Down South they tell about one old Baptist minister who preached every Sunday on baptism by immersion. His folks agreed with his doctrine, but they were tired of hearing the same subject dealt with every week.
The deacons undertook to solve the problem thru diplomatic means. They complimented him on his pulpit skills and suggested to him that he was such a natural preacher that they wanted to try an experiment. They wanted to hand him a piece of paper with a scripture lesson on it just before he stepped into the pulpit. "We believe that you're so good," they said, "that you can preach a great sermon with no preparation at all--just that slip of paper."
What preacher could resist an approach like that? So, the deacons got busy searching the Scriptures for a text which was totally unrelated to baptism by immersion. They selected the opening verse of Genesis: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." There was absolutely nothing in that text that had anything to do with baptism.
When they handed the text to him, the old preacher read it aloud 3 times. Finally, he turned to the congregation and said, "If I remember geography right, the earth is 1/4 land and 3/4's water. Water brings me to my subject for the day: Baptism by immersion." Broad hints don't work with some people, do they?
Meanwhile, down at the Methodist church, a group of 4th graders were studying infant baptism. Their Sunday School teacher asked, "Why do we use water in baptisms?" One youngster piped up and said, "To make the baby's hair grow."
And over at the Catholic church a little girl watched quietly and intently as the priest baptized her little brother. But when the ceremony reached the pouring of water, the little girl became nervous. She edged up to the baptismal font and whispered, "And wash behind his ears too, Father."
This evening we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, remembering that day long ago when he was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. Jesus was one of a multitude of people from all over who were making their way out to the wilderness to see and hear John. John's message was simple: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near."
Jesus left his home town of Nazareth to travel out into the wilderness to be baptized by John. Jesus was different from all the other people who listened to John's message. Jesus was not baptized because He was caught up in the excitement of John's preaching, nor was He baptized because he needed his sins washed away.
When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan, He identified with us! This is the answer to that puzzling question about why Jesus, who was the Son of God, without sin, would be baptized by John. Clearly, Jesus did not need to have His sins forgiven. Neither was he overwhelmed by John's preaching--as wonderful as John's preaching surely was. John recognized that when he said to Jesus, "I need to be baptized by you..." Jesus, though, wanted to know what it was like to be baptized by John. He wanted to see the same thing that other people saw when they came up out of the water. It's easier for us to identify with someone who has experienced the same things we have. There's a common bond with someone who knows what we feel.
Consider a certain mother named Marie. Marie's only son died at age 17 of a drug overdose. For weeks the young mother was so wrapped in grief that she was unable to function. One day an older woman advised her to give up her constant grieving. "Give your sorrow to the Lord," she said, "and He will give back one hundred fold what you have lost." The 2 women prayed together. The older woman said she would keep Marie in her prayers. Marie got up and began looking for things she could do for others.
She began looking for ways to prevent the same tragedy that she had experienced from happening to other families. Today Marie works in a halfway house for young addicts. On her bulletin board she has close to a hundred snapshots of young men and women who call her Mom. The Lord did restore to her a hundredfold what she had lost. The pain of losing her son is still there, but her life is filled with purpose as she and her older friend continue their ministries.
One reason the Incarnation is so important to us is that we want to believe that God understands what it's like to be human. There on the banks of the Jordan Jesus identified with us.
And when we are baptized, we identify ourselves with Jesus. Something wonderful happens to us when we are baptized. We publicly declare our intention to strive to be like Jesus and follow God's will for our lives. When we are baptized, our lives are changed. We see things differently than before. We see other people differently than before. Our baptism enables and empowers us to do those things that Jesus would want us to do here and now. We are able to identify with Jesus because we too have been baptized. Such identification is life changing.
A teacher named Stanley Hauerwas opens one of his classes by reading a letter from a parent to a government official. The parent complains that his son, who had received the best education, gone to all the right schools, and was headed for a good job as a lawyer, had gotten involved with a weird religious sect. Now members of this sect controlled his every move, told him whom to date and whom not to date, and had taken all of his money. The parent is pleading with the government official to do something about this strange religious group.
"Who is this letter describing?" Professor Hauerwas asked his class. Most of his class thought the letter was describing the Moonies or some other off-the-wall group. Actually, it was a composite document drawn from the letters of 3rd century Roman parents concerning a group called Christians.
