Baptism Of The Lord; Epiphany 1
Preaching
Preaching Luke's Gospel
A Narrative Approach
This story of Jesus' baptism has manifold narrative connections in Luke's Gospel. We note first of all that verses 15-17 of this week's assigned text were part of the text appointed for the Third Sunday in Advent. (See Chapter 5.) The heart of the matter for this week, of course, is the baptism of Jesus. The main purpose of this baptismal scene would appear to be the heavenly identification of Jesus as Son of God. Our comments, therefore, will focus on this theme and its important narrative analogies to what follows.
Before we pick up the Son of God theme, however, we should note the bodily descent of the dove upon Jesus. No other Gospel writer makes the point of the descent of the Spirit upon Jesus in this striking language. Bodily descent has the character of per-manence. The Spirit not only descended upon Jesus; the Spirit of God came in bodily form and it will remain upon Jesus. A biblical way of getting at the meaning here might be to remind ourselves of Israel's charismatic judges. The spirit of God certainly de-scended upon these saviors of Israel. The effect of this descent of the Spirit, however, was always temporary. The spirit-filled judges freed Israel from her enemies and brought forth a new time of peace and justice, but only for a fading moment. We can imagine the people of Israel crying out for a more permanent arrangement. They might have asked a question like: "Will there ever arise among us a savior, a judge, in whom the Spirit permanently resides?" The story of Jesus' baptism as told by Luke gives an affirmative answer to this longing from of old! Jesus is truly the child of the Spirit!
The identification of Jesus as Son of God is vital to the message of Luke. We have touched on this Son of God theme in Chapter 3. Earlier references to this theme in Luke are found in 1:32, 35 and 2:41-52. Here we will set forth the narrative connections with this theme in what follows Jesus' baptism. If you do not choose to fol-low this path in this week's preaching you can pick it up in several other places in Luke's story.
To begin with, many commentators note that the announcement of Jesus as the Son of God has narrative resonance with Psalm 2. Psalm 2 has been identified as a "royal Psalm." God speaks here to Israel's messiah: "You are my son; today I have begotten you" (v. 7). There is this heritage in Israel that the Anointed One is an "adopted" Son of God.
The story of Jesus' baptism proclaims the divine sonship of Jesus. What does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God? The story begs this question. The question, in turn, usually propels us to the church's theological thinking about "Son of God." In theory all one would need do here is consult one's own denominational theology of Jesus as Son of God, and you've got a sermon! This kind of non-narrative thinking circumvents Luke's own answer to this question. Luke's answer to the question of the meaning of "Son of God" comes in the course of the next four stories. (Of these stories Luke 4:1-13 is appointed for the First Sunday in Lent and Luke 4:14-21 is appointed for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany.)
What does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God? Luke's first answer to this question is related in the next verses in the form of a genealogy (Luke 3:23-38). The climax of this story is that Jesus is "... the son of God." No other Gospel writer used the genealogy to make such a point!
A story from Papua New Guinea gives life to this genealogy. There is a story told of a man who translated the Bible into one of the many languages of the people of Papua New Guinea. His trans-lating procedure was to translate a passage, have his assistant read it to the people, and revise the translation accordingly. In doing this the translator skipped the genealogy for the same reason we pay so little attention to it: boring! At the end of the task, however, he did translate the genealogical list and he was present when it was read to the people. As the names of the ancestors were rattled off the translator noticed that a hush fell over the room. So quiet did it get with the crowd pressing in on him that he thought he must have violated some tribal taboo in his translating. But no! When the reading was finished the people stood in amazement. "Why didn't you tell us this before?" they asked. "No one bothers to write down the ancestors of spirit being but only of real persons. The Bible must mean to say here that Jesus is a real person! Jesus was a real man on our real earth and not just a part of some spirit world; not just some of the white man's magic!"
The people hearing this genealogy had been Christians. But they had never understood that the Son of God was a real person. Only this genealogy, similar to their own genealogical thinking, convinced them of Jesus' true nature. Perhaps the world of Luke was much like this world of Papua New Guinea. Luke knew, there-fore, that the most important way he could answer the question of what it means that Jesus is the Son of God was by giving his genealogy. For Luke and his audience this "boring" genealogy was very exciting stuff!
