Humility’s Great Reversal: the Second Sunday of Epiphany
Bazile, Castera. Baptism of Jesus, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=54305 [retrieved January 16, 2023]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PortAuPrinceMural.jpg
The second Sunday of Epiphany 2023
Reflection
Matthew 3:14 John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
By coming to his cousin John to be baptized, Jesus introduces a humility that reverses how things were thought to have been done. John says, “You should be baptizing me!” But righteousness is fulfilled by his agreeing to fully enter his role as baptizer of the Messiah.
The scripture says John consented to this reversal. Christ had already submitted himself to the Father’s way of doing things. And God affirms His Son’s identity by recognizing at the culmination of this scene.
But John had a choice. He could accept his role as the baptizer of His Savior or not. He does and thus points us to Christ. He has made the way in the wilderness for the One whom the Holy Spirit will empower to bring God’s kingdom on earth.
The virtue of humility does not make us stoop lower in shame or debasement. In fact, it calls us to enter our roles fully: as a parent, an artist, or a minister. John Dickson writes,
Humility is a willingness to hold power in service of others.*
The humble person, like Christ, does not shy away from the challenging work she is called to. She enters it. She submits herself to both the confines and empowerment of the role. She takes seriously the influence she has been given out of love and service to another.
Like John, we may think we are already living as the person Christ has asked us to, but Christ often asks us to step into our identities in a more significant way. We can choose to continue doing things how they were done out of disbelief or false humility. Or we can agree to join God in the great reversal of the kingdom.
In such a place, a disheveled wilderness prophet baptizes the Savior of the world. In this kingdom, we believe God when he says he treasures us as his beloved children. He gives us purpose and mission. And we join him in the river bringing about shalom, in whatever way he invites us to.
Swanson, John August. River, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58577 [retrieved January 16, 2023]. Original source: Estate of John August Swanson, https://www.johnaugustswanson.com/.
Scripture
Matthew 3:13-17
3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.
3:14 John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"
3:15 But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented.
3:16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
3:17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."
Art to Deepen Your Experience
Beginning with Beloved by Jan Richardson
Prayer
At the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan,
You proclaimed him Your beloved Son, anointing him with the Spirit;
Grant that we, who are baptized in his name, may keep our covenant,
and boldly confess him as Lord and Saviour.**
*John Dickson, Humilitas, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Kindle, 24.
**Benson, Robert. Venite: A Book of Daily Prayer. (Abingdon Press: Nashville), 2017, 25.
