Isaiah 42.1-9; Matthew 3.13-end
At Christmas time we watched a video of our grandchildren opening the stocking presents we had given them. Each was individually wrapped and the older grandchild carefully felt each one and tried to guess what was in the parcel. When Emma and I opened our stocking presents she asked me to guess the last one. It was a small parcel, no larger than one and a half inches in each direction. I felt along two hard edges and tried to feel along the opposite side but the paper and sellotape did not make that easy, so I gave up and ripped the paper off to find an electrical adaptor for the electric toothbrush Emma had given to me. All had been revealed.
The reading from the prophet Isaiah is rather like us feeling the wrapping paper. We get an idea of what the present is going to be but until the wrapping comes off we do not know with certainty. Isaiah wrote these words some 500-600 years before the birth of Jesus and we as Christians naturally assume that these words point to Jesus - the word became flesh.
We have celebrated Christmas just over two weeks ago - was it really only 16 days ago? It already seems ages ago, another Christmas consigned to the joyful memory bank and we are left with turkey in the freezer, Christmas cake to finish off and decorations to pack away. It is all too easy to say, “Job done, what is next?” without letting its meaning sink into us. Here in church and at our home we will keep the decorations up until the end of the Epiphany season, 1st February, Presentation of baby Jesus in the temple. This is to encourage us to hold on to the wonder of the incarnation, to remind us that we are in Epiphany, the season of God revealing Jesus to the world.
In our reading of the Christmas story the revealing of Jesus as God’s Son was restricted to a favoured few - the shepherds, the wise men and any close family or neighbours who happened to be around and be part of it. The fleeing of the holy family to Egypt and the killing of the innocents would have wiped away any concrete proof of the event.
Now today we jump forward thirty years to the baptism of Jesus - the great reveal to a wider group of people.
King Herod who had tried to kill the infant Jesus, was no longer alive. The shepherds and wise men from the nativity story may also not still be alive, but maybe their memories had been passed on to others, stories told over evening camp fires with perhaps some embellishments as the years went on. Now again God is revealing His Son to the world. Jesus is about to start his ministry, and with it the road to Calvary and the major purpose of his incarnation. But as is often the case with a new ministry, there was a ritual to go through first. The ritual of coming to John the Baptist to be baptised. John has been preaching a baptism of repentance- “come and ask for God’s forgiveness for the Kingdom of heaven is close at hand.” It was in the same vein as those who stand in Speakers’ corner in Hyde Park, exhorting people to turn to God as the world is about to end. John did not mince his words and told people plainly that they were not perfect and needed to be forgiven. At the time it is thought that there were other others who preached a similar cleansing from sin by washing in a river, but John did it as a preparation for the start of Jesus’ ministry. He was preparing people’s hearts and minds to recognise the great reveal, God’s Son in human form.
John rightly recognises the holiness and purity of Jesus and his own sinfulness- something we all share - and tries to persuade Jesus that Jesus should baptise him, but Jesus replies that it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness. Twice in those first verses Isaiah wrote that he will bring forth justice. Justice and righteousness are linked. Jesus came into the world to make it right again. And he does this by fully assuming humanity, even humbling himself to a baptism of repentance when he alone among all people did not need it. He fully aligns himself with us and our mess, even though he had no mess.
As he surfaces out of the water, that is when the great reveal happens. No angels, no guiding star this time, instead the image of a dove descending and resting on Jesus, signifying the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, coming upon Jesus, just as God had prophesied through Isaiah -
“I have put my spirit upon him.”
Then a voice from heaven saying:
“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Everytime I read those words, I have a strong sense of the Father’s pride and love in his Son Jesus. Such a beautiful affirmation for Jesus. Not only is Jesus revealed as the Son of God, the word become flesh, but the Father is also revealed, and the deep depth of the Father’s love for us all. A new insight into God’s love for us all and God’s desire to be intimately known by each individual. Yes Abraham, Moses and the prophets all knew God and experienced the Holy Spirit at work in their lives, but now God is revealing a different aspect of his character as a loving, doting Father.
Fast forward just over three years to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the reveal is complete - the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is available for all who believe that Jesus is God’s Son - the presence of God within us, empowering us, energising us, guiding us, leading us into deeper truths about God. The final gift is unwrapped and just as we have declared in our creed, we can know God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
As we then know, after his baptism Jesus was then led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he was confronted and tempted by Satan, yet held fast to his mission and purpose of his coming, all of which moved forward with increasing pace to the end goal of crucifixion and resurrection- God’s gracious love for all, revealed for all to benefit from.
Do you feel that you benefit from all this? From the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus? The revealing of God as Father? Is the gift of the Holy Spirit still wrapped up in its box? Is the promise of eternal life, lying unopened on your mantle piece? Do Jesus’ words from the end of Matthew’s gospel - I am with you always to the end of the age - rest and resonate within you or have you not embraced them as your own?
I was recently reminded of the significance of this when talking to a couple who wish to get married in church. Neither of them have an experience or understanding of God as a personal being, as a power or person one can know. To them, life is about living as good a life as they can. But I can see that they are missing out on so much.
All of us who have been baptised have gone through a ritual, a series of promises, a rite of initiation, an event that has changed us. We have been born again of the water and the Spirit and adopted as children of God. No longer orphans, we can be daily renewed with the Holy Spirit. Each day we can recognise that the light of Jesus Christ is within us and we no longer live in the darkness of sin. We are God’s children, heirs of the promise of the Spirit of Peace and as such we have been given authority to stand against all the powers of evil. We belong to Christ for ever.
In this season of Epiphany we remember and rejoice in the stories of Jesus being revealed to people as the Christ, the Messiah, the Chosen One, the Son of God. This is the most important event in the history of humanity. Take time today to reflect on its significance, the revealing of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Let it impact you in the deepest part of your soul, let it fill your mind with the truths it declares, and let the light of Christ shine within you so that others can see Christ in you.
Amen.