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First Sunday After Epiphany “It is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness. In this way. John the Baptist has a problem in today’s Gospel. Here at the end of the third chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, John the Baptist is in peril of looking like a fool. He is in peril of looking like a fool ironically because he is confronted by the very person who fulfills that which he has been prophesying: Jesus Christ. This isn’t readily obvious in what we’ve just heard, but rewind to five weeks ago, when we heard the preceding portion of chapter three read. You might recall the second Sunday of Advent – about two weeks before Christmas – and John the Baptist’s distinctly un-Christmasey prophecies. “You brood of vipers!” he said to the Saducees, warning that the Christ was coming. And he continued that if they thought he (viz. John) bore them bad news, they were really going to be in for it when the messiah came. He went on to say a lot of stuff about chopping and burning, plenty of fire in that passage. And the guy who was going to do all this was Christ himself. However, as we just heard, when Jesus the Messiah, the Christ did show up, apparently without a word, he simply presented himself for baptism. No fire, no condemnation, no marshalling of forces, nor rallying of the faithful. All he did was to present himself for baptism.
This,
of course is John’s problem. He
did his job and he did it well. He
prepared the way of the Lord; he got But all Jesus wanted to do was be baptized. “No, no, no, it doesn’t work like that. See, Jesus, all you have to do is make a decent acceptance speech. It doesn’t even have to be real good, just OK, and you’ll be the man to beat.” And Jesus’ response? His big acceptance speech? “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus doesn’t deliver the goods the way John had anticipated. He doesn’t step into the place that John had prepared for him. Instead, Jesus steps into the place of those whom he would save: the lowly, the sinners, the humble who have the grace to ask for and receive God’s mercy; Jesus submits to the baptism of John. As it turns out, the reversal of fortune that God would effect for his faithful people would be so complete as to seem backwards, even to those who yearned for it most. The Messiah would not arise and beat the wicked and proud at their own game, identifying himself as one who is great among men. Rather he would submit – submit to his Father’s will by submitting to the cruelty of the vain and proud, allowing them to defeat themselves, and then arising. You see, the “way to fulfill all righteousness” that Jesus told John about is the way of the Cross. And we read that once Jesus has been baptized into that way he receives affirmation not from the cheers of a crowd for its newly selected candidate, but from the very voice of God. “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Thus John, at the very moment of his humiliation, is vindicated by both the Messiah and the Almighty. It’s a good thing he had the grace to follow Jesus’ lead.
In a few moments, four children will be brought forward to follow
Jesus into the waters of baptism. Then
the Holy Spirit will make of them something that they are not now:
followers in the Way, the way of righteousness, the way of the Cross.
In obedience to the Father’s will, in discipleship of the Son, by
the power of the Holy Spirit, they will become Christians.
Let us understand that they are being baptized into a death that
conquers evil. Let us also understand that that same baptism is baptism
into a life that conquers death. Amen.
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