Baptism of the Lord | Epiphany 1 | Ordinary Time 1, Cycle B

With these texts we return to the Gospel According to Mark. In the Baptism of Jesus account in Mark 1:4-11 we have the core of what has often been called the “Adoptionist Christology” of this First Gospel. We read here that Jesus came along with multitudes of people from the rural areas of Judea and from the city of Jerusalem and was baptized by John with John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. At this point, Jesus was a human being like the others who came.

According to this text, as Jesus was being baptized, Jesus saw the heavens opened and the Spirit of God coming down as a dove upon him, and heard a voice from heaven saying, “You are my Son, my Beloved Son. In you I am pleased!” With these words, the text portrays God as “adopting” Jesus as God’s Son, and Jesus is no longer merely a human being. Because of the embarrassment that Jesus’ having been baptized by John in a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins caused followers of Jesus after the time of the writing of the Gospel According to Mark, there can be little doubt about the historicity of Jesus’ having been baptized by John. It is not surprising, therefore, that the biblical and post-biblical accounts that depict Jesus being baptized by John include a great variety of theological interpretations, some of which are apparent already in the Mark 1:9-11 story.

The “voice from heaven” implies a very special divine revelation, a divine-human encounter in which Jesus was “anointed” as God’s Son with royal power. The descent of the Spirit of God in a manner comparable to the descent of a dove enhances the divine-human encounter. God simply employs a physical means (a dove) to give more objectivity to the descent of the Spirit in this story. As the tradition continued to develop after the composition of this Mark 1:9-11 story, and as the perceptions of the humanity of the Jesus of history receded in order to give way to increasing emphasis on the deity of the Christ of faith, the accounts about Jesus being baptized by John came to be perceived by many — including many within the congregations in which we serve — not as divine-human encounters but as divine-divine encounters, and the creative adoptionistic Christology of the Gospel According to Mark was obscured.

We should praise God for the life of the Jesus of history. We should praise God that the Jesus of history was baptized by John. We should praise God for the biblical and for the post-biblical accounts that provide revealing insights into the theological interpretations given to the event of Jesus being baptized as a human being with a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. That the Jesus of history was baptized by John is gospel for us. It unites us with the Jesus of history on a human-human level. It places the Jesus of history firmly with us on the human level.

Of course, we are not baptized as Jesus had been with a John the Baptizer baptism. Instead, we are baptized with a Christian Baptism in the name of God as Father, in the name of God as Son, and in the name of God as Holy Spirit. That makes our Christian Baptism a divine-human encounter and not a human-human encounter. The Jesus of history was not and could not have been baptized in a “Christian” Baptism, since at that time there was not yet a Christian Baptism. We cannot be baptized as the Jesus of history was baptized in a John the Baptizer baptism for the forgiveness of our sins, since there is no longer a John the Baptizer baptism. This Mark 1:4-11 account is very important, therefore, to us within our Christian tradition in that it links us to the Jesus of history, and, via our experience of Christian Baptism, we are linked to the Christ of faith in the context of God, who for us is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Let us recapitulate as well as we can the theological process. The Jesus of history was baptized by John. That is a historically verifiable event. During an extensive process of God-inspired theological reflection over this event and its significance, many layers of theological interpretation were given in story form, some of which became sacred Scripture for us. That theological reflection has continued for many centuries and continues today as we consider the significance of all of this to our own lives. Therefore, we perceive the Jesus of history as the Christ of our faith, as our Risen Lord, as our Savior who is one with God perceived as Father and as one with God perceived as Holy Spirit. We ourselves are baptized and we baptize others in Christian Baptism in the name of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Certainly it is important and appropriate to have Christian Baptisms on this day in which we reflect upon THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD. It is also important and appropriate on this occasion to commemorate our Baptism and the Baptisms of all of the members of the congregations in which we serve. Thus we are tied more closely to Jesus and to Jesus as the Christ, the primary founder of our religion.

As we in our own time and in our own way continue the ongoing process of God-inspired theological reflection upon the event of Jesus’ having been baptized by John, the other texts selected for this day provide additional support. Acts 19:1-7 adds the Lukan emphasis on receiving the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, and prophesying after being baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Acts 19:1-7 also incorporates followers of John the Baptizer into the fellowship of followers of Jesus with a Lukan story about a baptism that supersedes John’s baptism. In a somewhat similar manner, the so-called “Baptism of the Holy Spirit” with its concomitant gifts is a significant experience for some Christians in our time. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit account in Acts 19:1-7 is a fulfillment by the Lukan writer of the expectation expressed in Mark 1:8 and in its Synoptic parallels that Jesus would provide that kind of baptism for his followers.

The voice from heaven in the baptism of Jesus accounts near the beginning of each of the Synoptic Gospels reminds us of the voice of God ordering and arranging the cosmos in the Genesis 1:1–2:4a creation account. Also, the portrayal of the Spirit of God hovering over the waters in Genesis 1:1-5 is connected to the Spirit of God coming down like a dove in Mark 1:10. Another connection between Mark 1:4-11 and Genesis 1:1-5 is that just as it is written in Genesis 1 that God saw what God had done and it was good, God is presented in Mark 1:11 as being well pleased with Jesus, God’s Beloved Son.

In the conclusion of the Psalm 29 hymn to the Lord of the storm, the Lord is said to be enthroned over the flood as king forever. The Lord is then called upon to give strength and power to the people of the Lord. For us as Christians, that strength and that power are perceived as gifts of God received in our Baptism.