Last Sunday's Thought: the Baptism of Christ

‘Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness” (that is to say, to perform completely whatever is right). Then John consented.’ (Matthew 3:13-15). 


The big question is why it was considered necessary that Jesus should undergo John the Baptist’s baptism in the river Jordan. Had he, who was without sin, a need for the forgiveness of sins? Obviously not. A number of other suggestions have been made, some more compelling than others.

1. Jesus’ baptism was an example to us of what we should do.

2. Jesus’ baptism is a pledge of our own adoption into the family of God.

3. His baptism was a confirmation that he was the One sent from heaven.

4. His baptism showed His dependence on God, just as we should be dependent on Jesus.

5. His baptism validated John the Baptist’s ministry and vice versa.

6. Though himself without sin, through his baptism He identified Himself with sinners.

7. His baptism indicated the beginning of His public earthly ministry which ended with His baptism on the cross.

8. His baptism ‘fulfilled all righteousness’: he did that which was expected of him so that his sonship might be acknowledged by God. 


The Trinity is revealed through the act of baptism. The Father makes his presence known by declaring his approbation of his Son; being invisible, only his voice is heard from heaven. The Spirit is made known as he descends upon Jesus for the purpose of enduing him with special power at the beginning of his public ministry. The Son is present in human flesh. The baptism is a crucial point in Christ’s ministry. He is inaugurated as the Messiah, the bringer of God’s salvation, the fulfiller of all prophetic utterances. He calls us to follow his example: ‘For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps.’

Last Sunday's thought: The Naming of Jesus and the beginning of his Ministry

‘After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb’ (Luke 2:21).

The covenant of circumcision is recorded in Genesis 17 and Leviticus 12, and is stated to be when a boy is eight days old (unless there are medical reasons for a postponement). Circumcision is viewed as a symbol of the total obedience to God’s will and the distinguishing mark of a male Jew. It is during the act of circumcision itself that the child is given his Hebrew name. Now this naming process is close to infant baptism, at which the child receives his or her ‘Christian’ names. (There can be no true ‘Christian’ names without infant baptism: the first name(s) remain simply forenames.) The difference is that the child is washed clean of sin through immersion or the pouring out of water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The purpose of the two ceremonies is therefore profoundly different. Circumcision is a ritual to create or confirm a member of the Jewish people who has already been born of a Jewish mother. Baptism is a rebirth into a new life as a Christian with the possibilities of spiritual growth this offers. Whereas the temple is the focus for the circumcision, the river Jordan is central to the story of Jesus’ baptism. Joshua led the people of Israel across the Jordan to the Promised Land.  The baptism of Jesus, the Word of God made flesh, leads the way through death (the Cross) to bring his people to the promised land, the Kingdom of God which he preaches is near to hand. Jesus doesn’t need to be baptized for his own benefit (as John the Baptist himself points out). But his baptism shows us that Jesus is a new Joshua (both names are from the Hebrew Yehoshua, ‘God is salvation’ or ‘God saves’) who is not merely a man, but also the Word of God who leads and protects his followers as they pass through death into the new promised land, the Kingdom of God.

Thought for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day: the Christian message of love

‘ You cannot serve both God and Money.’ (Luke 16:13).  Luke depicts money as an idol or alternative God (Mammon). This is the alternative Christmas of endless, manic shopping, endless consumerism, endless consumption and the sentimental view of the birth of Christ. We pop into Church because it helps make ‘our’ Christmas.

The Christian view of the birth of Christ is harder and more realistic. It’s not ‘our’ Christmas, but God’s, and He makes the rules. The humble are exalted. If the needy are righteous their needs are met. The key is our recognition of our helplessness and need before God. We may not be poor in a material sense, yet we may still be beggars before God. ‘The gospel is the message that God gives his gift, his kingdom, to beggars, into empty hands. We have nothing with which to pay him back’ – nothing, that is, except our love.

