John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
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Grace to you and Peace, from God the Creator and Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior. Amen.
Our Gospel text for today begins with John the Baptist. Crazy ol’ John the Baptist. Out in the wilderness. Eating bags and all decked out in Camel’s hair. Crazy John. But even though this guy was a little on the nutty and wild side, he was all the rage at the time. Everyone was coming to him. All of the people from the Judean countryside – the rural people. And all of Jerusalem – the urban folks. It was as though all of the people of rural Minnesota together with all of the people from the Twin Cities were going to the Mississippi river to get baptized by this wild man.
And when John baptized he talked about the one who is to come. He prophesied. That is, someone in the future will baptize with a much more powerful baptism. One that will baptize with the power of the Holy Spirit.
And then comes the baptism of this powerful one. The baptism of Jesus Christ. The anointed one. The messiah. The one that John the Baptist says he is not worthy to tie the thong of his sandal. Not worthy to tie his shoes.
And this baptism is an amazing one. Jesus comes up out of the water and he sees the Heaven’s rip apart… and he witnesses the Holy Spirit descend upon him. Like a dove – not necessarily a dove, but like a dove. The spirit comes down in a peaceful, calm manner. And then a voice. “You are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.”
Now, we have this image in our head that a dove descending would be a nice and peaceful thing. It would be serene. Well… I remember back to a graveside service in which there was a dove released by the family. It was this very passage of Mark that I read when the dove was released. I very specifically remember the rush of wind, and the noise of the wings of the dove. It was not peaceful at all. It was a violent rush of wind.
What the voice of God says here, “you are my son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased” is difficult to translate. It doesn’t cross over into English well. It might better be said “you are my son, the beloved, with you I took delight.” One of my professors from Seminary translates it as “you are my son, I delighted in choosing you.” “You are my son, I delighted in choosing you.”
Now the Heavens ripping apart, the Holy Spirit descending violently like a dove, the voice sounding and talking to the one being baptized, I was only two weeks old when I was baptized, but I am pretty sure this didn’t happen to me.
I don’t think these things happened to me. I was only two weeks old, but I suspect they didn’t. At least nobody told me they did. Furthermore, I can say that of all the baptisms I have witnessed or performed in my life, I didn’t see any clouds being torn apart. I didn’t see any visible Holy Spirit descending like a dove. I didn’t hear a voice come from the heavens, saying “you are my son or you are my daughter, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.” I didn’t witness any of these things.
Now there is something very interesting about the baptism of Jesus as it is described to us in the Gospel of Mark. Nobody else who was around heard or saw these things either. The text is very specific about this. Nobody who was there saw it. John the Baptist didn’t experience these things. Only Jesus did.
And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. Furthermore, he is the only one who heard that voice. “And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.’” That “you,” the “you” referring to Jesus… is singular.
What we have is a third person account of something that took place between God and Jesus. And it would seem that nobody else, not the crowds from rural Judea or from Jerusalem, not even John the Baptist was privy to the interaction between God and Jesus. Notice that it was Jesus that saw the heavens torn apart. The Spirit descending upon him. They didn’t see this stuff, he did. And that voice from Heaven, “they” didn’t hear it, “he,” Jesus heard it. And when God addressed Jesus, God said “you.” God was talking to Jesus, not the crowds.
Well, now I don’t feel so bad. No wonder for all of the baptisms I have ever seen or witnessed, no wonder I didn’t see the clouds part, and the spirit descend. No wonder we didn’t hear God’s voice. The people around two thousand years ago didn’t see or hear this stuff when Jesus was baptized. It was between God and Jesus.
So, this Baptism, the baptism in which the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus what does this mean for us, here, on the day in which we celebrate the Lord’s Baptism some 2000 years ago?
See, through our own baptisms, we have been linked to Jesus’s baptism. And not just his baptism, but also his death and his resurrection. The second chapter of the letter to the Colossians reads, when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. So we are linked to Christ’s baptism, his death, and his resurrection… through our own baptism. Even the Lutheran order for Baptism reads “By the baptism of his own death and resurrection your beloved Son has set us free from the bondage of sin and death, and has opened the way to the joy and freedom of everlasting life.”
So what does this means? If we are linked with Christ through baptism, it means that the heavens ripping apart, the Holy Spirit descending, and the voice sounding… all of this does indeed happen to us. It’s just not as visible as we might think it would be. The Heavens parting, the Holy Spirit, God’s voice, they are visible to us a little differently. Not so blatant. Not so dramatic.
The heavens are ripped apart all of the time when we baptize. The heavens are ripped apart for us every time we come to learn and gain the knowledge that the joy and freedom of everlasting life has been opened up for us. Just this past week in confirmation, I got to experience the heavens being ripped apart first hand. It was in the face of one of the confirmation students who had just learned what it meant that she had to do nothing in order to receive the free gift of grace. I gave all of the confirmation students a quiz, and I told them they all had to receive a 100% in order to be confirmed. Most of them were rightfully worried, until they got to the end of the quiz, were it read they would all receive 100% because that is Grace. That is the price that has already been paid for us. The look on her face went from confusion to happiness. To a smile. That was the Heavens being ripped apart, in our place, and our time. The heavens are ripped apart every time we experience a relationship with God, and every time we experience and learn what the Grace of God actually is.
So the Holy Spirit does come down to us. Comes down from the parted clouds, descending upon us. Active in our families, our friends, our jobs, our lives, our congregation. The Holy Spirit descends upon us like a dove. Not as dramatic of a fashion as it did to Jesus, but whenever we witness a baptism – that feeling we all feel. Or when we commune – that feeling before hand, the anticipation of receiving communion. The feeling during and that feeling afterwards. How we feel afterwards… that clean feeling.
And the voice of God sounds for us in the very same way. Every time we experience the Grace of God in these ways, every time we know that God has chosen us. Because of Christ’s baptism, death, and resurrection, every time this happens God is saying “You are my son, the beloved or you are my daughter, the beloved. With you I am well pleased. I took delight in you. I delighted in choosing you.”
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit, descending to us like a dove, Amen.
