Baptism of Jesus

Jesus is coming ! But from the perspective of first century BC Messianic expectation everything is topsy-turvy from the start. A herald, the forerunner surely should present an image, a taste of the great person they represent, for whom they are an initial ambassador. The first intimation of the coming of the Queen of Sheba should be overwhelming in magnificence. I was living in Paris and had friends in the American embassy when President Bill Clinton came for a visit : There were Jumbo jets full of staff, security organisers of all sorts that flew in before the big day not to mention the final entourage, again of several plane loads, that accompanied him. 

Jesus is coming! As he begins his public ministry he is announced  by a vagrant from the wilderness, clothed with animal skin, tied crudely around the middle who eats locusts and wild honey snatching what he could from the bushes around him. Unimposing in the extreme yet with a charisma that attracts crowds to him on the banks of the Jordan. 

In St. In John's Gospel account of John the Baptist he says: “Among you is the one whom you do not know, the one who is coming after me.” I find this interesting for that phrase “among you.” For again this is topsy-turvy, the Messiah is not coming in a chariot in clouds of glory from above but is there, very ordinarily, having come up from Nazareth, the son of a carpenter yet John says : “I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.” 

Baptism in first century Judaism was about purifying the body. The Jewish people immersed themselves to remove ritual purity.  Ritual purity is external, affecting the body alone and is temporal rather than permanent. It may for example stem from touching a human corpse or the carcases of certain animals or indeed from certain normal bodily functions. Most Jews were ritually impure most of the time and this did not impede daily life in any way. Only in connection with the sacred did it become significant: A second Temple Jew could not enter the temple precincts in an impure condition.  Ritual immersion though would allow you to become ritually pure again. Knowing this we can appreciate the importance and novelty of John the Baptist’s ministry by the riverside. John’s ritual immersion was a means for becoming morally pure - you were to repent of your sins before being baptised, or in other words this is about inner disposition. There has to be a change, a turning back from previous wickedness and a resetting and regretting of lives lived. Furthermore he announces that following him is Jesus. Jesus’ baptism is not to do with the body; “I have baptised you with water but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.” Baptism with the Holy Spirit will be permanent, not temporary outer cleansing, but lifelong inner transformation.

Jesus' baptism will be of the inside - so from the very beginning we can see and are told that Jesus’ coming will be topsy turvy, inside out and totally surprising.”

Amen