The Christian message is thus profoundly challenging and disturbing; but it is also a message of joy, peace, love and sharing. You may have heard the Christmas version of Paul’s famous words on love in 1 Corinthians 13, which are proclaimed so often at weddings. Here is part of it:

If I work at a soup kitchen,

sing carols in the nursing home,

and give all that I have to charity;

but do not show love,

It profits me nothing…

Love stops the cooking to hug the child.

Love sets aside the decorating to visit a friend.

Love is kind, though harassed and tired.

Love does not envy another’s home that has coordinated Christmas china and table cloths.

Love does not yell at the children to get out of the way, but is thankful they are there to be in the way.

Love does not give only to those who are able to give in return; but rejoices in giving to those who cannot.

Love bears all things, believes all things,

hopes all things, and endures all things.

Love never fails.

Video games will break,

Pearl necklaces will be lost,

Golf clubs will rust,

But giving the gift of love will endure.

The Magnificat and God’s ‘Great Reversal’

On meeting her cousin Elizabeth, Mary recognizes that God has given her a special role in his plan of salvation by choosing her to bear the Messiah. Everything she declares in the Magnificat (Luke 1: 46-55) is scriptural. Her song clearly proclaims divine truths taught elsewhere in the Hebrew Scriptures. She borrows many words and expressions from the Old Testament. Here is one example of such parallelism.

Hannah says:

The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low, he also exalts.
He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honour. 

[Hannah’s prayer from 1 Samuel 2].

Mary proclaims:

[The Mighty One] has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.

[From the Magnificat in Luke 1].

The humble, the hungry, and God’s servant Israel, are the penitent believers who despair of their own righteousness before God and cling in faith only to Christ and his righteousness, which he gives them freely in the gospel. They fulfill the words of the Psalmist in Psalm 37:11: ‘Blessed are the anawim [= the poor seeking God for deliverance] for they shall inherit the earth.’ God has filled the desire of those hungry for Christ’s saving righteousness while he has sent away empty-handed all those who think they are rich in themselves before God. 

This is God’s principle of ‘the great reversal’, as it has been called. It is the paradoxical great reversal Jesus speaks of in many of his parables. ‘Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted’ (Luke 14:11; 18:14; Matthew 23:12). ‘There are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last’ (Luke 13:30). Through the mighty, sanctifying work of his Holy Spirit, God makes his people holy, set apart for himself and his holy purposes for us.

Last Sunday's thought: The Significance of the ‘Fifth Gospel’ for Advent

‘The preaching of Isaiah’, it has been said, ‘represents the theological high water mark of the whole Old Testament’. The Prophet or Prophets Isaiah (there may have been as many as three of them) has or have always been viewed as especially important by Christians. The book of Isaiah is quoted or alluded to in the NT more frequently than any other OT text, even the Psalms.

The early church fathers rated Isaiah not only as the greatest prophet but also more as the first evangelist. Some of the early church fathers even called Isaiah the fifth evangelist, and the term the ‘Fifth Gospel’ has been used to describe this book of the Hebrew Scriptures, underpinning the argument that what is presented is Christian theology, albeit written in the period before Christianity.

It is well known that in the synagogue of Nazareth Jesus read a version of Isaiah ch 61; but Jesus’ reading of Isaiah 61:1-2 in the synagogue of Nazareth is not a verbatim quotation. He deliberately quotes the first clause, ‘to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord’, but significantly omits the second clause, ‘and the day of vengeance of our God’.

This striking omission of any reference to the day of vengeance at this point was not arbitrary but intentional. It is not that Luke wants to foreground grace and that any reference to judgment has been discarded because it conflicts with his emphasis on universal salvation. On the contrary, as is evident from Luke 18:7 and especially from Jesus’ assertion in Luke 21:22 (‘for this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written’), the days of vengeance have only been postponed. The ‘today’ of Luke 4:21 marks the beginning of the time of God’s gracious visitation (Luke 19:44) to Israel through Jesus’ preaching of the gospel of the kingdom (Luke 4:43).

