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Ask a Theologian: Baptism of Jesus

Dear Theologian,

Why was Jesus baptized? Didn’t John’s baptism signify repentance for sins? Yet we say that Jesus was sinless. So what could baptism by John mean for Jesus?

Interested

Dear Interested,

The story of Jesus’ baptism by John derives from an actual historical event, scholars argue, precisely because the tradition was preserved even though it was awkward for Christian believers to deal with. Jesus’ submission to John’s baptism did not seem fitting, somehow. In Matthew’s version, the Baptist first objects that he should be baptized by Jesus, not Jesus by him. And in Luke, the story of Jesus’ baptism does not actually name John as the agent.

In the gospel accounts, there is no indication that Jesus is expressing repentance for his own sins when he goes down under the water. But one might think that he is entering into the larger meaning of John’s baptism: openness to the coming of the Kingdom of God. And some have interpreted his action as an expression of his solidarity with sinful mankind.

Although the gospel tradition provides no clarity about why Jesus submitted to the baptism or what this could have meant to him, it leaves no doubt about the meaning of Jesus’ revelatory experience when he comes up out of the water. This is the culminating event, as presented in all three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke). It expresses powerfully the unique relationship of Jesus to God.

Jesus sees the heavens “opened” and the Holy Spirit descending upon him in the form of a dove. And he hears the voice of God: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” (Mk 1:10-11; Mt 3:16-17; Lk 3:21-22)

 It is somewhat unclear whether it is only Jesus that experiences the vision and hears the voice of God, or whether others also see and hear. Luke’s version adds the detail that, after his baptism, Jesus was praying. This seems to indicate that the experience was unique to him.

In all three accounts, the baptismal experience precedes any public ministry of Jesus. It is a moment of God-given certainty about his identity as “Son” and as “Beloved,” and therefore also a decisive moment of awareness of his unique vocation and task.

What follows upon this experience is the irresistible impulse to go away into solitude, to be alone with God and with this new self-knowledge.

The time in the wilderness is, then, a period of struggling to interpret rightly the revelation of his unique status and call. He is tempted to false understandings of it, but resolutely chooses the stance of humility and utter obedience to God. Only then is he ready to begin his public ministry, in the course of which he will speak with authority and certainty the message of the Kingdom of God, and will give dramatic signs of the coming of that Kingdom in his exorcisms and healings.

Rightly understood, the story of Jesus’ baptism and the revelation which followed upon it is full of meaning for Christian believers. It may be regarded as one of the “mysteries” of Christ’s life (events with an infinite dimension of depth, to be entered into only through meditation and prayer). It is the mystery of his relationship to God as Father and his profound experience of being “Son.”

This is a mystery in which we somehow share. Upon each of us, too, the Holy Spirit descends with transforming power. To each of us, too, God says, “You are my son / my daughter; with you I am well pleased.”

St. Paul bears witness to this sharing of Christians in the “sonship” of Jesus:

“When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons [and daughters]. And because you are sons [and daughters], God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying ‘Abba! Father!’” (Gal 4:4-6)

“All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons [and daughters] of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption by which we cry ‘Abba! Father!’” (Rom 8:14-15)

We enter into our inheritance as sons and daughters of God when we are baptized into Jesus and accept him as our Savior and Lord. As his adopted brothers and sisters, we are able to relate to the unimaginable Mystery of God with utter trust and confidence.

“...in Christ Jesus our Lord ... we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.” (Eph 3:12) In the Eucharistic liturgy, the presider says, “as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say, ‘Our Father.”[1]

There is another perspective on Jesus’ baptism which is also basic to our Christian identity as sharing in his mystery. One might view his going down into the water as his submission to the Father’s will and his dedication to the unique vocation he was given. Ultimately, of course, that would involve his being rejected, undergoing great suffering, and dying a shameful death.

He himself uses the metaphor of baptism to refer to the ordeal which lies before him. “I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed!” (Lk 12:50)

Our own sacramental baptism signifies our identification with Christ in the Paschal Mystery of his death and resurrection (Rom 6:3-11). This means that we, like Jesus, dedicate ourselves to the vocation God gives us and that we, like him, submit humbly to the will of the Father for our lives. In a way, our baptism signifies our taking upon ourselves our own unique sharing in the mystery of God’s redeeming love for the world.

What Jesus says to James and John, he also says to each of us who have been given a share in the meaning of his baptism: “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.” (Mk 10:39) Knowing what this implies, we might be afraid, but we trust utterly in the Father, as Jesus did. “If we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Rom 6:5)

Faithfully,

The Theologian 

The Rev. Dr. Wayne L. Fehr wrote a column for a previous version of the diocesan newsletter called Ask a Theologian. He answered questions from ordinary Christians trying to make sense of their faith. Now he's back with a monthly column once again. You can find and purchase his book on Tracing the Contours of Faith: Christian Theology for Questioners here.

[1] BCP, p. 363, emphasis added.

