Matthew 3:13-17
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be
baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be
baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 15 But Jesus answered him,
"Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all
righteousness." Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized,
just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and
he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a
voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well
pleased."
when Jesus had been baptized, just
as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he
saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
·
There’s a lot to be wondered about
in this reading, and maybe you wonder as much as I do.
·
Why did Jesus have John baptize him?
John seemed to object, so how did Jesus convince him?
·
Why did Jesus have to see the heavens
opened and the Spirit-dove descend? What is this manifestation of the Spirit
about? That’s what I want to talk about today.
·
Where does the Spirit show itself?
At creation, although the Spirit ‘hovers’ with no described form… at the end of
the flood… at Jesus’ baptism… and at Pentecost, although there the Spirit is
seen as tongues of fire rather than a dove.
·
In the Scripture, when the Spirit is
present, what does it mean? It means a new creation! In the beginning, at the
grounding of the ark, at the bank of the Jordan, or in the upper room fifty
days after Jesus rose from the dead, something new is taking place.
·
In Genesis 1, the Spirit of God
hovers or blows over the chaotic sea and the Word of God – “Let there be
light!” – begins creation and the ordering of things.
·
Later in the same book, when the
waters of the flood begin to recede and dry up, Noah sends out a dove and finally
the dove returns with an olive branch, meaning that the flood is gone and a new
creation is waiting.
·
At the river Jordan, after his
baptism by John, Jesus sees the heavens opened and the Spirit of God ‘like a
dove’ – descending AND alighting on him. The Spirit/dove doesn’t just fly
around but it lands of Jesus and nothing is said about it leaving. After all,
it is the Spirit of God and the Spirit stays with Jesus always. The symbolism
of Jesus leading the way with the Spirit through the Jordan into the land of
the promise would not be lost on anyone familiar with that story from the
Hebrew Scriptures. After his resurrection, the Gospel of John tells of his
appearance to his disciples and he gives the same Spirit to those disciples for
the forgiveness of sins by breathing on them, for Spirit also means “breath.”
·
In the Acts of the Apostles written
by Luke, the Pentecost event has the Spirit of God manifest itself as fire and in
the words in the community as the church is formed by that Spirit. The Spirit
is found all through the book of the Acts of the Apostles, but we don’t see a
dove there. We do hear of the Spirit again in the last book of the Christian
scriptures, the book of Revelation. The Spirit seems to have a secondary role.
Despite that, the Spirit is there when the ‘voice from the throne’ says “See, I
make all things new” and a new heavens and a new earth are created
·
This brief tour of the Spirit’s
movement bring us to our own baptism, whenever that might have been. As joyful
as that day might have been, it was probably not so dramatic. Dramatic or not,
the Spirit was present. Our descent into the water, as in Jesus’ own baptism,
takes us into the land of promise. (I don’t say “the Promised Land” because
that sounds like a thing that is completely fulfilled; the “Land of the
promise” sounds more like a place where the promise of God may be found without
it ever being exhausted.) This descent into water also takes us to the Cross,
the garden tomb, and the empty tomb on Easter morning. It takes us to a new
creation, as Paul said in his second letter to the Corinthians: So
if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed
away; see, everything has become new! (2 Cor. 5:17)
·
There is a lot left to say and I
fear I might not do justice to the Word or to you were I to go on. We’ll leave
it at this: when you and I were baptized, the Spirit came upon us as it did
when Jesus was baptized and there was even more. May each day continue to be a
new creation for us all.
when Jesus had been baptized, just
as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he
saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
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