Don Friesen
Years ago I read an espionage thriller entitled The Eagle Has Landed (1975), written by Jack Higgins. I always associated that phrase with Higgins' title, unaware that it was used a few years earlier when the space module named "Eagle" touched down on the soft dust of the moon's surface (July 20, 1969) and Neil Armstrong radioed to earth, "Houston, ... The Eagle has landed."
The landing of the Eagle was tracked on 450 computer consoles and watched by millions, but those watching were quite unaware that computer alarms kept threatening to abort the landing; unaware that Armstrong had to take over manually when the weird and flimsy Eagle headed for a crater strewn with boulders; and unaware that when Armstrong radioed, "The Eagle has landed," he had but 20 seconds of fuel left! (Harold Evans, The American Century, 1998)
Well, a week ago this morning the planet Mars woke up to a visitor. The Spirit had landed. I'm not sure how the brain trust at NASA came up with this name for a robotic golf cart, but there it is, moving about on Mars and sending back snapshots, or postcards, as the press likes to call them.
The Mars landing has not gone unnoticed, especially by its detractors. Local columnist Randall Denley conceded that the mission to Mars will be less destructive than the mission to Iraq, "and as likely to uncover weapons of mass destruction." ("Earth to Mars geeks: Get real," Ottawa Citizen, page D1) David Letterman confessed that he has never before seen such high resolution photographs of sand! To me the Mar-scape looks a lot like Saskatchewan, but without Saskatchewan's lush foliage and interesting people.
A Snapshot of the Spirit Descending
In Today's Gospel reading the Holy Spirit landed on Jesus (Luke 3:22), and if it's fascinating to see photographs taken from more than 34 million miles away -- that's almost 56 million kilometres in Canadian dollars -- then it's just as fascinating to examine a snapshot from 2,000 years away!
The snapshot of Jesus' baptism Luke sends to us is fascinating because if you look at it closely there are some glaring omissions. In the other three Gospels John the Baptist is prominent; he is the one who baptizes Jesus. In Luke, however, John is not in the baptismal picture! In fact, a few verses earlier we are informed that he's in jail! (Luke 3:20) So John's not in the picture, and if we pore over this snapshot as studiously as NASA scientists pore over the snapshots from Mars, we would conclude that who baptized Jesus is not all that important to Luke.
Whatever Luke's reasons for minimizing John's role, the three elements that are prominent in Luke's snapshot are the opening heavens; the descending dove; and the heavenly voice expressing God's love and pleasure.
Now, the opening heavens may simply be a literary way for Luke to signal that something is about to descend, but in the next chapter Luke refers to the time of Elijah, "when the heavens were shut up for three and a half years, and there was a severe famine over all the land...." (Luke 4:25; 25a, Phillips) It may be stretching the image, but if the "shutting up of the heavens" results in famine and all that goes along with famine -- hunger, sickness, death -- perhaps the "opening of the heavens" symbolizes the arrival of something much more favourable -- abundance and life!
The opening of the heavens also brings to mind a reference in the preceding chapter when the heavens opened to reveal a "multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!'" (Luke 2:13-14)
The second element in Luke's baptismal snapshot is the dove, a symbol of God's peace that made its debut in the story of Noah and the flood. (Genesis 8:8-12) It is also a symbol of God's Holy Spirit -- an allusion that will take on poignancy in the next chapter when Jesus reads from the scroll of Isaiah, saying, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour." (Luke 4:18-19)
And then, the third element in Luke's baptismal snapshot -- the heavenly voice expressing God's love and pleasure. It's interesting that God is already "well pleased" with Jesus. Jesus hasn't done anything yet; it's only in the verse that follows that Jesus begins his work. (Luke 3:23) It's an interesting observation for those of us with an emphasis upon doing the will of God. Is God "well pleased" with us because we do things that please God? Or does God have a favourable attitude toward us because of who we are, and because of God's love for us, expressed even before we have done anything pleasing or non-pleasing?
Signal #1: Baptism Is a Relational Experience
The media informed us a week ago that within hours of touchdown, Spirit -- the interplanetary golf cart -- beamed back images from its new home, stunning snapshots that elicited excited shouts from mission controllers. Well, it wasn't long after the Spirit -- the inter-cosmos Holy Spirit -- had descended and landed on Jesus that this Spirit began sending out significant signals. The golf cart will be sending signals for about three months; the Holy Spirit has been signalling the contours and content of Christian faith for at least twenty centuries!
And the first signal received from Jesus' baptism has to do with baptism's relational character. Luke's baptismal snapshot, beamed from 2,000 years away, is an interesting picture. As I already pointed out, John the Baptist is missing from the picture. There's also no water explicitly mentioned in Luke's account of Jesus' baptism. We aren't told where Jesus is baptized; we aren't told who baptizes him. In fact, Luke seems less interested in the baptism than in the relationship it signifies. The words Luke uses of this relationship express the closest kind of familial and emotional bond. Jesus is "my Son," he is "the Beloved," and he is one with whom God is "well pleased". There is no doubt that with the relationship goes responsibility -- the relationship implies obedience and the gift of the Spirit implies a mission -- but Jesus' baptism had to do with his relationship with God, and with the identity this relationship bestows upon him.