Ask a Theologian: Christmas

Dear Theologian,

I will be getting again a lot of greeting cards that say “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings.” What happened to “Merry Christmas”? As a matter of fact, why do we still call this holiday season “Christmas”? What does it have to do with Christ?

Old-fashioned Christian

Dear Christian,

The familiar word “Christmas” comes down to us from an earlier age, when people lived by the liturgical calendar and every great feast was observed by attending Mass (the Holy Eucharist). Certain days of the year were designated by “whose” Mass was being celebrated. In such a world of faith, the day of Christ’s nativity was naturally called “Christ-Mass” (Old English Cristes maesse).

But why do we still use such an explicitly Christian word to designate our secularized winter holiday season? Has the word perhaps lost its original meaning? Does our present-day “Christmas” actually still have anything to do with Christ?

It’s a question worth asking, as we experience each year the relentless pressure of Christmas shopping and listen endlessly to Christmas music from Thanksgiving Day until December 25.

Let’s begin with some history. In the earliest period of Christianity, there was no firm tradition about the date of Jesus’ birth. It was only in the fourth century that the Church began to celebrate the birth of Christ in late December, perhaps in order to counteract the license and debauchery of the pagan festival of Saturnalia, held at the time of the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year). Some have also speculated that the date of December 25 was chosen as a Christian rival to the pagan festival of “the unconquered sun” (sol invictus) celebrated on that date.

When missionaries later brought the good news of Christ to the Germanic tribes, they had to adapt the Church’s life to a culture very different from the Greco-Roman world in which Christianity had begun.

People in the northern lands traditionally responded to the change of season by celebrating a kind of “winter festival.” Evergreens and mistletoe brought life and color into their homes, and a blazing fire (the Yule log) kept away the darkness and bitter cold. It was a time when people gathered to eat and drink, sing and dance, exchange gifts and experience the joy and security of being together. Hence the December celebration of Christ’s birth gradually became interwoven with the old Germanic customs, and the folklore of Christmas as we know it began to develop.

Keeping this in mind, we might be able to appreciate better the kind of Christmas celebration that has gradually taken shape here in the United States. In colonial days the observance of Christmas was often raucous and disorderly, marked by carousing and drunkenness. The Puritans wanted to ban it altogether. In the nineteenth century, an effort was made to calm things down by introducing the custom of exchanging cards and gifts and celebrating the warmth and closeness of the family. Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol was influential.

Later in the nineteenth century, the myth of Santa Claus and his reindeer became prominent through the influence of a poem, “‘Twas the Night before Christmas,” and a series of vivid illustrations in magazines. Few Americans today are aware of how recently these now omnipresent themes were introduced.

What has resulted is a peculiar mixture of a more or less secular “winter festival” with images of the baby Jesus (with accompanying angels, shepherds, Joseph and Mary, and the wise men from the East). Some of the special music is devoutly Christian, with beloved carols dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But much of it simply expresses the various aspects of the winter festival, which now includes the Santa Claus myth.

How is all this to be regarded from the viewpoint of Christian faith? How can some of us still find Christ in the American “Christmas”?

Despite the commercialism and materialism, there are some positive values in our December festival, even when Christian faith is totally absent from it.

People decorate their homes with outdoor lights and set up richly decorated evergreen trees in their living rooms. It’s a time to prepare for the gathering of families – by sending greeting cards, buying gifts, laying in a good supply of holiday food and drink, making travel arrangements. “Home for the holidays!” It’s a time of special delight for the children in our homes. The tree, the toys, the colored lights, the music, the special food, and the excitement all combine to create a feeling of the magical.

This ”winter festival” could be viewed as our human spirit’s response to the challenge of cold and darkness. It could be seen as an affirmation of life and warmth and joy, despite the harsh conditions, as people gather out of separate, busy lives in order to be together in a festive spirit, to eat and drink, exchange gifts, and feel the warmth of family.

None of this need be denied or minimized when we add the dimension of Christian faith. For Christ elevates and transforms human nature without destroying it. If we confess Jesus to be the Lord of all things, there is a magnificent depth of meaning to the winter festival, and a reason for joy in the midst of the darkness of human suffering and sin. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (Jn 1:5)

Our human effort to affirm life against the forces of death, to create a warm, cheerful, well-lighted place against the cold and darkness, to celebrate the bonds of family and friendship despite our conflicts and wounds — all this is now undergirded and validated and filled with transcendent power by the everlasting Love which has taken on an earthly, human presence.

In Christ, and because of Him, our celebration of the winter festival can become radiant with the light of God. And our sound human impulses to be of good cheer and to be good to one another are affirmed and empowered by the Grace that has manifested itself in our midst.

 Merry Christmas!

 The Theologian

The Rev. Dr. Wayne L. Fehr wrote a column for a previous version of the diocesan newsletter called Ask a Theologian. He answered questions from ordinary Christians trying to make sense of their faith. Now he's back with a monthly column once again. You can find and purchase his book on Tracing the Contours of Faith: Christian Theology for Questioners here.

