Jesus' Scandalous Baptism

First Sunday after the Epiphany – Baptism of Our Lord

Isaiah 43.1-7; Luke 3.15-17, 21-22

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

The first Sunday after the Epiphany is always the commemoration of the Baptism of Our Lord – when Jesus went to the River Jordan to be baptized by John. While we take this event in stride, we really shouldn’t. Because quite honestly, the Baptism of Jesus is actually quite scandalous.

Why do I say this? Consider what we know about the circumstances of Jesus’ Baptism. We are told that John proclaimed “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Lk 3.3). So far so good. But we also believe that Jesus, as the One who is fully human and fully divine, as the Son of God, must therefore be without sin. This sets up a theological conundrum, a disconnect in our way of viewing Jesus and this particular event in his life. If baptism is for the forgiveness of sin, and if we believe that Jesus was without sin, then why was Jesus baptized? What would possess Jesus to want to be baptized? Didn’t he have anything better to do that day?

Read more!

What Gift Will You Lay Before the King?

The Epiphany

Matthew 2.1-12

St. Gregory’s, Long Beach

As quickly as it started, the 12-day season of Christmas is over and we enter a new season, Epiphany, celebrating the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ. Which is also what Christmas is about. So Epiphany is really just a continuation of Christmas. But instead of emphasizing the birth of Jesus, the season of Epiphany emphasizes the ongoing ways in which God is manifest in and through Jesus.

The icon for this season, or at least for the Feast of the Epiphany, is the appearance of the Magi. While we often think of the Magi as being part of the Christmas story, they really are not. This is because in our imagination we have conflated Luke’s narrative of the birth of Jesus with Matthew’s account of the Magi. In reality, these are two different stories, with the Magi arriving not on the night Jesus was born, but rather sometime later. Based on Herod’s actions later in Matthew’s story, the Magi could have arrived up to two years after Jesus’ birth.

Read more!