The vision of the Prophet Isaiah is encountered early on in chapter 2. Isaiah 2:2-3 pictures nations going up to the mountain of the house of the LORD to be taught the law, the Torah. According to Matthew 4:25-5:2, ‘large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed’ Jesus as he went up to the mountain (Matt. 5:1). In Isaiah 2:3, the nations express the expectation to be taught by the God of Jacob. According to Matthew 5:2, Jesus, the Spirit-empowered servant (Isa. 42:1-4), taught them Torah. Significantly, in the seventh beatitude he taught them, ‘Happy are the peacemakers because they shall be called sons of God’ (Matt. 5:9). In Isaiah 2:5, the house of Jacob is exhorted to walk in the light. In Matthew 5:14-15, Jesus informs the international crowd of disciples that they are the ‘city on a hill’ (5:14) and exhorts them that they ought to let their light shine (5:15) to win others for the kingdom.

Intimately connected to this mountain scene, is the final mountain scene in the gospel of Matthew in which the risen Lord commands the disciples to go and start making disciples of all the nations (the ‘great commission’). When these two mountain scenes are read together, it becomes clear that the mission of the disciples to make disciples of the nations and to teach everything that Jesus commanded (Matt. 28:19-20) represents the ongoing fulfillment of the vital role of Jerusalem among the nations. As the disciples had been taught the Torah by the Servant (Isaiah 42:1-4), so they must now go out and teach Torah righteousness to the nations for the establishment of true peace.

The task at hand is to strive for peace and righteousness. But we must also remember that the vivid description of the Day of the Lord in Isaiah 2:10-22 was repeated in Revelation 6:12-17.

The early Christians used Isaiah extensively in their evangelizing efforts, even informally creating a ‘Gospel narrative’ – something very much akin to what we now know as the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. John Sawyer in his book The Fifth Gospel: Isaiah in the History of Christianity proposes such a Gospel narrative in a collection of verses of Isaiah woven together. This bears out the verdict of Jerome (c. 342-420), who writes in the prologue to his translation of Isaiah: ‘he should be called an evangelist rather than a prophet because he describes all the mysteries of Christ and the Church so clearly that you would think he is composing a history of what has already happened rather than prophesying about what is to come.’

Last Sunday's thought: the significance of John the Baptist's Diet

John the Baptist, Mark tells us, ‘… ate locusts and wild honey…’ (Mark 1:6).

Wild honey requires little explanation since wild honey bees still exist in various parts of the world, although loss of habitat and environmental change threaten their existence. The medicinal properties of some wild honey products are well known to Japanese and Chinese traditional medicines. For the people of Israel, the promised land was ‘the land flowing with milk and honey’ (Exodus 3:8). Together with curds, honey was also the food prescribed by the Prophet Isaiah for those who remain in Israel after the devastation of the exile (cf. Isaiah 7:22). Either way, honey is intimately connected with the promise of God.

There are two conventional explanations for John the Baptist’s diet of locusts. The first, the less literal explanation, is that he was not eating locusts at all but the fruit of the locust tree, known variously as the Carob tree and St John’s-bread. In Luke 15:16, when the Prodigal Son is in the depth of his spiritual and social poverty and alienation, he wants to eat the pods that he is feeding to the swine because he himself is starving. The use of the carob during a famine is likely to be a result of the carob tree’s resilience to the harsh climate and drought. During World War II, it was common for the people of Malta to eat dried carob pods as a supplement for rationed food.

The second, more literal, interpretation is attuned to contemporary non-western societies, where people in many countries collect locusts using large nets and by other means. Locusts are usually stir-fried, roasted or boiled and eaten immediately or dried and eaten later. Locusts are rich in protein. During periods of increased locust activity, piles of dead locusts can be found in the market places of many locust-affected countries. Under the Old Covenant, locusts were among the insects that could be eaten by the people of Israel (cf. Leviticus 11:22: ‘you may eat any kind of locust, katydid [bush cricket or bald locust], cricket or grasshopper.’) By eating locusts, John remained faithful to the Law. Locusts, one of the early Church fathers tells us, ‘are rightly considered to be food for repentance’ (Peter Chrysologus). The reason that John ate locusts, then, is threefold: to remain faithful to the Law, to call the people of Israel to repentance, and to point out the coming of Christ, the ‘living bread that came down from heaven’ (John 6:51).