The baptismal story announces that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus' genealogy is given to help clarify what Son of God means. Then the devil enters the picture: Luke 4:1-13. The thrust of his temptation is to help Jesus get a "better" understanding of what it means to be Son of God. "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread" (v. 3). "If you are the Son of God , throw yourself down from here ..." (v. 9). At a very important level this story is a commentary on Jesus' baptism and the nature of divine sonship. The devil has its own understanding of what it means to be Son of God: it means to have power on earth and to have it now! "I will give you glory now!" the devil shouts (v. 6). "If you are the Son of God, for God's sake, act like one! Do some-thing. Show us. Let us see your glory!" The devil appears to have a "theology of glory."
Jesus spoke to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He said to them: "Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter his glory?" (Luke 24:46). The time for glory would come. The devil was reading from the wrong time chart! At any rate, the devil left Jesus after being unable to convince this Son of God that being the divine Son was about the Son's glory! The devil would be back at a more opportune time! (4:13).
The next story takes place in Nazareth. It is the fourth con-secutive story that meditates on the Son of God theme. What does it mean that Jesus is Son of God? Jesus reads to the hometown folks from Isaiah 61:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
(Luke 4:18-19)
And Jesus said: "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21). This passage serves many functions in Luke's Gospel. It may be the most pivotal verse in the entire Gospel. Seen in the context of the Lukan stories that immediately precede it, this reading from Isaiah is Jesus' way of saying what it means that he is Son of God. Being Son of God is not about the glory of the Son! Being Son of God is about being a servant to all in need. The Nazareth assembly, of course, didn't get it. They didn't perceive whose son he was. As far as they knew, he was Joseph's son (v. 22).
The Son of God theme is also touched upon in Luke 4:40-41. The demons recognize Jesus as Son of God! This is true also of the story told of the Gerasene demoniac in Luke 8:26-33, 28.
The heavenly identification of Jesus as the Son of God is repeated in the Transfiguration story: Luke 9:28-36. This text is appointed for the last Sunday after the Epiphany.
The fate of the Son of God is told in the parable Jesus tells in Luke 20:9-18. The owner of the vineyard sends his "beloved son," and the son is killed by those wicked inhabitants of the vineyard. Jesus confirms with this parable that the destiny of the Son of God is a destiny of suffering. This parable of Jesus is not appointed for the lectionary year.
At Jesus' trial the themes of Son of God and Messiah merge a bit (Luke 22:66-67). The chief priests put the question to Jesus baldly: "Are you the the Son of God?" Jesus answered: "You say that I am." And they replied: "What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips!" To claim to be God was a blasphemous claim. Such a man should be killed. So they took him to Pilate. The Son of God must suffer. Luke presents Jesus as the One who must suffer far more strongly than do the other Gospels.
Homiletical Directions
The preaching possibilities on the few verses assigned for this week are many. One might focus on the baptismal theme. Such a sermon might tell first the story of this week's text focusing on God's announcement: "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." We could talk about Christian baptism as con-taining this same promise for us today. This word might strike with particular power in the lives of those who feel lonely, alone, alienated, orphaned. To such people it is indeed good news to hear: "You are my child. You are my son. You are my daughter. I am pleased with you."
A second preaching possibility would be to follow up the Son of God theme in Luke's Gospel. The most obvious way to do this would be to link the four Lukan stories together as a meditation on what it means to be Son of God. We refer to the stories in 3:21-22; 3:23-38; 4:1-13; 4:16-21. The climax of these stories is Jesus' reading from the book of Isaiah. Jesus defines the meaning of Son of God through this Isaiah passage as the life of a servant. The Son of God/servant cares for the poor, the captives, and all who are oppressed. In our baptism we are called "sons" and "daughters" of God. It follows that our baptismal vocation is precisely to live the life of servants. We, too, are called upon to care for the poor, the captives, and the oppressed. Such a sermon is obviously a call to the children of God to take up the yoke of Christian discipleship and live lives that are focused not on self, as the devil would have it, but on the needs of others.
This same Son of God theme can be developed out of four consecutive Lukan stories (the other texts we have touched upon might also be used) toward a strong word of proclamation. These four stories from Luke need to be told in sequence somewhere in the church year. The stitching together of these stories means telling each story toward the end so that the meaning of "Son of God" becomes clear. Such a sermon might well end with Jesus' reading of Isaiah. We can turn the meaning of "Son of God" into procla-mation of this passage. We can say: What Jesus is saying to us today about the meaning of "Son of God" is something like this. "I am the Son of God. I have come to preach good news to the poor. I have come to proclaim release to the captives. I have come to bring sight to the blind. I have come to set at liberty those who are oppressed. I have come to announce to you that the acceptable year of the Lord is at hand." Amen!
