Baptism of Christ Mark 1:4-11 Acts 19:1-7

John the Baptizer, or more commonly known as John the Baptist, did not create a great stir in the realms of fashion: clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, he was most suitably dressed, probably, for baptising people in the river Jordan, where he performed his very specific ministry of being a herald to the Messiah, Jesus. He knew the nature of his task very well, and proclaimed it without reluctance: ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptised you with water; but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’ He was not only accurate in his choice of words; he was also very timely, because Jesus appeared ‘in those days’, as it says in Mark’s Gospel, coming from Nazareth to be baptised by John. The renewal movement had already begun before him, and Jesus was baptised into it, ‘to fulfil all righteousness’, as Jesus says in Matthew chapter 3. Now the baptism of John was one of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. To repent means to ‘turn around’, indicating a change of direction in people’s lives. That is what John was proclaiming and many came to him to be baptised, realising they needed it. This was not exactly why Jesus was baptised. His baptism, with the Holy Spirit, had a different reason and function. That is what John knew and saw and what is recorded in all four Gospels. For just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, the heavens opened and the Spirit, descending like a dove, rested on him. And a voice came from heaven, saying, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’

God’s voice is heard in the Bible in several instances, mostly at crucial moments, and this was also an important sign, for Jesus himself, but also for the people who witnessed the event. When the Spirit breaks through, Jesus is empowered as the anointed king and affirmed as the Son of God. And it was a crucial moment, because ‘immediately after, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness, where he was tempted by Satan’. As it says, he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him. No mean feat! Jesus’ time of trial and testing is not unusual for a prophet, such as happened to Elijah, for instance. But here it is clear that it is a battle with Satan that had already begun and now is becoming even more focussed. The journey that Jesus has begun is now fixed and his feet are moving ever closer in the direction of the cross. His baptism is not for him alone, but it has significance for the whole world. And there is more.

In Acts 19, the Apostle Paul is passing through the interior regions and comes to Ephesus, where he finds some disciples. He notices a difference: these disciples were baptised into John’s baptism, with the baptism of repentance, but not with the Holy Spirit. When Paul explained that there was something missing for them, namely the connection with Jesus himself, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit came upon them. It was not as if their first baptism was wrong; it was just that the fullness of life that God has promised and made available through Jesus had not reached them yet. What Jesus has come to do for us in his ministry of reconciliation and redemption is to give us that full life with him, always, in the power of the Holy Spirit. So that we too may hear those words of God himself: ‘This is my child, beloved and cherished.’ May we all be reminded that we are now God’s children, through his Son, Jesus the Christ. Amen.