4)
B' -- speaks of God as redeemer (vv. 5-6)
A' -- speaks of God as creator (v. 7).
In Hebrew, the metrical structure makes these divisions easier to see. But even in English (NRSV), we can see how the two B parts are stanzas of about the same length, each beginning with the words, "Do not fear."
The point in recognizing a chiasm is to discover the middle element. In this passage, verse four is the central thought, the jewel in the crown, the pearl in the oyster: "Because you are precious in my sight and honored and I love you." This, the prophet declares, explains why God creates and redeems. God formed us out of love for us; God loved us when we as yet were not. And God redeems from trouble those whom God loves.
Thus, God's deliverance and salvation is grounded purely in grace. God knows Israel's sins, as the preceding oracle made clear, but God will save nonetheless. After reading that oracle, we might have expected verse four here to begin with the word "if," not "because." We might have expected Isaiah to center his offer of grace on the condition that Israel heed the call to repentance he has just delivered. We might have expected that, but Isaiah knows God better than we do. Isaiah attaches no more "ifs" to redemption than to creation.
We are precious in God's sight. That's why God made us. That's why God saves us. That's it.
Acts 8:14-17
Contrary to the arguments of many mainline denominations, I maintain that this text clearly presents baptism and the gift of the Spirit as two separate events. The exegetical gymnastics that try to make it say something else just don't work. The Pentecostals are right (on this text) when they point this out and we ought not embarrass ourselves further by denying it.
Of course, Luke may report this occurrence precisely because it represents an anomaly. Acts 2:38 seems to indicate that normally the Spirit is given to all who are baptized. In Acts 19, Paul encounters believers who have not received the Spirit, but it turns out this is because they knew only the baptism of John. Christian baptism fixes them right up.
Still, the fact that there are anomalies is important. Indeed, Luke seems to delight in reporting such curiosities. In Acts 10, Cornelius and his family receive the Spirit before they are baptized (10:44-48). Probably, Luke wants to emphasize that the Spirit is God's to give as God sees fit. If we could transport him to our own setting, I suspect that Luke would be horrified both by mainline doctrine that guarantees the fullness of the Spirit to all who are baptized and by Pentecostal teaching that defines this gift as a possession to be sought and obtained in observable ways. God is no pharmacist, filling prescriptions that churches decided they were authorized to write.
We search in vain for any reason why the situation reported here required two stages this time. (The same is true of the healing Jesus administers in Mark 8:22-26.) The point cannot be that the Spirit is given only by apostles (see 9:10-19) or that it is given only through the laying on of hands (see 2:38) or only after a time of seeking (see 2:38; 10:44-48). Some commentaries suggest that Luke wanted members of the Twelve on hand to provide continuity of tradition in this groundbreaking mission to Samaritans. But Luke does not appear to care about such matters later, when Paul and companions hop from culture to culture bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth. More likely, the point is simply that God does things God's way, for reasons that are not always clear.
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The first part of this lesson formed a portion of the text for Advent 3, discussed in our last issue of Emphasis. The question we want to ask when reading these verses now is "Why do the people think John is the Messiah?" He does not perform miracles. What is he doing to arouse such expectations?
The preceding verses in Luke's account reveal John as one who called the crowd a brood of vipers and who spoke of the wrath to come. He called them to repentance. It was on the basis of this hellfire and brimstone preaching that they decided he must be the Messiah. Such a conclusion is quite revealing with regard to people's assumption concerning God and God's agents. They assumed that what the Messiah would (and therefore should) do is threaten people with judgment.
John shares this expectation. While denying his own messianic status, he insists that the true Messiah will be like him, only more so. The Messiah comes to clear the threshing floor, to gather the wheat and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. But when Jesus does arrive, he has a different agenda, one that he declares in his inaugural address at Nazareth -- our text two weeks hence: "To bring good news ... to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (4:18-20). This does not seem very messianic, at least not in terms of people's expectations. John himself will be confused (Luke 7:18-19). But John's preaching is not wrong, anymore than Isaiah's oracle in 42:18-25 was wrong. The law prepares the way for the gospel.
The last two verses of the text concern the main theme of today: the baptism of Jesus. The first thing we may note about Luke's account is that Jesus does not receive the Spirit at his baptism per se, but afterwards, while he is praying. I wouldn't make too much of this, but it is worth noting, in light of the separation of baptism from Spirit reception in the second lesson. In Luke-Acts, the gift of the Spirit is as closely connected to prayer as it is to baptism (see Luke 11:13; Acts 1:14 and 2:1-4).