Before we pick up the Son of God theme, however, we should note the bodily descent of the dove upon Jesus. No other Gospel writer makes the point of the descent of the Spirit upon Jesus in this striking language. Bodily descent has the character of per-manence. The Spirit not only descended upon Jesus; the Spirit of God came in bodily form and it will remain upon Jesus. A biblical way of getting at the meaning here might be to remind ourselves of Israel's charismatic judges. The spirit of God certainly de-scended upon these saviors of Israel. The effect of this descent of the Spirit, however, was always temporary. The spirit-filled judges freed Israel from her enemies and brought forth a new time of peace and justice, but only for a fading moment. We can imagine the people of Israel crying out for a more permanent arrangement. They might have asked a question like: "Will there ever arise among us a savior, a judge, in whom the Spirit permanently resides?" The story of Jesus' baptism as told by Luke gives an affirmative answer to this longing from of old! Jesus is truly the child of the Spirit!
The identification of Jesus as Son of God is vital to the message of Luke. We have touched on this Son of God theme in Chapter 3. Earlier references to this theme in Luke are found in 1:32, 35 and 2:41-52. Here we will set forth the narrative connections with this theme in what follows Jesus' baptism. If you do not choose to fol-low this path in this week's preaching you can pick it up in several other places in Luke's story.
To begin with, many commentators note that the announcement of Jesus as the Son of God has narrative resonance with Psalm 2. Psalm 2 has been identified as a "royal Psalm." God speaks here to Israel's messiah: "You are my son; today I have begotten you" (v. 7). There is this heritage in Israel that the Anointed One is an "adopted" Son of God.
The story of Jesus' baptism proclaims the divine sonship of Jesus. What does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God? The story begs this question. The question, in turn, usually propels us to the church's theological thinking about "Son of God." In theory all one would need do here is consult one's own denominational theology of Jesus as Son of God, and you've got a sermon! This kind of non-narrative thinking circumvents Luke's own answer to this question. Luke's answer to the question of the meaning of "Son of God" comes in the course of the next four stories. (Of these stories Luke 4:1-13 is appointed for the First Sunday in Lent and Luke 4:14-21 is appointed for the Third Sunday after the Epiphany.)
What does it mean that Jesus is the Son of God? Luke's first answer to this question is related in the next verses in the form of a genealogy (Luke 3:23-38). The climax of this story is that Jesus is "... the son of God." No other Gospel writer used the genealogy to make such a point!
A story from Papua New Guinea gives life to this genealogy. There is a story told of a man who translated the Bible into one of the many languages of the people of Papua New Guinea. His trans-lating procedure was to translate a passage, have his assistant read it to the people, and revise the translation accordingly. In doing this the translator skipped the genealogy for the same reason we pay so little attention to it: boring! At the end of the task, however, he did translate the genealogical list and he was present when it was read to the people. As the names of the ancestors were rattled off the translator noticed that a hush fell over the room. So quiet did it get with the crowd pressing in on him that he thought he must have violated some tribal taboo in his translating. But no! When the reading was finished the people stood in amazement. "Why didn't you tell us this before?" they asked. "No one bothers to write down the ancestors of spirit being but only of real persons. The Bible must mean to say here that Jesus is a real person! Jesus was a real man on our real earth and not just a part of some spirit world; not just some of the white man's magic!"
The people hearing this genealogy had been Christians. But they had never understood that the Son of God was a real person. Only this genealogy, similar to their own genealogical thinking, convinced them of Jesus' true nature. Perhaps the world of Luke was much like this world of Papua New Guinea. Luke knew, there-fore, that the most important way he could answer the question of what it means that Jesus is the Son of God was by giving his genealogy. For Luke and his audience this "boring" genealogy was very exciting stuff!
The baptismal story announces that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus' genealogy is given to help clarify what Son of God means. Then the devil enters the picture: Luke 4:1-13. The thrust of his temptation is to help Jesus get a "better" understanding of what it means to be Son of God. "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread" (v. 3). "If you are the Son of God , throw yourself down from here ..." (v. 9). At a very important level this story is a commentary on Jesus' baptism and the nature of divine sonship. The devil has its own understanding of what it means to be Son of God: it means to have power on earth and to have it now! "I will give you glory now!" the devil shouts (v. 6). "If you are the Son of God, for God's sake, act like one! Do some-thing. Show us. Let us see your glory!" The devil appears to have a "theology of glory."
