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On the first Sunday after Epiphany, we typically celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. Some undisclosed amount of time after his birth, after the flight to Egypt and eventual return to Israel, after he has spent years growing up, we find Jesus baptized by his cousin John.
As you may recall, John was out in the wilderness preaching repentance and baptizing those who confessed their sins. It is to him that Jesus comes to be baptized. Some other time, perhaps we can debate why Jesus seeks out his cousin to be baptized. What did Jesus have to repent from? What sins did he need to confess?
At any rate, John tries to stop him. Surely Jesus needs to baptize him instead. But Jesus insists. And so John baptizes him in the river. As he comes up from the water, the heavens open and the Spirit of God descends like a dove to rest upon him. Then there is a voice from heaven which proclaims, “This is my Son, whom I dearly love; I find happiness in him” (Matthew 3:17).
This is an echo of the words written by Isaiah: “But here is my servant, the one I uphold; my chosen, who brings me delight” (Isaiah 42:1a). These words are spoken now to remind us of the rest of what Isaiah had written. Here is the one of which the prophet spoke, so remember what the prophet has said. And the descent of the Spirit as a dove completes the reference to Isaiah. “I’ve put my spirit upon him; he will bring justice to the nations” (Isaiah 42:1b). Through these words, we are told who Jesus is and where the story is going.
Now the audiences that the different Gospel writers were writing for would have been familiar with Isaiah. They would have known what these words mean as well as the other words that go with them. They would have been able to make a connection between the words spoken over Jesus and the one that the prophet foretold. In this section, Isaiah is describing the servant of God. This servant was an ideal version of Israel. And here the words are spoken over Jesus, telling us that Jesus is that ideal servant, the one foretold by Isaiah.
Isaiah continues the motif of light begun on Epiphany as he describes the servant of God. The one that brings justice will not “extinguish a faint wick” (Isaiah 42:3) nor will he himself be extinguished (Isaiah 42:4). He will lead righteously rather than through domination, and he will not be overcome.
This is because the servant of God is here for a reason. God offers the servant as a covenant to the people and as a light to the nations. As a light to the nations, Jesus comes “...to open blind eyes, to lead the prisoners from prison, and those who sit in darkness from the dungeon” (Isaiah 42:7).
When the voice from heaven speaks over Jesus, this is what we are being told. This is who Jesus is. This is why Jesus has come. And Jesus knows it.
When he makes his public pronouncement at the start of his ministry, Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah. At that time, he reads from Isaiah 61, but the words and the mission are nearly identical. He comes to bring good news, to heal the broken, to proclaim liberty, and to release the captives. This is the ministry to which he is baptized and the ministry to which he commits his life.
Through our own baptism, we are joined to the body of Christ. We are baptized into the body of Christ to partake in the same mission that Christ began. We are called to continue the work he began while he was here on earth. And so we partake in the same covenant as he did.
As we see in this passage from Isaiah, God makes this covenant with us for a purpose. Our baptism, our inclusion, is not solely for our own benefit; it is not only about individual, personal salvation. We are called to be a light to the nations.
Often it seems that we make this out to be some sort of metaphorical calling -- we are called to enlighten those who do not yet know and to lead those imprisoned by their sin into freedom. But in doing so, we make it a religion of the mind alone.
As worthy as enlightenment and teaching are, the calling we have is also a literal calling.
When we look back to the life of Jesus, we see that he did not teach simply a cerebral religion, a religion of belief only. He actually opened the eyes of those who were physically blind. He actually healed those imprisoned by their diseases and set them free. He actually led people out of the sin of isolation and self-centeredness into the repentance of new relationships with God and one another. For Jesus, salvation was neither solely about the individual nor was it solely about belief. Salvation is actively lived out with others, in making the world a better place, in accomplishing the things that God expects, the things which the prophets foretold.
As Christians, we are called to be examples of what salvation looks like. That is what it means to be a light to the nations.
We have been baptized into the light of Christ.
Let us show the world what God’s love means, what it means to live in the light of that love.