The voice from heaven at Jesus' baptism affirms his identity as the Son of God, but there is no sense of adoption here. He has had a right to that title since his miraculous conception (1:35) and has been cognizant from his youth of his special relationship with God (2:49). For Luke, Jesus' baptism serves as his ordination, his inauguration into a life of ministry to others.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Isaiah 43:1-7
The subject for this Sunday, as set forth in the accompanying New Testament texts, is baptism -- the baptism of Jesus in Luke, and the baptism of the Samaritan disciples in Acts. Let us therefore use our Second Isaiah text also in relation to baptism -- our baptisms. To be sure, the prophet originally directed these words to the Israelite exiles in Babylonia between 550 and 538 B.C., but they are also an excellent description of our relation to God in our baptisms into the church.
The words and especially the verbs to note in this text, which is technically called a "salvation oracle," are those that describe what God has done, is doing, or will do. God has "created," "formed," "redeemed," "called you by name" (v. 1). He is "with you" (vv. 2, 5). He is "your Savior" (v. 3). He considers you "precious" and "esteemed," and he "loves" you (v. 4). He will "gather you" from the four corners of the earth (vv. 5-6). He "created," "formed," and "made" everyone who is called by his name, for his glory (v. 7).
The focus of the text is entirely on God's action, but because his action is done in relation to us -- because he is the God who is "with" us -- everything said about God's deeds is important for us church members.
When we come to our baptisms, or when we present a child to be baptized, the first fact we are to remember is that God has "created" us. But that has been the most intimate sort of creation. God has "formed us," say verses 1 and 7, like a potter working with a lump of clay, shaping our bodies and organs and muscles in the wombs of our mothers. As Job says, "Thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh,/ and knit me together with bones and sinews" (Job 10:11). God intentionally created each one of us because he had a purpose for each one of us.
More than that, God also created the church. The Christian Church did not exist before God prefigured it in his covenant people Israel and then called it into being in Jesus Christ (cf. Matthew 16:18-19). We are a God-created and -shaped people, who had no existence before God formed us as his church (cf. Ephesians 2:12-22). Only because of God's act, do we have this beloved community into which we are baptized, and apart from God in Jesus Christ there is no church.
That which binds us all together in this household of faith, however, is the fact that we have all been "redeemed" together. That is what we have in common -- not blood, not soil, not economics or status. Rather, we share together the one fact that God has redeemed us all. He redeemed Israel out of Egypt, that is, he bought her back out of slavery, which is what redemption means (cf. Leviticus 25:47-49). And so too he redeemed each one of us out of slavery to sin and death, and he redeemed the person who is to be baptized. Long before our baptisms, long before any one of us had done anything to deserve it (cf. Romans 5:8), God redeemed us from sin and death by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In our baptisms, therefore, the God who bought us back calls us by our names and claims us as his own. At every baptism the Christian name of the person is pronounced, and that person becomes God's child. No longer does the baptized person belong to the world. No, he or she belongs to God, and the promise is that nothing can snatch the baptized person out of the loving hand of God who has claimed her or him.
To be sure, evil may come and tribulations may abound in a baptized person's life. As our text says in verse 2, we may "walk through the fire" of trial and suffering, we may be almost overwhelmed by the "waters" of a chaotic and violent world. But God's word of consolation is sure: "I am with you." Therefore, we need have no fear (vv. 1, 5), for in Paul's words, "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us" (Romans 8:38-39) from God who has claimed us as his own. Always "underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27), and he holds us secure to all eternity.
God is the baptized persons' "Savior" in all circumstances. We are "precious" to God and "esteemed" by him. Indeed, he "loves" us. Other people may think we are unimportant or unworthy of notice. We may hold the most humble and insignificant position in our job or society, in some little forgotten corner of our land. But we are not unimportant to God. He sees us. He knows our needs. He numbers the very hairs of our heads, and knows even when we sit down and when we rise (Psalm 139:2). He hears our prayers, and indeed, his Son prays for us (cf. Romans 8:34).
Think of it! The Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, who ignited the sun and raised up the Rocky Mountains, who commands the stars and can direct the ways of nations -- that Lord of all nature and human history watches each moment over us, his children, in love. He neither slumbers nor sleeps, but keeps us always in his mind and care, and daily he guides our steps in mercy, leading us lovingly toward his everlasting kingdom.