Signal #2: Baptism Is a Positive Experience
The second signal sent out by Jesus' experience is that baptism is a positive experience. It is a redemptive experience. It is customary to emphasize the cleansing aspect of baptism. When one particular rogue (Sam Houston) was baptized, the minister told him that the waters of the river flowing over him in baptism would take away all of the sins and impurities he had accumulated on his soul -- and he had accumulated quite a number! Reflecting for a moment, the rogue said, "Well, now, I purely feel sorry for the people living downstream who have to drink that water."
There is no doubt that baptism signifies repentance -- a change in one's life -- but the aspect of cleansing is missing from Luke's version of Jesus' baptism and I don't think it's entirely because of the tradition developed very early in the church that Jesus was sinless. The emphasis in Jesus' baptism is on God's favour, bestowed on him even before he has done anything favourable.
John the Baptist used harsh language when preaching about the kingdom of God. He talked about judgment and fire and chaff -- garbage, refuse, really -- that about us which is worthless. This week I read about a Canadian country music singer who left Nashville because, as he described it, the Nashville music industry is "full of blatant sexuality, every wickedness, evil, greed, vanity ... God-hating insolence, arrogance and boastfulness." ("Country star puts faith first," ChristianWeek, January 6, 2004, page 1) That's quite a mouthful! Maybe country music deserves that characterization -- I don't know -- but it occurred to me that if this particular singer's primary Christian witness is to point out the chaff around him, it's not a very compelling witness!
We need to remember that Jesus' primary aim was not to burn the chaff, but to save the wheat! It's a little like the joke someone sent me concerning a big bowl of apples in a school cafeteria. At one end of the cafeteria line was a basket of apples next to a big sign declaring, "Take only one. God is watching!" At the other end of the cafeteria line, there was a big bowl of cookies, and on a paper napkin next to the bowl someone had written, "Take all the cookies you want; God is watching the apples!"
Jesus' baptismal experience conveys a significant difference in emphasis and a different conception of God. Unlike John, Jesus does not proclaim the coming of the angry judge of the world who is watching our every nasty move, but the intimate nearness of God. Unlike John, Jesus does not signal the arriving kingdom through threats of judgment and with an ascetic lifestyle, but through signs of grace and acts of mercy and compassion.
Signal #3: Baptism Is a Transforming Experience
A third signal sent by the Spirit landing on Jesus is that baptism is a transforming experience. If you've seen the movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? you may recall the escaped convict who emerges from the baptismal waters declaring, in all earnestness, "I been redeemed! My sins are warshed away!" His fellow convict, however, says that the state of Louisiana may have a different opinion about the matter. The Louisiana authorities were still waiting for a reckoning with respect to some of this man's sins. To his credit, this newly baptized fellow bears exuberant witness to his faith throughout the rest of the movie, but it doesn't appear to deter him in the least from robbing banks!
I was quite moved, however, by a baptismal story that took place in the United States during the Civil War. There was a devout chaplain in the Confederate camps who preached the Gospel quite fervently, and a soldier by the name of Goodwin was converted. Goodwin seized upon the idea of being baptized in the nearby river (Rapidan River), but the river was the dividing line between the Confederate and Union troops in that area of Virginia. The Confederate officers tried to discourage the baptismal idea, knowing that anyone approaching the river was sure to picked off by Union snipers. Goodwin was determined to be baptized into his newfound faith, however, so the officers finally agreed. (recounted in a 1917 issue of Confederate Veteran)
It was wintertime -- November, 1863 -- when Reverend Ragland, Goodwin, and about fifty Confederate soldiers left their weapons behind and cautiously made their way down to the river. Union soldiers, perplexed by these unarmed men wading out into icy waters, held their fire. The Confederate soldiers began to sing:
A fourth signal sent from Jesus' Spirit landing 2,000 years away is that baptism is an indelible experience. Some years ago I told you the story of three priests who shared a problem; they all had bats in the belfries of their respective churches. It was a nuisance, and a messy one at that, and they all tried to get rid of the bats. However, only one of them succeeded. The first priest took out his shotgun and shot at the bats, but to little effect except for the damage the bullets inflicted on the building! The second priest captured the bats, drove them fifty miles out of town and released them, but the bats were back in the belfry before the priest even got back to town. Both priests were amazed at the success of their other colleague, and they asked him, "How did you do it?"
"Oh," he said, "I simply baptized them, and I haven't seen them since!"
Unfortunately, this may be true of many Christians. Jack Higgins, who wrote the book, The Eagle Has Landed, also wrote a book entitled The Eagle Has Flown (1990). That describes some church members! They pledge loyalty to a congregation, but rarely participate in the activities and decision-making without which a church cannot function.
When the Mars buggy landed a week ago, the buggy's handlers expected a series of bounces that could send the robot up to four stories high and more than a mile from its landing spot! Similarly, one is never quite sure when and where people, when they become members of the church, are going to land!
