Baptism of the Lord - January 9, 2010

You can find this week’s Lectionary texts here: http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=13.

Isaiah 42:1-9

This week’s OT reading is the first of Isaiah’s “servant songs” (the others are found in chapters 49, 50, and 52-53).  These pieces of text are referred to this way because they all focus on the identity and role of a “servant” who has been given a special mission by God, but they are not explicit about exactly who the servant is – whether a particular person or perhaps Israel itself. 

The context of this reading within Isaiah suggests that the “servant” refers to Israel itself (the people): see for example 41:8-10 (“But you, Israel, my servant…”) and 44:1-2 (“Do not fear, O Jacob my servant…”).  I should add the caveat at this point that this is poetry, and prophetic literature to boot - rather than just conveying information, the language itself moves us and speaks God’s message through image, metaphor, etc.  The risk of assigning “meanings” to it is that it can take something away from the sheer evocative power of the language.  As Bob Dylan once told an interviewer who asked him what one of his songs meant, (and I’m not quoting him correctly but it was something like) “It means what it says - if I’d meant something else, I would have said it differently.”

Anyway, there’s also historical context to consider with this reading.  The material in chapters 40-55 comes from the period of the Exile in Babylon, a time of basically existential crisis for God’s people.  Having suffered the humiliation of being completely overrun by a foreign power and physically removed from their sacred land, they wondered: Who are we? Who is God? 

So, what does the text say?   It says the servant has God’s spirit and will bring “justice to the nations”(v. 1).  This is interesting because it’s a mission that goes beyond the bounds of Israel to the rest of the world.  Again in v. 4, the servant won’t stop until he’s “established justice in the earth.”  Finally and most significantly, vs. 5-7 say that the same God who created the whole world and all people has given the servant as a “light to the nations,” opening blind eyes and freeing prisoners.  What’s also interesting in this reading is that the servant’s role, while far-reaching, is also gentle and unassuming: see vs. 2-3, he won’t raise his voice, break bruised reeds or blow out dimly burning candles. 

In other words, out of the humiliation of the Exile, God’s people get a surprising new mission – not one of violence and revenge and nationalism, but rather one of universal compassion and justice.  It’s easy to see why the church sees Jesus in the servant songs.

Acts 10:34-43

This reading emphasizes the universal nature of God’s salvation in Jesus.  At this point in Acts, Cornelius – a gentile – has been brought together with Peter and is hearing the news about Jesus.  This meeting is a big deal for both of them, as it realigns Peter’s whole understanding of God’s plan.  The key verses for me are 34-35: that “God shows no partiality” even between Jews and gentiles.  Impartiality was already understood to be part of God’s nature: see Deut. 10:17-18, which says God isn’t partial to the rich but rather takes care of the poor and strangers.  But here Peter comes to understand that God’s impartiality extends even to who can be part of God’s covenant.

Matthew 3:13-17

OK kids, I have to admit that I broke out the Greek NT for this week’s Gospel reading - I figured, it’s short and perhaps my limited Greek skills could handle it.  And I did make a few interesting discoveries. 

As this Sunday is Baptism of the Lord, we get Matthew’s version of Jesus’ baptism by John.  This is a story that it’s good to read in “gospel parallel” – with the versions from the other gospels right alongside.  You can do that at this link:  http://www.utoronto.ca/religion/synopsis/meta-4g.htm - just scroll down the Matthew column until you get to “The Baptism of Jesus” and then click the little book icons there to bring the other gospels’ versions alongside.  Pretty cool.  

The first thing I notice in this text is that, while Mark and Luke just say Jesus came to John and happened to get baptized, Matthew says in v. 13 that Jesus came to John to be baptized by him.  In other words, whereas there might be some question as to why Jesus would receive John’s baptism if he’s the Messiah, Matthew makes no apologies – Jesus came intending to be baptized.  Then, as we see, Matthew gives us this little conversation between the two of them in vs. 14-15.  It says John was preventing him, saying “I need to be baptized by you, and you’re coming to me?”  But answering Jesus said to him, “Let it be for now, for in this way it’s fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  Then he let him, or he permitted it.  I think this conversation between John and Jesus is pretty significant, because of the words Jesus uses – “fulfill all righteousness.”   These are really important words in Matthew, as a scan of the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7) shows us.  In Matthew’s version of the Beatitudes/blessings (5:3-12), Jesus blesses those who “thirst for righteousness” and those “persecuted for righteousness’ sake.”  (For extra credit you can compare to Luke’s version.)  “Righteousness” means, in Matthew, right relationship with God particularly as shown by our behavior.  Anyway, then in 5:17-20 Jesus says he’s come to “fulfill the law” and that our “righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees” for us to enter the kingdom of heaven.  In 6:33, Jesus says to “seek first God’s kingdom and his righteousness” – in Luke it just says “seek his kingdom.”  Finally, Jesus’ climactic parable/vision in Matthew is the “sheep and goats” passage (25:31-46) in which those who enter his kingdom are the “righteous” who “did unto the least of these.”   

So what does it mean that Jesus’ baptism “fulfills all righteousness”?  I think it means that Jesus accepts baptism by John, who embodies the OT prophetic tradition, in order to take that tradition further, reveal its purpose and bring it to fruition.  This makes sense, I think, when we consider what Jesus says about John in chapter 11: “There’s been no one greater than him up to this point, but “the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” 

To finish out the reading, it says after he was baptized he “immediately” came up out of the water, and - Look! – the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the spirit of God coming down like a dove and coming on him; and – Listen! – a voice from the heavens saying, “This is my son the beloved, in whom I take delight.”  Incidentally, the “Look!” and “Listen!” are right in the Greek text – traditionally they’re translated as the bland “behold” or “lo,” and for some reason the NRSV ignores them completely.  The same word is used in the birth story (1:20) when the angel comes to Joseph, and then again when the magi show up (2:1).  It adds drama and indicates that something big is happening, like “Check it out!”

Works Consulted:

J. J. M. Roberts’ notes on the Isaiah text, and Dennis Duling’s notes on the Matthew text, in the HarperCollins Study Bible

HarperHaa

Synopsis of the Four Gospels

Daniel Harrington’s Matthew commentary in the Sacra Pagina series