God in Christ has, in fact, as our text says, gathered his people from East and West, from North and South. His baptized folk now form, as the hymn says, "one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth." We enter by our baptisms into a universal church, made up of people of every race and clime. And the one to be baptized becomes a member not only of a local congregation, but of the one church of Jesus Christ that is found throughout the world.
God has "formed and made" us his people not simply for our sakes alone, however. As wondrous as his gifts are to all of his baptized folk, with our baptisms has come a task given each one of us. God has created us, says our text, for his "glory" (v. 7). In baptism, God has poured out the Spirit of Christ upon us, and now he desires that we use that power to glorify his name in all the earth. That is, we are to make the Lord God esteemed and honored, worshiped and loved by all people everywhere. We are given the task of so proclaiming Christ that every knee bows and every tongue confesses that he is their Lord also.
How do we carry out that awesome task? By telling what God has done in our lives, as Old and New Testament tell it, and by living our lives in the manner that shows that the good news of the gospel is true. We glorify God by showing and telling other people about the actions and words of the Lord. That is what Second Isaiah does in our text for the morning. And that is the task to which we, God's baptized people, are called.
Great theologians have pondered this question, but none have come up with better answers than a group of uneducated peasants who discussed it in Solentiname, Nicaragua. The wonderful book The Gospel in Art by the Peasants of Solentiname (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1984), edited by Philip and Sally Scharper, records their conversations regarding this and a number of other stories in Luke's Gospel.
Why was Jesus baptized?
Mariita: "To give us an example. He didn't need baptism, but we did and he did it so we would."
Old Tomas: "Out of humility. He was with his people, with his group, and he wasn't going to say, 'I don't need this, I don't have any sin.' Not Jesus, he goes along with the others."
Alejandro: "Out of solidarity. So he wouldn't be separated from this group."
Ernesto: "Accepting his call. At other times, Jesus spoke of his death as a baptism, or 'bath.' He means that his true baptism would be that of his death, his blood bath, and this is what he accepted when he accepted his calling as the Messiah."
Isaiah 43:1-7
This text is preceded by harsh words of judgment against a rebellious and unrepentant Israel (42:18-25). Together, the two oracles present a paradigm of law and gospel. Our lectionary chooses to present only the gracious words, but we do well to note that the prophet did not find the two themes incompatible (any more than the third evangelist does in our Gospel lesson for this day).
The poetic structure of the passage is revealing. It is a simple chiasm, a poetic form that is very common in the Bible and would have been immediately recognizable to its original readers. A chiasm may be diagramed like this: A B C B' A'. In such a poem, the middle element (C) is emphatic, accented by the outer structure. Think of a painting (C) enclosed by a matte (B, B') and a frame (A, A'). Modern audiences are not attuned to chiasm and often miss the significance of this device.
Let's unpack this one:
A -- speaks of God as creator (v. 1a)
B -- speaks of God as redeemer (vv. 1b-3)
C -- the reason God creates and redeems (v. 4)
B' -- speaks of God as redeemer (vv. 5-6)
A' -- speaks of God as creator (v. 7).
In Hebrew, the metrical structure makes these divisions easier to see. But even in English (NRSV), we can see how the two B parts are stanzas of about the same length, each beginning with the words, "Do not fear."
The point in recognizing a chiasm is to discover the middle element. In this passage, verse four is the central thought, the jewel in the crown, the pearl in the oyster: "Because you are precious in my sight and honored and I love you." This, the prophet declares, explains why God creates and redeems. God formed us out of love for us; God loved us when we as yet were not. And God redeems from trouble those whom God loves.
Thus, God's deliverance and salvation is grounded purely in grace. God knows Israel's sins, as the preceding oracle made clear, but God will save nonetheless. After reading that oracle, we might have expected verse four here to begin with the word "if," not "because." We might have expected Isaiah to center his offer of grace on the condition that Israel heed the call to repentance he has just delivered. We might have expected that, but Isaiah knows God better than we do. Isaiah attaches no more "ifs" to redemption than to creation.
We are precious in God's sight. That's why God made us. That's why God saves us. That's it.
Acts 8:14-17
Contrary to the arguments of many mainline denominations, I maintain that this text clearly presents baptism and the gift of the Spirit as two separate events. The exegetical gymnastics that try to make it say something else just don't work. The Pentecostals are right (on this text) when they point this out and we ought not embarrass ourselves further by denying it.
