Homily for 13 Jan 2019

13 Jan 2019

Baptism of the Lord

For as long as we can each remember, we’ve understood baptism as “necessary for salvation.”  It takes away the stain of original sin, it makes us a member of the Church, and it makes us justified in the sight of God.  And so, for sinful humanity, baptism is of the greatest importance.

But then we get to this feast day today, and our understanding of baptism seems to fall apart.  If baptism is for forgiveness of sins and reunion with God and his Church, then why did Jesus insist on being baptized?  Jesus isn’t a sinner.  And he’s the Son of God; he’s never not been in union with the Father. 

According to our understanding of baptism, Jesus doesn’t need it.  Our reaction is just the same as John the Baptist’s.  But, as usual with our God, there’s more going on here in this scene by the Jordan River.  And so, as Jesus says, we’re just going to “go with it for now.”  Jesus wanted to be baptized.

This feast of the Baptism of the Lord brings our Christmas season to a close.  We celebrated the Incarnation; God coming among us in human flesh and blood.  We celebrated God living up to his name: “Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.”  And then we celebrated the Holy Family; God coming into the home of Mary and Joseph, and into our homes as well, making them places of hope and peace. 

Last week we celebrated the coming of the Magi; God revealing himself not only to the shepherds and the Jewish people, but also to wisemen and the rest of the world, too.  We’ve celebrated “God with us;” God coming among us, sharing in our lives, raising us up in faith, hope, and love.  But there was one last part of human life God wanted to immerse himself into.  And that was sin.

If God was to be truly “with us and among us,” then he couldn’t avoid exposing himself to sin, which is so prevalent in our human existence.  And that’s why Jesus insisted on being baptized.  He insisted on taking human sinfulness upon himself.

There was John the Baptist at the Jordan River, baptizing people from “all Judea and Jerusalem.”  There was a massive gathering of sinners; a massive gathering of people who wanted to say yes again to God.  And Jesus was among them—not because he was a sinner, but because he wanted to share the life of sinners.  And what do sinners do?  They get baptized and turn to God.

So Jesus got baptized.  He said yes to God—as he’s done since before the beginning of time, and the skies opened and the Father spoke to him.  Communion with God, communication with God happens when we say yes to him.  So, in that respect, Jesus’ baptism wasn’t all that different from anybody else’s.  Baptism in faith opens up life with God.

But with respect to sin and the taking away of sin, Jesus’ baptism was very different than ours.  In fact, his baptism was like a “reverse baptism.”  When we get baptized, sins are washed away; we’re made clean.  But when Jesus got baptized, he was drenched in…sin.  Imagine taking a shower, but instead of clean, clear water coming out of the showerhead, dirty water comes out; dirty, smelly water that doesn’t wash off, but that just sort of sticks to you.  That was Jesus’ baptism.

God wanted to be “Emmanuel, God with us.”  And so he took on not only our flesh and blood, and family life, and the experiences of cultures both Jewish and other, he also took on sin.  That didn’t make him a sinner.  But it made him feel the weight, the annoyance, and the frustration of sin.  With the Baptism of the Lord, Christmas becomes complete.  God coming among us to share our human life became complete.

But Jesus didn’t do that just so he could suffer with us.  He did it to “save us,” and to show God’s love for us.  As Saint John says, “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us [first] and sent his Son to be expiation for our sins” [1 John 4:10].  God loves us by becoming one of us—even to the point of his Son taking on the weight of sin, and even to the point of having those sins nailed to the cross in his own body.  The Baptism of the Lord and the crucifixion are two sides of the same coin—the coin of salvation.

It’s like taking a piece of paper, writing your sins on it, and then burning that paper up.  Jesus is like the piece of paper.  His baptism is like the writing of sins on the paper.  And his death and burial are like the paper being burned up.  That’s what it means when we call Jesus the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”  He takes them away by taking them upon himself in baptism, and then letting himself be sacrificed so that sin dies with him.

Among other things, we celebrate on this feast day—from one perspective, anyway—the beginnings of the Passion of Christ; when he let the dirty water of sin wash over him and cling to him.  It’s no wonder then why Jesus was thrust into the desert right after his baptism to be tested and tempted.  Sin does that; it tests us and tempts us. 

And this would all be very sad, except we know that Jesus willingly chose to be baptized with sin.  And he willingly came among us (and still comes among us), like he walked among the sinners and the lepers all those centuries ago.  And he does that to say to us, “I am the Way…all those sins that bother you…give them to me; I am stronger than sin.”    

Not to sound overly dramatic, but Jesus is a hero to us.  He is our Savior—if we let him be that for us.  And we let him be our Savior by dumping all our sins on him.  Now, that doesn’t sound very nice or holy, but that’s what he desires.  And we “dump” our sins on him in many ways: in prayer—not with fancy language, but with just straight-forward honest language from the heart; in the confessional with the help of a priest we trust; in a journal, in a diary; with tears; in our books of intentions; on a piece of paper that you can burn up…

There are many ways we can “baptize” Jesus with our sins.  We just have to resist the temptation not to do that.  Jesus doesn’t want to be clean.  If he did, he wouldn’t have been hanging around the Jordan River with a bunch of sinners. 

Jesus wants us to be clean; he wants us to be free today and forever.  And so, he says in so many words, “Baptized me with your sins.  Give them to me; I am stronger than sin.  And I will take them for you and with you to the place where sins die—at the Cross.”