Ask the Theologian: God and the Devil

Dear Theologian,

If God is the Creator of all that is, where did the Devil come from? Was the Devil created by God? But that would make God the author of evil! Putting the question another way: Isn’t everything that is created by God “very good” (Gen 1:31)? Then where does evil come from? How is evil even possible?

~Puzzling Over Good and Evil

Dear Puzzling,

Christian tradition considers the Devil to be a “fallen Angel,” that is, a spiritual being that was created by God but refused to subject his will to God’s will. As created, the Angel was “good,” just as all things created by God are good. But this Angel used his freedom to reject God and to choose alienation and misery. He thus became “evil” himself, and a principle of evil that seeks to draw others into sin.

It’s important to note here that authentic Christian faith does not consider the Devil to be an equal of God. It’s not as if there were two equal principles—one good and one evil—endlessly battling each other. This kind of dualism is really alien to the Christian understanding that God is the Creator of all things.

But we’re still left with the puzzle that you have named. If what God creates is good, how can it “go bad?” Where does evil come from? In fact, as you put it, how is evil even possible?

Before tackling this, let’s make a distinction between “physical evil” and “moral evil.” Earthquakes, floods and diseases are examples of physical evil (for the human beings affected by them). Many thinkers have struggled to reconcile such events with the belief that God’s created world is “very good.” From our limited point of view, it often doesn’t seem that way.

I want to limit this discussion to “moral evil”—that is, the malicious choice by a free, rational creature to do what is harmful to self and others. History is replete with examples of this, both great and small. We might think spontaneously of the Nazis’ cold-blooded carrying-out of genocide against the Jews. But there are other examples from more recent years in places such as Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and Rwanda. Moral evil on such a scale staggers and sickens the human heart.

There are also the smaller, less public instances of moral evil that occur constantly on all sides—causing great harm and suffering. We hear about them every day in the news media. And then there is the moral evil in ourselves that, if we are honest, we must discover and repent of.

So, although we believe in God as the totally good Creator of all that is, we have to recognize that the world God creates is actually shot through with moral evil. How can we account for this state of affairs? Why would God create a world where such things are possible?

At this point, we come up against the sheer paradox of “created freedom.” In creating, God really “lets” things exist on their own, apart from God. And some of the beings that God “lets be” have the freedom to choose either good or evil.

But why would God create a world in which some of God’s creatures can and do choose moral evil? The answer has to be sought in some understanding of why freedom is apparently so important to God. What God ultimately intends, we believe, is the free response of God’s creatures to the Love which creates and redeems them. And it is only beings who can choose either good or evil who can freely choose the good.

So, we might say that God takes a great risk in creating—the risk that the creatures will choose evil and “nothingness” rather than the fullness of being that God intends for them.

But this is not the whole story. The Love which “lets” the creatures exist as free beings, capable of choosing evil, does more than create. As Christian faith affirms, this Love also enters personally into the created order to redeem and save the creatures who would otherwise be “lost.”

In Christ’s incarnation, death and resurrection, evil is overcome by good. And those who participate now in his suffering look forward to a future in which they will participate in his glory. In the meantime, they are called to embody his saving love, which alone can counter the moral evil in the world.

To return to your original question, we might say this: God did not create “a Devil.” God created a spiritual being (an “Angel”) whose very existence sprang from the unqualified goodness of God. The Angel who chose evil became “the Devil” by his own free choice.

Following the same line of thought, God does not create “morally evil beings.” God creates beings that are fundamentally good insofar as they spring from God’s utter goodness. But the creatures endowed with freedom can and do sometimes choose moral evil. Even so, they do not become totally evil.

Furthermore, Christian faith recognizes in Christ the permanent, unswerving intention of God to forgive and reconcile all who will renounce evil and choose good once again. No one, in this view, is absolutely “lost” except by stubbornly choosing to remain in that condition. The Christian theologian Origen (third century) speculated that even the Devil would ultimately “turn back” to God and be reconciled with the Love that holds him in being.

Moral evil is an anomaly in the God-created world, to be sure. In principle, it “should not be.” But in actuality, it appears to have been part of the human scene from the very beginnings of human life. Nevertheless, the faithful and merciful Love that is at the heart of things has also been present from the beginning. That Love has become flesh in Christ, and has been victorious over sin and death.

It is for us to bear witness to Him in the way we encounter the moral evil in the world. We are to do our best to live by St. Paul’s words to the believers in Rome: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom 12:21).

Faithfully,

The Theologian

The Rev. Dr. Wayne L. Fehr wrote a column for a previous version of the diocesan newsletter called Ask a Theologian. He answered questions from ordinary Christians trying to make sense of their faith. Now he's back with a monthly column once again. You can find and purchase his book on Tracing the Contours of Faith: Christian Theology for Questioners here.