Preached on Sunday, January 12, 2025, the First Sunday after the Epiphany, the Baptism of Our Lord, at Trinity Cathedral, Little Rock.

“All the people were baptized, and…Jesus also had been baptized” (Luke 3:21).

Our celebration of the feast of Christ’s Baptism today takes its place in a long and curious history. This feast day is bequeathed unto us not by magisterial reformers, nor by the pious medievals, but by those earliest Christians from the first few centuries of the Church––both East and West. For you see, it was the task of those early Christians to determine just what in Christ’s work was particularly worthy of ongoing remembrance by the faithful. And for those early Christians, the Baptism of Our Lord was at the top of the list.

But what in this history that is so curious to me is that our forbearer’s commemoration of Christ’s Baptism was deeply connected to their commemorations of the Nativity and of the Epiphany, Christ’s birth in Bethlehem and the Magi’s journey from Eastern lands. Before there were “twelve days of Christmas,” before Christmas was December 25 and Epiphany was January 6, before any of this had been settled, many early Christians commemorated these three events together: the birth of Christ in a manger-bed, the manifestation of Christ to the gentiles, and the baptism of Christ in Jordan’s stream. For the early Church––and likewise, for us––these three events form a collective chorus, a united proclamation of the identity of this One Who is “God with us” (Matthew 1:23) [1].

All this to say: do not be fooled by our acceleration from Christ the child to Christ the man, from Bethlehem to Jordan’s bank. Our celebration here today is the next installment of Christ’s glorious self-revelation to the world, by which we learn of Who and What He is. This was our task on Christmas just a few weeks ago, this was our task on Epiphany this past Monday, and this continues to be our task today, on this, the Baptism of our Lord.

Alongside the long and curious history of Christians commemorating Christ’s Baptism, we find an equally long and curious history of attempting to make sense of just what it is that we are commemorating in the first place––and those of us gathered here today find ourselves in that history, too. “Just what is it,” we ask, “that happened in the Jordan that day? And why did it need to happen?” These questions have puzzled and pestered the Church for centuries. “Christ Jesus? Baptized?” Now, of course, we ought to be Baptized. That much makes sense, because, in Holy Baptism, we die to the sin that has stained us (Romans 6:11), and it is the means by which we become adopted as God’s children, members of Christ’s Body, and inheritors of God’s kingdom. Yes, we ought to be Baptized. But Christ, the One Who knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21)? Why Him? 

Over the years, Christians have offered a number of possible reasons as to why our Lord was baptized alongside everyone else. A very popular one goes something like this: Christ’s Baptism is a sign for us, not a washing away of His sin––an impossibility, this explanation goes––but an expression of His lowliness, His meekness, His submission, His willingness to be humbled, to become “obedient to the point of death––even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). To put it another way, Christ was baptized like us so that we might remember that he is like us.

There’s a lot of truth to that kind of thinking, but there’s a problem. The problem is that it starts in the wrong place. It starts with us. It says that, just as we are baptized, so it is for Jesus Christ. But rarely should we begin with ourselves when we talk about the Lord. No, first and foremost, we talk about God. So, then, it’s not that Jesus Christ was baptized just like us, but rather, it’s that we are baptized just like Him.

Now, this all may seem to be a bit pedantic, just a silly distinction of semantics, too abstract for a sermon, too abstract to be relevant. What difference does it make to say that we are baptized like Christ, not that Christ is baptized like us?

But hear me out: it makes all the difference in the world. It’s nothing but relevant. For you see, Baptism isn’t just a human action received by the Son of God as He takes on human vesture––although it is that, at least that!––but far more, Baptism is a Divine Action, graciously received by all of us as we, too, enter the water, not in Jordan’s stream, but in Baptistry and font. If just a human action, Baptism loses its relevance. It becomes arbitrary. But if a Divine Action, Baptism is nothing but relevant, nothing but important. Christ’s Baptism is Christ’s embrace of the cross that is His alone to bear, a step towards the new life which He alone can give. 

Why was our Lord baptized, then? Jesus Christ was baptized to lead the way. As the Prayer Book puts it, “Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us, through his death and resurrection, from the bondage of sin into everlasting life” [2]. Jesus Christ was baptized to lead the way, to chart a course through the water for us, casting aside sin and death.

So writes the prophet Isaiah:

Thus says the LORD,
he who created you, O Jacob, 

he who formed you, O Israel:

Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine. 

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; 

when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you. 

For I am the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior…

You are precious in my sight,
and honored, and I love you…

Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you; 

I will say to the north, ‘Give them up,’
and to the south, ‘Do not withhold; 

bring my sons from far away
and my daughters from the end of the earth––

everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.’”

This is what we celebrate today. This is the work of God that Christ reveals to us today. Christ was Baptized that we too might share in His life, share in His death, share in His resurrection––not because we deserve it or have earned it, but because God is that good.

And that “sharing” is what our Baptism is all about. That’s what it means to say that Christ is not baptized like us but that we are baptized like Him: in our Baptism, we share in His––in His life, in His death, in His resurrection. And it’s not really that, just because we are baptized, we get all of that in return. But it’s that, in our Baptism, we share in His; in our little work––making promises, pouring water, anointing with oil––we share in the work that belongs exclusively to Jesus Christ. Our Baptism is an “assurance,” as the old Reformers would put it, an assurance of what God has already done, that God really has redeemed us, that God really is with us through the waters, through the fire, and we are not overwhelmed, not burned, but precious, honored, and loved. Because of Christ’s Baptism, we find this assurance in our Baptism.

For those who have not been baptized, I encourage you to consider it. For those who have been baptized, I encourage you to consider confirming your Baptism. And for those who have been confirmed, I encourage you to consider reaffirming your Baptism. We’ll celebrate Baptism at the Great Vigil of Easter on the evening of Saturday, April 19, and we’ll celebrate Baptism, Confirmation, Reaffirmation, as well as Reception, when Bishop Harmon visits us here on Sunday, June 1. On Sunday evenings in Lent and Easter, I’ll be leading a class called the “Catechumenate”––a word we got from those same early Christians who first celebrated Christ’s Baptism––a class that will introduce, or for some of us revisit, the basics of what it means for us to share in Christ’s life. There’ll be food, too. See the Cathedral’s formation guide for all those details, and let me know if you’re interested. I’d love for there to be a great turnout.

But classes, and food, and funny Greek words aside, I encourage you to draw near to your Baptism, and therefore, to draw near to Christ’s Baptism, and what that Baptism means for you and for me, and the assurance and comfort given to us therein. For “thus says the LORD, He who created you… He who formed you…Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” 

“All the people were baptized, and…Jesus also had been baptized” (Luke 3:21).

Amen.

[1] For a history of this development, see Paul F. Bradshaw and Maxwell E. Johnson, The Origins of Feasts, Fasts, and Seasons in Early Christianity (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2011).

[2] 1979 Book of Common Prayer, 306.