Baptism of our Lord – Cycle B
Mark 1:4-11
God Breaks
Through
Did you notice that
all four readings today have something in common – three things, actually:
water; spirit, and the voice of God.
In the reading from
Genesis 1: The spirit of God – the “ruach” in Hebrew
– was moving over the face of the waters, and the voice of God said, “Let there
be light.”
In Psalm 29, the
voice of the Lord is upon the waters. Now, Psalm 29 doesn’t specifically refer
to spirit, but it’s implied because you cannot have the voice of God without
the breath or spirit of God.
In the Gospel of
Mark, Jesus is baptized and, as he comes out of the water, he sees the spirit
and hears the voice of God.
In Acts 19, we hear
of some disciples being baptized, which implies the presence of water, and of
the Holy Spirit coming upon them and of them prophesying, which means speaking
words from God.
What is happening
in all these instances is that God is breaking through from His heavenly realm
of eternal existence in power and glory, into our earthly realm of time and space
and physical matter.
In creation, God’s
spirit hovered over dark watery chaos and the voice of God broke through that
chaos and spoke the universe into existence, bringing light and order and
beauty and life.
The Psalmist
praises God for the power and might of His voice, which moves upon the earth,
breaking trees, moving mountains, splitting flames, shaking the wilderness and
stripping forests. And yet the Lord who has this mighty voice and who sits
enthroned as king forevermore above
the flood, is also said to give strength and the blessing of peace to his
people. That’s breaking through.
In the gospel, Mark
paints a striking image of God breaking through from heaven to earth upon the
occasion of Jesus’ Baptism. When Jesus
rises up out of the water, Mark writes that Jesus saw the heavens torn apart
and the spirit descending like a dove upon him.
The Greek verb Mark
used here for “torn apart” is “schidzo”, a strong,
dramatic term which he used only one other time in the gospel, in Chapter 15,
where he wrote: “Then Jesus gave a loud
cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from
top to bottom.” That was yet another time where God broke through.
At Jesus’ baptism,
God breaks through as the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus and the voice of God
the Father affirms the identity of Jesus, saying: “You are my Son, the beloved;
with you I am well pleased.”
Remember that Jesus
is fully God, but is also fully human. Jesus
had to experience God the Father through human senses, just as we do. So, for
Jesus, hearing the voice of the Father and seeing the Spirit come upon him
would have been strong affirmation.
In his
humanity, Jesus humbled himself and willingly submitted to John’s baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sin – even though he HAD no sin, nor any need to repent.
In this way, he demonstrated OUR human need for repentance, and he foreshadowed
the time that would come when he would take our sins upon his own body on the
Cross.
Upon Jesus’
demonstration of humility and obedience through his Baptism, GOD broke through.
The appearance of Father, Son and Spirit together at Jesus’ baptism signals the
beginning of God’s NEW REIGN on earth – the coming of God’s kingdom, the
anointing of God’s son, the king of the new realm.
Forward to Paul’s
report of his experience at
So these disciples
had not received complete information. They had not heard about the Holy Spirit. They had not understood that through faith in
Jesus’ death and resurrection, they would actually SHARE in Jesus’ life by the
power of the Holy Spirit.
As Paul wrote to
the Romans: Do you not know that all of
us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might
walk in newness of life.
Upon hearing Paul’s
words, these disciples were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. That’s when
Paul laid his hands on them and the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke
in tongues and prophesied.
Once again, God
broke through! This time, God’s spirit
broke through into the lives of 12 disciples and immediately made a difference.
The spirit they received became evident in their own voices as the prophesied
and spoke in tongues.
So, there you have
it – four Biblical texts – four references to water, spirit and voice – four
examples of how God breaks through from heaven to earth, creating and
re-creating.
What we need to ask
ourselves is, if we have been baptized in the name of Jesus, where is God’s
Spirit breaking through in OUR lives today – how is God’s voice being heard
through us, by the power of the Holy Spirit?
Do you remember, do
you acknowledge that the powerful, creative, redeeming voice of God has called
you by name and given you new life? Do
you know that the God of the Universe is alive in you through faith in Jesus Christ
by the power of the Spirit?
Sin dims our
recognition and awareness of the Holy Spirit’s presence within us. We lose our connection with God. Repentance
and forgiveness restores that connection.
Receiving the body and blood of Christ in Holy Communion strengthens and
nourishes it.
Paul wrote a letter
to the church at
I pray that, with Paul, that according to the riches of
the Father’s glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your inner
being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts
through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in love.
I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with
all the saints, what is the breadth and length and
height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so
that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able
to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be
glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.
Amen.