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Sermon Archive - January 10, 1999
Pastor Gazzolo
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Matthew 3: 13-17
John's fame was growing throughout the land. Crowds followed him into the wilderness
to hear his call to repentance, hear him preach judgment. People unhappy with their lot
welcomed the hope that God would soon intervene in their difficult circumstances. John's
message was unsettling to the establishment of his time, hopeful to the oppressed and
poor.
There is no way of knowing how Jesus knew John...or John Jesus. Tradition tells us that
John was Jesus' cousin, and there has also been speculation that Jesus may have
been one of John the Baptist's followers. Little is known.
But today's Gospel tells us that Jesus came from Galilee to be baptized by
John for the
remission of sins and to fulfill all righteousness. He had laid his tools
aside to tend his
eternal soul.
John's response is now familiar to us, but at the time it must have been
shocking to
everyone who heard it. Was it really the fiery prophet saying that he wasn't
good enough
to baptize Jesus the carpenter from Nazareth, much less tie the thong on his
sandal? Was
it really the fiery John? Who was Jesus after all? There is no record of his
public ministry
any time before this baptismal event. Indeed it seems that Jesus baptism
ordained his
ministry. What then did the prophetic John see in Jesus that he said he was
not fit to
baptize him?
We'll never know.
As far as we can say, because there is no record to the contrary, Jesus was
living in
Nazareth, probably working with family in the carpentry shop. And to continue
with my
speculation, Jesus' work in the carpentry shop did not mean that there wasn't
a
transforming process going on within him...that there wasn't a gradual
awakening to
God's call.
All we can really do is speculate about the blank spaces in the record of
Jesus' life, but it
seems altogether possible to me that as Jesus grew up, helping out his family
as a good
son would do, walking the roads of Galilee, he was becoming more and more
aware that
God had a plan for his life, until at the age of 30, not so young in those
days, Jesus could
no longer doubt God's call.
I wish there were some record, some historically responsible record of Jesus
before this.
It's fair to ask why at the age of 30 Jesus hadn't married, established a
household of his
own. When did Jesus begin to sense a difference in himself, see that his
aspirations were
unlike those of his peers or his brothers.
Scriptures do give us the wonderful story of Jesus at his Bar Mitzvah in the
temple..how
he stayed after to debate theology with the elders there. This much beloved
tale tells us
that even at the age of l2 Jesus was theologically precocious, that he had a
sense of
needing to know the ways of God whom he called Father. We all remember the
boy
telling his family, "I must be about my father's business."
So there is this scriptural account of Jesus life between Bethlehem and the
Jordan, but it's
not much to go on. But then why would historians be taking note of the life
of a peasant
boy in a Galilean village?
And so we speculate...what did John know about him that he should respond as
he did to
Jesus' request for baptism? What did John know...what did John see? Why did
it take so
long for Jesus to emerge from the carpenter's shop in the first place if he
had to be about
his father's business at the age of l2? What was going on in him until he
began his public
ministry at the age of 30?
All I can say is God's time is God's time, and when Jesus put down his hammer
and saw,
he was keeping God's time, not ours. And God was waiting for him there by
the Jordan
to ordain his public ministry. Somehow John recognized the singularity of the
moment.
"I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" John answered Jesus.
John's
response was in perfect accord with the discomfort the early church felt at
Jesus request to
be cleansed from sin by baptism. The early church wanted to believe that
Jesus was
without sin from the beginning.
Was this indeed the reality? How then do we call Jesus human as well as
divine? How
could Jesus truly share the human experience if he didn't have to struggle
with temptation
and sin as we do? Certainly the scriptural account that follows his baptism
is the story of
the Devil tempting Jesus in the wilderness. So we know that Jesus was subject
to
powerful temptations and had the wisdom and strength to withstand. Clearly
Jesus shared
our experience of being tempted, but drew on God's help to withstand.
Yes, the early church objected to this baptismal story that suggested Jesus
felt the need to
be cleansed from sin. But for whatever reason, symbolic or actual, Jesus felt
the need to
be publically cleansed of sin by baptism..he called it fulfilling all
righteousness...making
himself right with God.
Jesus refused to baptize John...one-upping John the Baptist in this setting
was not what
Jesus was about. He was after righteousness, not self righteousness...a huge
difference.
What is so clear here in Jesus character, in this transaction..was his
humility, his
obedience. This was the Spirit that took Jesus to the shore of the
Jordan..the spirit of
humility and obedience. And it was with the eyes of humility and obedience
that Jesus
saw the Spirit of God alighting on him...blessing him...
"This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
the voice from heaven said.
Some scriptural accounts make this ordaining moment by God's spirit a public
affair...something the crowds gathered around John that day witnessed. This
scriptural
account from Matthew seems to make it private, something Jesus alone
experienced, and
no one else..."suddenly the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit
of God
descending like a dove and alighting on him." Matthew's account of the
Spirit's descent
makes it a private experience.
But public or private, the experience of God's singular blessing confirmed in
Jesus heart
his call to ministry in God's name...affirmed his hope to be made right with
God. In
God's time Jesus was entering on his brief and transforming public ministry.
An experience of God in our lives is an amazing transforming event. For Jesus
of
Nazareth it was a singular blessing..a blessing that set him aside from others
in unique and
loving relationship to God. This moment had not been planned either by John
the Baptist
nor by Jesus. Such moments are never planned. Such moments are always grace
unsolicited, and wonderfully enough, grace that simply and elegantly hits the
mark..uniquely and remarkably addressing one's essential need, one's unspoken
longing or
hidden weakness. That's how these moments usually are.
Jesus did not put down his tools to have a numinous encounter with God. He
simply
sought in all humility, in all obedience, to be made right with God. And the
descent of the
Spirit and blessing followed.
Life's experience and a spiritual longing readied Jesus for this blessing.
Life's experience
and a spiritual longing ready us for blessing. Unfortunately it is often
adversity that
readies us to encounter God on a deeper level. Traversing hell to encounter
heaven. But
such blessing is always in God's time, not ours.
We go about out lives as the mustard seed of faith planted in our hearts is
germinating...planted perhaps at our own baptism as infants, nurtured by
Christian rearing,
pruned by adversity. If we but tend it, it grows...this mustard seed of faith
and takes us to
blessing..in God's time.
It was growing in Jesus as he went about his quite ordinary life in Galilee.
It was growing
because his faithful parents nurtured it by word and example. It was growing
because of
Jesus own deepening spiritual longing, his exceptional spiritual awareness.
And when he
was ready...indeed in God's time which is always the right time..Jesus came
from Galilee
to be made right with God.
Because of his baptismal blessing, Jesus would enter the wilderness for his
encounter with
Satan and know he was not alone...he would enter his years of ministry and
know he was
not alone.
Nor do we need to be alone. With growing humility and obedience to the will
of God in
our lives, we make space in our lives forGod to make himself known. Grant us,
Lord, the
wisdom to make space for your blessing in our lives.
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