January 12, 2014
Matthew 3:13-17
“Baptismal Consent”
Rev. Dr. David A. Davis
Righteousness is such a Matthew word. The term “righteousness”, as here when Jesus says to John the Baptist “it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness”, that is so Matthew. Matthew and righteousness: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (5:6), “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of God” (5:10), “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (6:33), “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him” (21:32). “it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness”.
Righteousness, the word righteousness, it is uniquely Matthew. If I have done my homework correctly, righteousness never even appears in Mark. In Luke, the word only occurs in the Song of Zechariah as John’s father is singing about his son and Jesus. In John’s gospel, Jesus uses the word in his final speech to the disciples; talking to them about sin and judgement and righteousness. So when Matthew’s Jesus tells John that his baptism had to happen in order to fulfill all righteousness, the gospel writer must have had something big in mind.
Matthew’s recorded liturgy of the baptism of Jesus is the only gospel account that includes this dialogue between the two. “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?’ John protests. Jesus answered him, “let it be so now”; permit it now, allow me to be baptized now, let’s do it now…”for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Fulfill all righteousness.
Some translators connect law and righteousness here implying that the baptism of Jesus is necessary to meet and obey and follow the law of God. It is right to do this because of God’s law. Some commentators see the fulfillment of righteousness as a reference to how Jesus, through his life, death, and resurrection, reorients the relationship of God and humanity. Jesus paves the way for all to be righteous before God. His baptism as sort of prototype not just of our baptism but our salvation; as Paul writes in Galatians, “we know that a person is justified not by works of the law but through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ”. The righteousness of Christ. Fulfilling all righteousness in him for us.
But the argument can be made that with this uniqueness of righteousness in Matthew, even more must be going on here, something other going on; Matthew and fulfilling righteousness. Matthew’s bigger picture, it starts to come into view when you ponder those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and when you stop to think about being persecuted for righteousness sake, and when you try to wrap your heart around seeking first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness.
Righteousness in Matthew, it’s not just our righteousness before God, it is a kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven kind of righteousness. The heavens opening and the Spirit descending and the voice announcing; the inbreaking from heaven, it’s like God opening up the sky and pouring righteousness all over the earth. The baptism of Jesus in Matthew is like a groundbreaking in the building of the Old Testament prophet’s peaceable kingdom. It’s like an inaugural event in the coming age of a new heaven and a new earth. John the Baptist hesitates and says to Jesus, “you need to baptize me, and you’re coming to me?” And Jesus says, “let’s do it now and get this party started!”
Every now and then on one of these reality/competition shows like “America;s Got Talent” or “The Voice” or “American Idol”, every now and then there is an occasion where a person sings or plays or performs in such an incredible and unexpected way, that the video goes viral. In those videos the camera always cuts to the crowd reaction as notes of something beautiful are lofting through the venue. The audience is first stunned, then surprised, then they rise to their feet in appreciation and affirmation with the sure sense that they have just witnessed something amazing and the launch of a life-changing career. If you will excuse the comparison, that’s the kind of reaction Matthew seeks from his reader, from the crowds, from the church. To witness the fulfillment of all righteousness in the baptism of Jesus is to experience an earth-shattering, kingdom coming, life changing, turning world upside down, there’s no going back, transformative event that comes with a foretaste of life now and forever as it is created, shaped, and intended by God.
“Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” And according to Matthew, John consented. “Then he consented”, it reads. Some translations say “he said yes” or “he agreed to baptize Jesus” The King James puts it this way, “Then he suffered him”. The Greek verb can go a variety of ways. Eugene Peterson in The Message puts its succinctly, “So John did it.” “He consented” gives the reader so much more.
Back before Christmas and opinion piece in the New York Times was entitled “The Emotional Power of Verbs”. The author argued that writers tend to overlook the importance of what she called “the poetry of verbs”. “Think about action embued with feeling” she wrote, “for your characters in terms of actions that will reveal their interior lives.” She went on to give examples in literature that showed how verbs don’t always need adjectives. Verbs aren’t just about action, they connote emotion too. “The correct action will deepen a character with the same beauty as a description’, she concludes. So, there is a huge difference between “So John did it” and “then he consented”. The lesser verb takes away any reflection about John and his action, his consent. He consented. He gave up trying to prevent what was an inaugural event of the very kingdom of God. And when John consented, there was no going back for him or for the people of God. In the ministry of Christ Jesus, the righteousness of God was on the loose.
When we gather here at the fount for baptism, there are always multiple meanings swirling around the bowl. Baptism would be easier to teach and practice if it only meant one thing: like a washing of sin, or welcome to the household of God, or the coming of the Holy Spirit. But it means each of those things and more. As I was taught back in the day, baptism signifies: incorporation into the Body of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit come down, and participation in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and the now and future forgiveness we experience in Christ. We also teach that baptism is a sign of the kingdom of God. That’s always been the harder one to explain to parents, or to the one being baptized. That every time we gather here, and we pour the water, and we baptize, it is a sign of the kingdom of God.
It’s harder for me to explain because I’m not sure I have ever really understood it. Baptism as a sign of the kingdom of God. But how about this? Every time we gather here, and we pour the water, and we baptize, we are consenting to the movement of God’s righteousness in our lives. We are consenting to work for it in the world. We are acknowledging that there is no going back for us as God’s people. What this is, is a sign of the kingdom. A sign of an earth-shattering, kingdom coming, life changing, turning world upside down, there’s no going back, transformative event that comes with a foretaste of life now and forever as it is created, shaped, and intended by God. A sign that God’s righteousness is on the loose; his baptism, and ours.
A few of us on the staff gather every now and then to talk about preaching. Not too long ago we sat in my office and listened to a few sermons from some well known preachers. Fred Craddock finished his sermon by telling a story of baptism in one of the churches he served as a young pastor. On sundown on Easter evening the congregation would gather out at a lake. After it was dark, and after the candidates had been baptized in the lake, everyone would gather on the shore around a fire. One member of the church would then introduce the baptized as everyone else stood in a circle, standing close to keep warm by the fire. They would be introduce by name, where they lived and where they worked.
As Craddock describes it, the next part of the ritual was that every member of the congregation would then give their name and it went like this…”My name is Ceila, and if you ever need somebody to do washing and ironing, call on me….My name is Raymond, and if you ever need anybody to chop wood, call on me…..my name is Cindy, if you ever need anybody to baby sit, call on me…..my name is Tucker, if you ever need anybody to repair your house, you call on me…..” And it went on and on, all around the circle until everyone finished. Then they ate, Craddock says, and had a square dance.
“After everybody left that night, my first experience of the Easter baptism at the little church on Watts Barr Lake between Chattanooga and Knoxville,” Craddock concludes, “Percy Miller, one of their members, saw me still standing there, still. He looked at me and said, ‘Craddock, folks don’t ever get any closer than this.’ And then the preacher says, “in that community, their name for that kind of ritual is “church”. Or put another way, that scene on the lakeshore all in the name of Christ….a sign of the kingdom.
Righteousness. Righteousness. Let’s do this now in order to fulfill all righteousness, Jesus said. Then John consented.
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