What’s Different? (The Baptism of Our Lord)

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Nine days in, and it still feels strange.  In fact, I’m sure it will seem weird until at least next month.  Maybe it’s the same way for you, too.  But every time I have to write a date on something, writing “2022” just seems wrong. 

It’s like this every year!  I know it’s a new year.  I can see the calendar has changed.  But it doesn’t seem like anything is different.  I’m still doing mostly the same things I was doing “last year.”  The days are pretty much as short as they were a couple of weeks ago.  And the problems and challenges I faced last month and last year are mostly still with me in this “new year.”  So it often feels like nothing’s different.

And yet, a lot of changes are like that in life. Something happens. Something changes – maybe just a page on a calendar.  But something really is different, even if, at first glance it doesn’t appear so.

A new year, even if it feels the same as last year, has become a different time, often with a reset of expectations and implications – (anytime I wonder about this, I remember that the new year DOES mean something to the IRS!).  A new year, even if it feels the same, also carries with it the hope of new possibilities and new opportunities – (indeed, those things come with each new day, but sometimes we recognize them more when the calendar changes.)  And a new year, even if it feels the same, also reminds us of the need not to stagnate in the past, or to put off again changes we know we need to make – (which is perhaps why we’re willing to try making resolutions at the beginning of a new year.)

Some changes really do make things different, even if that difference might not be apparent at first.

Indeed, Jesus’ baptism seems to be one of those changes.  In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus has been baptized.  But Luke, alone among the Gospel writers, doesn’t even recount the actual act of John baptizing Jesus – he simply reports that “when all the people had been baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized…”, but that’s it!

In Luke’s version, there is no:

• Great declaration by John the Baptist about Jesus, even as a side comment to a couple of disciples … (indeed, the verses missing in today’s text report that John has already been arrested by Herod, so he’s not even on the scene anymore!)

• Specific moment in which Jesus is baptized – in fact, “all the people” have been baptized, so Luke presents baptism as something “everybody was doing”, and Jesus’ baptism is mentioned almost as an afterthought…

• Indication that anybody but Jesus hears the voice from heaven, or understands the dove as a physical sign of the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Perhaps nobody else noticed or heard.  Maybe it was just Jesus…

So what’s different?  What difference did Jesus’ baptism make?  It would be understandable to ask those questions at this point in the Gospel!

And yet, Jesus’ baptism did make things different, both for Jesus and for others.  For in fact, it’s from the point of Jesus’ baptism that:

• Jesus begins his public ministry – Jesus, from the very beginning, has been God’s Son, but from this point on, Jesus begins the work he was sent into the world to do – and that work has a tremendous impact on others, even if at this point, they don’t know what’s about to happen…

• Jesus’ confidence is reinforced by the affirmation of God – in being fully human, Jesus also, like us, probably appreciated and even needed, the affirmation that God was indeed with him and equipping him to do what he was sent to do; and it would have been hard to start down this road without that affirmation, even if only Jesus himself heard the voice and saw the dove…

• Jesus began to call others to be part of what he was doing – up to this point, Jesus has no disciples; but from this point on, Jesus not only has an impact on others; he also gets others in on the act – he empowers and equips other people to be agents of what God is doing in the world…

Jesus’ baptism did make a difference – and things were different afterwards, even if, as at the beginning of January, things don’t look or feel all that different at this point.

And the same is supposed to be true for our baptisms.  Baptism, for us also, can often seem like a simple thing that doesn’t make us all that different.  We get wet for just a moment.  For many of us, it happened at an age we don’t remember.  And except for a momentary post of pictures, it may not seem like much has changed.

But there really is a difference, because God has done something that forever changes us.  In fact, this is why Luther said that baptism is like a garment that we wear everyday.  It’s a living reality that’s supposed to make a difference for us and for the world around us.

And that’s because, as in Jesus’ baptism, the daily garment of our baptism makes us different because baptism:

• Has made us part of a community – in the first century, “baptism” was not unique to the Christian movement.  In fact, the idea of ritual washing is ancient in Judaism and took on larger significance in certain Jewish movements, like the Essenes (of which we think John the Baptist may have been a member.)  But ritual washing was part of other religions, too.  And often, it simply meant you were personally “clean” before the god you worshipped.  But in Christian baptism, we’re also made part of a community – part of a people God has called together.  And just as Jesus began his public ministry at his baptism, our baptisms remind us that we’re called together to be God’s people, not just individual, private followers of Jesus.  And when we really live like that, it makes a difference…

• Gives us confidence in God’s love, presence and forgiveness each day – like Jesus’ baptism, our baptism isn’t a past event but the present reminder of God’s promise that we also are God’s children with whom God walks each day.  Luther wrote that whenever he wondered whether he was good enough, he would remind himself, “but I am baptized!”, because God’s promise was stronger than anything he had or hadn’t done.  And when we remember the confidence our baptism gives us, it makes a difference…

• Calls us, also, to act in the lives of others in the world around us – Jesus made a point of sharing his gifts with others in the world around him, and through baptism, Jesus has made us into modern disciples who do the same.  And when we take seriously our call to share the love, presence and gifts of God we’ve experienced with those around us, it makes a difference…

Baptism makes a difference, because baptism makes us different, even if it doesn’t always look or feel that way to others, or even sometimes to us.

But baptism does make us different because it’s through baptism that God has made us part of the community of Jesus’ followers which even transcends time and space. It’s through baptism that we’re called each day to live in such a way that the difference of baptism can be seen and experienced not just by us, but by others in the world around us.  And it’s through baptism that we’re reminded each day of the promise of God’s love, presence and forgiveness, no matter what.  

Amen.