Thomas J Parlette
“Dangerous, but Life-Giving Water”
Matt. 3: 13-17, Ps. 29
1/11/26
When I was growing up, every afternoon around 4:30 or 5:00, my sisters and I would announce to our mother – “Can we have a snack, we’re so hungry, we’re dying.” Now we knew that Dad would be home at 6:00 pm, he was very predictable that way, and dinner would be on the table by 6:15. That’s the way it was for us growing up in the early 1970’s.
Without missing a beat, my mother would respond to our melodramatics with something along the lines of “You’re not dying – have some raisins, they’re nature’s candy.”
Well, we weren’t falling for that – but dinner was at 6:15, and we were not allowed to spoil our evening meal with snacks.
The human body is an amazing thing. Despite my 10-year-old self’s melodramatic hunger pangs – we did not die. We didn’t even pass out. We always made it to dinner time. In fact, I would learn years later that the human body can survive without food for weeks, maybe even a couple months. What we really need, what we can’t survive without – is actually water. Whereas we can go a month or so without food, the human body can’t survive for much more than a week without water. Water is crucial to our survival.
Water plays a central role in our passages for today – as it should. Today, we remember Jesus’ baptism, and by extension, our own.
We start by recognizing the awesome, dangerous power of water as we see it in Psalm 29. If you’ve every stood near the bottom of a waterfall or sat in a kayak out in the ocean, we have a sense of what Psalm 29 is talking about. God is described as having power over even the most extreme and ferocious waters:
“The voice of the Lord is heard on the seas, the glorious God thunders, and God’s voice echoes over the ocean. The voice of the Lord is heard in all it’s might and majesty.”
And later we read:
“The Lord rules over the deep waters…”
The seas and the oceans were the ultimate mystery to the ancients. They were unknown, powerful and uncontrollable, yet God ruled over them with just the sound of his voice.
Then, we move to Matthew’s story of Jesus’ baptism. And once again we hear the voice of God over the waters.
All four of the Gospel writers tell us about Jesus’ baptism, and they share many similarities. They all happen in or near the waters of the Jordan. They all make mention of the Spirit of God, like a dove, descending upon Jesus. All but John make mention of a voice over the waters, sometimes audible to everyone and sometimes only to Jesus – “This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
Luke has clearly used Mark as resource, as his version of the baptism is nearly identical to Mark’s. John, as is his habit, tells the story in his own unique way. But Matthew follows the basic outline of the story from Mark and Luke, with the exception of one detail. Matthew mentions that when Jesus presents himself to John for baptism, John is hesitant.
The NRSV says – “John would have prevented him from receiving baptism…”
The Good News translation says: “But John tried to change Jesus’ mind…”
And The Message says simply – “John objected.”
John didn’t want to baptize Jesus, his own cousin. Strange. Why? The translations are all consistent – John believed that he was the one who should be baptized, not Jesus.
But Jesus is insistent. The NRSV has Jesus respond – “Let it be so for now. For it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”
The Good News says – “For in this way we shall do all that God requires.”
And the Message says – “God’s work, putting things right all these centuries, is coming together right now in this baptism.”
And so John agrees, and Jesus is baptized.
Over the years, people have been bothered by the fact that Jesus was baptized. They wonder – “Why, he was without sin, he doesn’t need to be baptized. Are we saying Jesus needed to be forgiven of his sins?”
No, in Jesus’ case, his baptism wasn’t done because he needed it, but because that was the will of God for everyone – so Jesus was obedient to God. Jesus’ baptism further reinforces his identity – he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and relives Israel’s history in a way, because he comes out of Egypt. (1) In sense, the world is re-created through Jesus’ baptism, and when the dove comes down from heaven and the voice of God speaks, the world is re-created as a place full of forgiveness and grace.
Jesus’ baptism is also an important milestone moment as well. It is like the coronation of a King. His baptism signals the fulfillment of God’s intentions for the one true King, the Messiah, to rule the world. What we see emerging from these dangerous, but comforting waters of baptism is a new kind of king who aligns himself with God’s kingdom. Jesus’ baptism signals his denial of the power of sin over him generally, but also a refusal to bow before any power but God – including the powers of state, country or empire that seek to dominate and oppress the people, as was happening in Jerusalem at the time, and can still be seen today. (2)
Our baptism certainly signifies a cleansing of the sin that took hold since the days of Adam and Eve. It is a sign of forgiveness and grace. It is a sign that we are now grafted onto the Body of Christ. In the classical understanding of the Reformers, our baptism is “a visible sign of God’s invisible grace.”
When we arise from the baptismal waters, we announce that we are committed to be part of the Jesus story, that we will follow Jesus’ ways, and we accept his fate as our own. We accept that we will often fly in the face of what our culture tells us to do. It means we side with the poor, the oppressed, those who are at risk and those who live on the margins. And that is sometimes dangerous, leaving us open to ridicule and sometimes harm – although it’s highly unlikely any of us will ever face the extreme that Jesus faced, death by crucifixion. It is nevertheless a dangerous endeavor to live out our baptism.
What we see here today as we ordain and install new officers is, in a sense, the third act of our baptism. The first act, of course comes when we were baptized, most of us as babies. The second act is when we are confirmed. The third act is when we answer the call to serve as an officer in the church, proclaiming our faith in a public way once more, pledging to lead the church in the ways of Jesus for the growth of God’s kingdom. The fourth, and final act, comes when we finish our earthly work, shuffle off this mortal coil, and join the great cloud of witnesses in God’s heavenly realm – then our baptism is complete.
Today, at the beginning of a new year, we celebrate Jesus’ baptism – and our own. We celebrate that the waters that began as a chaotic, uncontrollable force, now yield to the voice of God, which in Jesus’ baptism assures us that we are beloved children of God. In the waters of baptism, we are commissioned to follow the ways of Jesus and live out faith by serving to further God’s kingdom in this earth. In the dangerous waters of baptism we receive God’s comfort of Grace and Forgiveness.
These are the gifts we are called to share with the world.
May God be praised. Amen.
1. Timothy A. Beach-Verhey, Feasting on the Gospels, Matthew, Vol. 1, Westminster John Knox Press, 2013, p 44.
2. Stanley P. Saunders, Connections Year A, Vol. 1, Westminster John Knox Press, 2019, p 173.