Upon baptism Jesus began his work, and if we do not do the same the signals we send are not in congruence with the signal Jesus sent at his baptism. While Luke omits several details prominent at Jesus' baptism according to the other Gospels, Luke himself uses a unique and interesting phrase, saying that "the Holy Spirit descended upon (Jesus) in bodily form like a dove." (Luke 3:22) Only Luke uses the phrase, "in bodily form," and someone (Jensen) has suggested that the phrase has the character of permanence. That is, the Spirit not only descends upon Jesus; it will remain upon Jesus.
The Greek words for "baptize" used in the New Testament lend some credence to this interpretation. There exists a document from 200 years before Jesus written by a Greek poet and physician named Nicander. It's a recipe, actually, a recipe for making pickles and in the recipe Nicander suggests that in order to make a pickle the vegetable should first be "dipped" -- the word used is bapto -- it should be dipped into boiling water and then "baptised" -- baptizo -- in a vinegar solution. Both verbs concern the immersing of vegetables in a solution, but the first is temporary. The second, the act of baptising the vegetable, produces a permanent change, and it's the second word that is used in the New Testament. Baptism is more than dipping; it's more than intellectual assent; it's more than a temporary inclination. Once steeped in brine, you're a pickle for life! (Bible Study Magazine, James Montgomery Boice, May 1989)
The same Greek word (baptizo) was used in the first century for dipping a light-coloured garment into a dye. Once the fabric was dipped into the dye the garment -- its colour, its appearance, its identity -- was changed! The change was permanent. At baptism we receive an indelible character that consecrates us to Jesus. We can't shake it off. Just like it's very difficult to eradicate a permanent tattoo, so it takes a lot of persistent evil-doing to blur the baptismal imprint.
Baptism fulfills, in a very personal way, the words of our Isaiah reading. God says to us, "I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine." (Isaiah 43:1) When the Spirit of God lands upon our being, God also gives us His promise: "When you pass through the waters (of adversity), I will be with you; ...they shall not overwhelm you.... ...you are precious in my sight, and honoured, and I love you...." (43:2 and 4)
Pleasing the One Who Takes Pleasure in Us
The pictures coming back from Jesus' baptism indicates that baptism is a relational experience; a positive, redemptive experience; a transforming experience, and an indelible experience. What is left for us then, but to try to please the One who takes pleasure in us.
Thomas Huxley, the British essayist, said that his wife looked upon their children's baptism as "as a kind of spiritual vaccination without which the youngsters might catch Sin in worse forms" later in life. Something like a flu shot; you might get the flu anyway, but hopefully its negative effects will be minimized. Baptism does not inoculate us from serious spiritual failures; it does not immunize us from serious spiritual infections. Rather, it marks our fellowship with God and with each other. Baptism is our identifying mark, a constant reminder to us and to others that we're accepted into God's fellowship and that we propose, with God's help, to live in hope and peace. It is to us a reminder that God loves us and delights in us, and in that spirit of approval we are pleased to go on from there, growing and maturing into sons and daughters of God.
Walt Whitman, the nineteenth-century American poet, had quite a time getting anyone to believe in his writing, and it discouraged him greatly. And then one day he received a note which read: "Dear Sir, I am not blind to the worth of the wonderful gift of Leaves of Grass. I find it the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed. I greet you at the beginning of a great career." The note was signed by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Whitman took great encouragement from that note, as well he should, and from that day continued to write with a good measure of confidence.
I imagine that Jesus left his baptism with a strong and confirmed sense of his identity and destiny, for to experience the love and favour of God leaves an indelible mark upon us. God was pleased with him, delighted with him! And God expressed His pleasure and delight! Certainly some doubt would remain, as revealed in his Gethsemane experience, but the Divine approval with which he began his ministry must have motivated and strengthened him throughout his life.
Jesus' baptismal experience revealed God's delight in him, but God does not reserve His shower of approval for one child alone; God loves all of His children and finds His pleasure and delight in all of us. God is a God full of grace and mercy, and so we identify with Jesus' identity and purpose, not because of fear, but because God's loving acceptance and approval inspire our deepest loyalty and service.
Baptism is not the completion of our spiritual journey; rather, it marks the beginning! Baptism signifies a sustained commitment to Christ's ministry, a deep commitment that lasts beyond an initial infatuation period. The work of Christian ministry never ends. The work of building up the Body of Christ -- the Church -- never ends. The work of Christian service never ends. At baptism we accept not only God's love and mark of approval but God's call to serve in the manner that Christ served, looking forward to that ultimate approval, when God will tell us: "Well done, good and faithful servant... enter into the joy of your master." (Matthew 25:21, RSV)
"There is a fountain filled with blood,
Moved by the sight, and the singing, some of the Union soldiers left their weapons, and lining up along the opposite side of the riverbank, joined in the singing:
Drawn from Emmanuel's veins;
And sinners plunged beneath that flood,
Lose all their guilty stains."
"Redeeming love has been my theme,
Signal #4: Baptism Is an Indelible Experience
And shall be ‘til I die."
All quotations of Scripture, unless otherwise noted, are from the New Revised Standard Version.