Jesus spoke to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He said to them: "Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter his glory?" (Luke 24:46). The time for glory would come. The devil was reading from the wrong time chart! At any rate, the devil left Jesus after being unable to convince this Son of God that being the divine Son was about the Son's glory! The devil would be back at a more opportune time! (4:13).
The next story takes place in Nazareth. It is the fourth con-secutive story that meditates on the Son of God theme. What does it mean that Jesus is Son of God? Jesus reads to the hometown folks from Isaiah 61:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
(Luke 4:18-19)
And Jesus said: "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21). This passage serves many functions in Luke's Gospel. It may be the most pivotal verse in the entire Gospel. Seen in the context of the Lukan stories that immediately precede it, this reading from Isaiah is Jesus' way of saying what it means that he is Son of God. Being Son of God is not about the glory of the Son! Being Son of God is about being a servant to all in need. The Nazareth assembly, of course, didn't get it. They didn't perceive whose son he was. As far as they knew, he was Joseph's son (v. 22).
The Son of God theme is also touched upon in Luke 4:40-41. The demons recognize Jesus as Son of God! This is true also of the story told of the Gerasene demoniac in Luke 8:26-33, 28.
The heavenly identification of Jesus as the Son of God is repeated in the Transfiguration story: Luke 9:28-36. This text is appointed for the last Sunday after the Epiphany.
The fate of the Son of God is told in the parable Jesus tells in Luke 20:9-18. The owner of the vineyard sends his "beloved son," and the son is killed by those wicked inhabitants of the vineyard. Jesus confirms with this parable that the destiny of the Son of God is a destiny of suffering. This parable of Jesus is not appointed for the lectionary year.
At Jesus' trial the themes of Son of God and Messiah merge a bit (Luke 22:66-67). The chief priests put the question to Jesus baldly: "Are you the the Son of God?" Jesus answered: "You say that I am." And they replied: "What further testimony do we need? We have heard it ourselves from his own lips!" To claim to be God was a blasphemous claim. Such a man should be killed. So they took him to Pilate. The Son of God must suffer. Luke presents Jesus as the One who must suffer far more strongly than do the other Gospels.
Homiletical Directions
The preaching possibilities on the few verses assigned for this week are many. One might focus on the baptismal theme. Such a sermon might tell first the story of this week's text focusing on God's announcement: "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." We could talk about Christian baptism as con-taining this same promise for us today. This word might strike with particular power in the lives of those who feel lonely, alone, alienated, orphaned. To such people it is indeed good news to hear: "You are my child. You are my son. You are my daughter. I am pleased with you."
A second preaching possibility would be to follow up the Son of God theme in Luke's Gospel. The most obvious way to do this would be to link the four Lukan stories together as a meditation on what it means to be Son of God. We refer to the stories in 3:21-22; 3:23-38; 4:1-13; 4:16-21. The climax of these stories is Jesus' reading from the book of Isaiah. Jesus defines the meaning of Son of God through this Isaiah passage as the life of a servant. The Son of God/servant cares for the poor, the captives, and all who are oppressed. In our baptism we are called "sons" and "daughters" of God. It follows that our baptismal vocation is precisely to live the life of servants. We, too, are called upon to care for the poor, the captives, and the oppressed. Such a sermon is obviously a call to the children of God to take up the yoke of Christian discipleship and live lives that are focused not on self, as the devil would have it, but on the needs of others.
This same Son of God theme can be developed out of four consecutive Lukan stories (the other texts we have touched upon might also be used) toward a strong word of proclamation. These four stories from Luke need to be told in sequence somewhere in the church year. The stitching together of these stories means telling each story toward the end so that the meaning of "Son of God" becomes clear. Such a sermon might well end with Jesus' reading of Isaiah. We can turn the meaning of "Son of God" into procla-mation of this passage. We can say: What Jesus is saying to us today about the meaning of "Son of God" is something like this. "I am the Son of God. I have come to preach good news to the poor. I have come to proclaim release to the captives. I have come to bring sight to the blind. I have come to set at liberty those who are oppressed. I have come to announce to you that the acceptable year of the Lord is at hand." Amen!
