Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:3,15-16,21-22
2nd Sunday of Epiphany
St Barbara’s; 12.01.2025
Rev Tulo Raistrick
Have you ever had the experience of sharing a special time with others – maybe a holiday, or a party, or maybe a must-see TV programme – and when you talk about it a few months later, you all remember different parts of the experience, but there is one thing that everyone remembers, a moment or an event that seems to capture the experience. That when an event is recalled and spoken about, different experiences may be shared, people may recount different things, but there is one thing that no-one forgets to mention – it was just too special, too significant.
For us as a family for a couple of our summer holidays there has been a day that everyone remembers amidst all the other experiences – a day which has usually involved delight for our children and fear and paralysis for us as parents, days which have either involved canyoning and rock climbing in the Yorkshire Dales or terrifying cliff-edge walks in the Alps. We may all remember different other days on our holidays, but those days, for different reasons, are ones that all of us remember.
Well, the story of Jesus’ life is recorded by four separate people – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They don’t always include the same stories, but one story they all include is the baptism of Jesus.
The story of Jesus’ baptism is the first we hear of Jesus as an adult in both Matthew and Luke’s Gospels. And in Mark and John’s accounts, the event stands out all the more visibly – it is the event that starts off their gospels.
That immediately tells us that Jesus’ baptism was seen as important. No-one misses this event out of the re-telling of Jesus’ life. But why is it so important?
Firstly, it shows us that Jesus identifies with us; he experiences our life.
At school or at work, there are times when we may be asked to do something that just feels too difficult or too demanding, times when we may feel, “Have they no idea how difficult this is? how long it will take?” But imagine the difference it would make if the teacher or the boss asking you to do the work said: “I know its difficult. I’m going to sit down and do it with you. We will work on it together.” That would make a huge difference.
Or imagine ringing up a help-line because of an IT problem at home or a problem with a utility bill, and rather than when you finally get through being given long and complicated answers that you struggle to understand, you get the response, “no problem – these things are always tricky – I will pop round this afternoon and see if we can sort it out together.” I, for one, would feel a huge sense of relief. I wasn’t being treated as an anonymous number, but as a real person who they were trying to understand.
When Jesus got baptised he was saying: “I want to understand. I want to experience your life. I want to share in your life.” Jesus didn’t need to get baptised – after all baptism was about asking God to forgive us for the wrong things we had done, and Jesus had done no wrong. But he wanted to understand us.
That is the message of the incarnation that we celebrate at Christmas – that God came to dwell among us, to share our life, to show us his love, and to show that he cares and understands. And that is the message of Jesus’ baptism too. The message we celebrate at the beginning of his life is also the message we celebrate at the beginning of his adult ministry. It is part of Christ’s DNA.
Sometimes it may feel like no-one understands us, that no-one understands how hard it is to live our life. But Jesus does. He understands us.
The second reason why Jesus’ baptism is so important is that it reminds us at the beginning of his work, his ministry, that he is God’s Son. His baptism shows us not only that he understands us; but that he is the one who, because he is God’s Son, can make a difference.
Back to our teacher, our boss and our help-line responder. Knowing that that they were prepared to roll up their sleeves and work with us on that tricky or demanding task would be a big encouragement. But ultimately, if they were unable to actually do the task any better than we could, it would be a bit frustrating. It would be a bit like the story of the man who sees a man fallen down a hole and jumps down to offer his help, only to then realise he is stuck too.
What we want is not just someone who identifies with us and understands us, but is also able to make a difference. In Christ, God not only understands the challenges we face in living our lives. In Christ, he also makes a difference.
As John recognises, “I baptise you with water, but one much more powerful than I is coming. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire”. Christ brings the gift of God’s presence to live within each us, His spirit that is the source of all that is good and hopeful, forgiving and kind, generous and compassionate, just and courageous, in our world.
The Christian life is never something that we “crack”, that we perfectly fulfil. We live with that constant tension of wanting to live well for God, but falling short. That burst of irritation, that pride of feeling better than others, that lack of control over our emotions or actions or words. Even with the best of intentions we fall short. Just ask those who know us best and love us most.
But the gift of the Holy Spirit, promised in Jesus’ baptism, gives us hope. God does not give up on us. He may long for us to live more loving, more compassionate, more selfless lives, but our failures do not mean he withdraws from us. Far from it. God’s Holy Spirit dwells within us. The Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit working with us, shaping us, moulding us, freeing us to be the people God has made us to be. That is a slow life-long process, with many a back-ward step, but it is a process that Jesus’ baptism shows us God is committed to.
In Christ’s gift of the Holy Spirit, God reveals not only that he understands us, but that he wants to help us, wants to make a difference.
And a third source of hope. At Jesus’ baptism, God gives Jesus, but also us, a very clear message. He says to Jesus: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” These are words of affirmation to Jesus – at the beginning of his adult ministry, he is being assured of his father’s love, of his father’s delight in him. And Jesus hadn’t yet started his ministry – there was nothing that he had yet “done”. God was just delighted in who he was.
The next three years will be incredibly tough ones for Jesus, ones that will lead to endless opposition and hostility, and ultimately to his rejection and death, but these words must have acted as a source of great encouragement and strength in those times to come: to know that his father loved him, delighted in him, for who he is.
Its a sign, one of those epiphany moments, when we see just how special Jesus is, when our eyes are opened to seeing that he is God’s Son and is worthy of his love.
But the remarkable thing is that because of all that Jesus made possible through his death and resurrection, when we follow him, God says the same words over us: “You are my child whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Those words become true for each one of us too.
I wonder how your new year has started. There is a tremendous amount of illness around at the moment, something that is always likely to pull us down. And January is traditionally a difficult month for mental health – the anticipation of Christmas is over but the long winter nights are still with us. If you are like me, you may be finding it harder work to move through the gears, a bit like our car over new year, that got to 38 miles an hour on the M6 and then decided that was as fast as it could manage, no matter how much coaxing and talking to it I did, no matter how hard I pressed the accelerator pedal to the floor. (Needless to say we had to abandon our journey and return home via quiet country roads.)
It may be that you too are feeling a little bit low on power, on energy. You are pressing the accelerator but not seeing much response. Well, hear those words of God again: “You are my child whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” We are children who God loves. He delights in us. Take heart in knowing that whatever your situation, no matter how you are feeling, your levels of hope and energy, you are loved by God.
Jesus’ baptism shows us that God understands us, he helps us, and most importantly of all, he loves us. No wonder it was too good a story for any of the gospel writers to miss out. Let us not miss out on this story of God’s love in our lives too.