When we are baptized, we identify ourselves with Jesus. We give ourselves to him without reservation. In doing so, we are able to love as he loved.
It's like a high school English teacher from Texas that I heard about. A few days before the start of a new school year one of her former students visited her in her classroom. She did not recognize the young man who knelt down beside her to thank her for all she had done for him. "I have a good job, a wonderful wife, and 2 little girls," he told his former teacher proudly. She desperately wanted to remember who he was, but she couldn't. Over the years there had been so many students that she lost track. "I came to tell you that I graduated from high school because of you," he told her. "I knew you loved me when I was your student because you would walk around the room while you lectured, and you would stop at my desk and put your hand on my shoulder."
This teacher made a world of difference in the life of this young man. "When you returned my papers and they weren't very good," he told her, "you always wrote something encouraging." This young man's high school years were very difficult. His father had shot and killed his mother in a drunken argument. "The other teachers acted as if they despised me," he said, "but you kept on treating me as if I was somebody. I wanted to thank you for loving me. It's made all the difference in my life."
The teacher hadn't even known that this tragedy had happened to this young man. She had simply loved all of her students. When we are baptized, we align ourselves with Jesus, loving other people as Jesus loves us.
Finally, when we identify with Jesus, we identify with a sick and dying world. Jesus' baptism in the Jordan River marked the beginning of his earthly ministry. Our baptism is our starting point as well.
Agatha Burgess lives in the small mill town of Buffalo, South Carolina. She gets up every morning to cook at 5 o'clock. 80-year-old Agatha has been doing this 5 days a week for 15 years. She gets up and cooks food for Meals on Wheels, which is picked up by volunteers at 11:00 a.m. By noon another group of people come, mill workers and judges and truck drivers, and the guy who runs the Ford agency. Agatha feeds anyone who comes to the door, and she makes them feel welcome. She encourages them to fill their plates and go back for seconds. For all this, they pay $2.75. She knows that's too much for some people, and she doesn't ask them for anything. When asked why she does what she does, Agatha replied, "I love it." She always wanted "to be a person that lived by the side of the road, and be a friend to man." She was asked why she didn't stop and rest. "Wouldn't have anything to live for," she replied. "Because these people coming everyday, they mean so much to me."
Agatha Burgess has the love of Jesus in her heart. When we identify with him, we also identify with the needs of those around us.
Listen to the witness of a young girl. "I was walking home the other afternoon," Ginny said, "and there was a lady I'd never met before not far from our house. She was old, with white hair, and I went to her and asked her what's the trouble, because she was talking to herself." She didn't hear Ginny at first, so she asked again, "Can I help you?" The woman responded: "Oh, little girl, if you could that would be wonderful."
Ginny was offended at being called a "little girl," but decided to help the woman anyway. The woman was searching for her daughter's house and somehow had gotten lost. "But she'd taken a wrong turn," Ginny said. "I was going to tell her where she'd gone wrong, and I started to, but she couldn't get what I was telling her."
Ginny debated what to do. Should she help this woman or should she go home to do her chores? The girl decided to help the older woman find her daughter's home.
As they were walking thru the neighborhood, the girl began talking with the elderly woman. "I told her about the stores and the shortcuts, and I told her where the phones are. I asked her where she lived, and pretty soon she was telling me everything." They soon discovered they had much in common. Their lives connected. "We got to be pretty good friends by the time we were there, where her daughter lives, and her grandchildren."
The older woman was tired and out of breath when they finally found their destination. She thanked the girl for helping her. "She said thank you so many times I thought she'd never stop!" Ginny said. "She grabbed my arm, and she said God sent me to her, and she'd pray to Him later, before she went to sleep, to thank Him for me." At first Ginny wasn't sure the woman was serious. "But I looked at her, and she had tears in her eyes, so I knew she was."
Walking, the girl gained a new insight. "Maybe God puts you here," she says, "and He gives you these hints of what's ahead, and you should pay attention to them, because that's Him speaking to you."
That's good advice for us as we celebrate the baptism of Jesus this day. Why was he baptized? To identify with you and me. Why are we baptized? To identify ourselves with him. What happens when we identify with him? We find ourselves identifying with the world for which he died.
