Sentence: I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me ... He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Matthew 3:11)
Collect: Bosco Peter's Book of Prayers in Common March 2025
Everliving God,
you have given us your only-begotten Word
to take on our nature,
and revealed him to us
at his baptism in the River Jordan;
grant that we, who have been born again of water and the Holy Spirit,
and made your children by adoption and grace,
may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit;
through Jesus Christ,
who is alive with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Isaiah 42:1-9
Psalm 29
Acts 10:34-43
Matthew 3:13-17
Commentary:
Isaiah 42:1-9
This is the first of four passages in Isaiah with similarities which have led to scholars naming them the 'servant songs'. The others are 49:1-6; 50:4-11; and, best known, 52:13-53:12. Naturally we ask who the servant is.
For the first hearers/readers of Isaiah it is likely (and reasonable) that the servant would have been understood as Israel itself. Israel the servant thus has important purposes in the great plan of God for the world, with a special role as agent of justice and bearer of light for the world (v.3, 6 respectively) and a way which involves suffering (notably in the fourth song, 52:13-53:12).
For Christians, and especially because of the way 52:13-53:12 dovetails into the passion narrative of the last days and hours of Jesus' life, the servant is Jesus Christ.
In this first song we see features of Jesus' mission foreseen (and later noted by Matthew or Luke). In particular and relevant to today's gospel reading, Matthew 3:17 works in elements of Isaiah 42:1 into the divine approval of Jesus as the Beloved Son at his baptism.
Psalm 29
In this psalm attention is paid to 'the voice of the Lord' (verses 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9). When we read in v. 3 about the voice of the Lord being over 'the waters' we readily understand the link between this psalm and the baptism of Jesus.
Why attend to the voice of the Lord as the psalmist does? One reason goes back to the story of creation in Genesis 1: when the Lord spoke, things came into being. At the command of the Lord the world begins. Here the same voice continues to rule creation. Likely the 'voice' is understood as being expressed through the howling winds of storms which break cedars, shake the desert and twist oaks. In a thunderstorm it seems that the 'the Lord thunders over the mighty waters' (v. 3).
Acts 10:34-43
Peter preaches to Cornelius and the crowd gathered with him. In these nine verses he offers a summary of the gospel narrative of Jesus' ministry. Though it does not refer directly to the baptism of Jesus, Peter's summary does refer 'how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power' (v. 38).
If this were our only gospel narrative we would be well justified in thinking of Jesus as a human being especially endowed by God with the Holy Spirit but not as the divine Son of God. Our belief in Jesus as the Son of God rests on the cumulative testimony of the four gospels, as well as Acts and the epistles.
Why might Luke not pay more attention to Jesus' divinity in such a summary? One response could be that Luke does not completely downplay it! To refer to Jesus as 'Lord of all' in 10:36 is a very significant statement. For Peter subsequently to order that the new believers be 'baptized in the name of Jesus Christ' (10:48) raises the question whether a 'mere mortal' could be in a position in which his name was invoked for such a life-changing event as baptism.
Another response is that Acts is a theological narrative about the Holy Spirit (as well as about the early Christian movement). By referring to Jesus as one anointed with the 'Holy Spirit and with power,' Luke's report of Peter's sermon invites his readers a few verses further on to recognize that one and same Holy Spirit at work in Jesus falls upon Cornelius and the new believers with him. What readers are invited to consider at this point is not what Luke thinks about the status of Jesus (i.e. Luke's christology) but what God is up to by endowing believers in Jesus with the same Holy Spirit which was at work in Jesus.
Matthew 3:13-17
Since the Epiphany a week ago, Jesus has grown rapidly into an adult!
The silence over those growing years suggests that whatever 'internal development' may have been happening in Jesus' life, nothing happened which Matthew thinks we need to know. What is now told about Jesus' life is presumably important and to be noted by all disciples of Jesus.
John has been baptising people (3:1-12) and this seems to have been some kind of renewal mission: Israel was called by John to a re-commitment to live a holy life and baptism was the ceremony which symbolised the forgiveness of past failure and the beginning of a renewed holiness. Simultaneously John has also preached the coming of a greater missioner than himself (3:11-12), one who will bring the kingdom of heaven (3:1-2).
Now that missioner comes and John, understandably, thinks that if baptism is a ceremony marking this new stage in the unfolding of God's plan, then he should be baptised by Jesus. Unexpectedly Jesus wants things to be different: he will be baptised by John. Not the other way around. Why?
Jesus enigmatically says, 'it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness' (v. 15). What is going on here? One thing is that Jesus identifies with his fellow Jew. As far as baptism for the forgiveness of sins is concerned, Jesus has no need. He was righteous. But as far as being a true Israelite, committed to holy living in God's name, Jesus sets himself to identify with his fellow citizens. He will be baptized as a symbol of his commitment to living a righteous life.
Another thing is that Jesus has come not to abolish the law but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17) and to live a life whose 'righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees' (5:20). Jesus will submit to baptism as a sign of his commitment to righteous living. Even if this did not identify with fellow Israelites (e.g. they did not get baptized), Jesus would do this, would do anything to demonstrate his zeal for the Lord's will.
Nevertheless, the statement in v. 15 remains enigmatic. How, for instance, does baptism at the hands of John 'fulfill all righteousness'? It was not a requirement of the law.
The reading concludes not with Israel celebrating Jesus' commitment to righteousness but with God expressing his pleasure. The Spirit of God descends on Jesus and the divine voice (recalling Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1; also anticipating the Transfiguration, Matthew 17:5) says, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.'
Here, at the beginning of Jesus' mission and ministry, we meet Jesus as the Son of God. The infant worshipped by the sages in Matthew 2 has always been the Beloved Son but now this status is declared in the public event of baptism.
Nevertheless, the statement in v. 15 remains enigmatic. How, for instance, does baptism at the hands of John 'fulfill all righteousness'? It was not a requirement of the law.
The reading concludes not with Israel celebrating Jesus' commitment to righteousness but with God expressing his pleasure. The Spirit of God descends on Jesus and the divine voice (recalling Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1; also anticipating the Transfiguration, Matthew 17:5) says, 'This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.'
Here, at the beginning of Jesus' mission and ministry, we meet Jesus as the Son of God. The infant worshipped by the sages in Matthew 2 has always been the Beloved Son but now this status is declared in the public event of baptism.
A final note: we include the story of the Baptism of the Lord in the season of Epiphany = Manifestation / Revelation / Appearance because at Jesus' baptism a manifestation takes place (the coming down of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove) and a revelation is given (the divine voice's approval of Jesus as the Beloved Son).
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