Of course, Luke may report this occurrence precisely because it represents an anomaly. Acts 2:38 seems to indicate that normally the Spirit is given to all who are baptized. In Acts 19, Paul encounters believers who have not received the Spirit, but it turns out this is because they knew only the baptism of John. Christian baptism fixes them right up.
Still, the fact that there are anomalies is important. Indeed, Luke seems to delight in reporting such curiosities. In Acts 10, Cornelius and his family receive the Spirit before they are baptized (10:44-48). Probably, Luke wants to emphasize that the Spirit is God's to give as God sees fit. If we could transport him to our own setting, I suspect that Luke would be horrified both by mainline doctrine that guarantees the fullness of the Spirit to all who are baptized and by Pentecostal teaching that defines this gift as a possession to be sought and obtained in observable ways. God is no pharmacist, filling prescriptions that churches decided they were authorized to write.
We search in vain for any reason why the situation reported here required two stages this time. (The same is true of the healing Jesus administers in Mark 8:22-26.) The point cannot be that the Spirit is given only by apostles (see 9:10-19) or that it is given only through the laying on of hands (see 2:38) or only after a time of seeking (see 2:38; 10:44-48). Some commentaries suggest that Luke wanted members of the Twelve on hand to provide continuity of tradition in this groundbreaking mission to Samaritans. But Luke does not appear to care about such matters later, when Paul and companions hop from culture to culture bringing the Gospel to the ends of the earth. More likely, the point is simply that God does things God's way, for reasons that are not always clear.
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
The first part of this lesson formed a portion of the text for Advent 3, discussed in our last issue of Emphasis. The question we want to ask when reading these verses now is "Why do the people think John is the Messiah?" He does not perform miracles. What is he doing to arouse such expectations?
The preceding verses in Luke's account reveal John as one who called the crowd a brood of vipers and who spoke of the wrath to come. He called them to repentance. It was on the basis of this hellfire and brimstone preaching that they decided he must be the Messiah. Such a conclusion is quite revealing with regard to people's assumption concerning God and God's agents. They assumed that what the Messiah would (and therefore should) do is threaten people with judgment.
John shares this expectation. While denying his own messianic status, he insists that the true Messiah will be like him, only more so. The Messiah comes to clear the threshing floor, to gather the wheat and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. But when Jesus does arrive, he has a different agenda, one that he declares in his inaugural address at Nazareth -- our text two weeks hence: "To bring good news ... to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (4:18-20). This does not seem very messianic, at least not in terms of people's expectations. John himself will be confused (Luke 7:18-19). But John's preaching is not wrong, anymore than Isaiah's oracle in 42:18-25 was wrong. The law prepares the way for the gospel.
The last two verses of the text concern the main theme of today: the baptism of Jesus. The first thing we may note about Luke's account is that Jesus does not receive the Spirit at his baptism per se, but afterwards, while he is praying. I wouldn't make too much of this, but it is worth noting, in light of the separation of baptism from Spirit reception in the second lesson. In Luke-Acts, the gift of the Spirit is as closely connected to prayer as it is to baptism (see Luke 11:13; Acts 1:14 and 2:1-4).
The voice from heaven at Jesus' baptism affirms his identity as the Son of God, but there is no sense of adoption here. He has had a right to that title since his miraculous conception (1:35) and has been cognizant from his youth of his special relationship with God (2:49). For Luke, Jesus' baptism serves as his ordination, his inauguration into a life of ministry to others.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Isaiah 43:1-7
The subject for this Sunday, as set forth in the accompanying New Testament texts, is baptism -- the baptism of Jesus in Luke, and the baptism of the Samaritan disciples in Acts. Let us therefore use our Second Isaiah text also in relation to baptism -- our baptisms. To be sure, the prophet originally directed these words to the Israelite exiles in Babylonia between 550 and 538 B.C., but they are also an excellent description of our relation to God in our baptisms into the church.
The words and especially the verbs to note in this text, which is technically called a "salvation oracle," are those that describe what God has done, is doing, or will do. God has "created," "formed," "redeemed," "called you by name" (v. 1). He is "with you" (vv. 2, 5). He is "your Savior" (v. 3). He considers you "precious" and "esteemed," and he "loves" you (v. 4). He will "gather you" from the four corners of the earth (vv. 5-6). He "created," "formed," and "made" everyone who is called by his name, for his glory (v. 7).
The focus of the text is entirely on God's action, but because his action is done in relation to us -- because he is the God who is "with" us -- everything said about God's deeds is important for us church members.
When we come to our baptisms, or when we present a child to be baptized, the first fact we are to remember is that God has "created" us. But that has been the most intimate sort of creation. God has "formed us," say verses 1 and 7, like a potter working with a lump of clay, shaping our bodies and organs and muscles in the wombs of our mothers. As Job says, "Thou didst clothe me with skin and flesh,/ and knit me together with bones and sinews" (Job 10:11). God intentionally created each one of us because he had a purpose for each one of us.
More than that, God also created the church. The Christian Church did not exist before God prefigured it in his covenant people Israel and then called it into being in Jesus Christ (cf. Matthew 16:18-19). We are a God-created and -shaped people, who had no existence before God formed us as his church (cf. Ephesians 2:12-22). Only because of God's act, do we have this beloved community into which we are baptized, and apart from God in Jesus Christ there is no church.
That which binds us all together in this household of faith, however, is the fact that we have all been "redeemed" together. That is what we have in common -- not blood, not soil, not economics or status. Rather, we share together the one fact that God has redeemed us all. He redeemed Israel out of Egypt, that is, he bought her back out of slavery, which is what redemption means (cf. Leviticus 25:47-49). And so too he redeemed each one of us out of slavery to sin and death, and he redeemed the person who is to be baptized. Long before our baptisms, long before any one of us had done anything to deserve it (cf. Romans 5:8), God redeemed us from sin and death by the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In our baptisms, therefore, the God who bought us back calls us by our names and claims us as his own. At every baptism the Christian name of the person is pronounced, and that person becomes God's child. No longer does the baptized person belong to the world. No, he or she belongs to God, and the promise is that nothing can snatch the baptized person out of the loving hand of God who has claimed her or him.
To be sure, evil may come and tribulations may abound in a baptized person's life. As our text says in verse 2, we may "walk through the fire" of trial and suffering, we may be almost overwhelmed by the "waters" of a chaotic and violent world. But God's word of consolation is sure: "I am with you." Therefore, we need have no fear (vv. 1, 5), for in Paul's words, "neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us" (Romans 8:38-39) from God who has claimed us as his own. Always "underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27), and he holds us secure to all eternity.
God is the baptized persons' "Savior" in all circumstances. We are "precious" to God and "esteemed" by him. Indeed, he "loves" us. Other people may think we are unimportant or unworthy of notice. We may hold the most humble and insignificant position in our job or society, in some little forgotten corner of our land. But we are not unimportant to God. He sees us. He knows our needs. He numbers the very hairs of our heads, and knows even when we sit down and when we rise (Psalm 139:2). He hears our prayers, and indeed, his Son prays for us (cf. Romans 8:34).
Think of it! The Almighty Creator of heaven and earth, who ignited the sun and raised up the Rocky Mountains, who commands the stars and can direct the ways of nations -- that Lord of all nature and human history watches each moment over us, his children, in love. He neither slumbers nor sleeps, but keeps us always in his mind and care, and daily he guides our steps in mercy, leading us lovingly toward his everlasting kingdom.
God in Christ has, in fact, as our text says, gathered his people from East and West, from North and South. His baptized folk now form, as the hymn says, "one great fellowship of love throughout the whole wide earth." We enter by our baptisms into a universal church, made up of people of every race and clime. And the one to be baptized becomes a member not only of a local congregation, but of the one church of Jesus Christ that is found throughout the world.
God has "formed and made" us his people not simply for our sakes alone, however. As wondrous as his gifts are to all of his baptized folk, with our baptisms has come a task given each one of us. God has created us, says our text, for his "glory" (v. 7). In baptism, God has poured out the Spirit of Christ upon us, and now he desires that we use that power to glorify his name in all the earth. That is, we are to make the Lord God esteemed and honored, worshiped and loved by all people everywhere. We are given the task of so proclaiming Christ that every knee bows and every tongue confesses that he is their Lord also.
How do we carry out that awesome task? By telling what God has done in our lives, as Old and New Testament tell it, and by living our lives in the manner that shows that the good news of the gospel is true. We glorify God by showing and telling other people about the actions and words of the Lord. That is what Second Isaiah does in our text for the morning. And that is the task to which we, God's baptized people, are called.
