From 1993 to 1995 Alison and myself were sent by CMS to build bridges with Orthodox believers in Russia. We lived in the Orthodox seminary in St Petersburg. One of the many treasures that we found were icons, and especially icons from what is called the festival row, depicting the main events in the life of Jesus.
You were, I hope, given a card with the image C16th fresco that can be found in the monastery of Dionysos on Mount Athos.
The word above the man on the left holding out his hand is John (abbreviated), and the word above the man standing in the water is Jesus Christ.
It is an iconic (literally) representation of the baptism (Greek word at top is He Baptesis – just to make sure that we know what it is) of Jesus.
And I would like to spend a few minutes reflecting on this icon, because it gives some deep insights into how we might read the passages in Luke and other gospels, how we might reflect on our own baptism and how we can grow into allowing our baptism to shape everything that we are and do.
1. The baptism is all about Jesus.
God the Father points to Jesus. The dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit, comes down from heaven in bodily form and rests on Jesus; and the voice from heaven declares of Jesus: ‘You are my Son, the beloved. With you I am well pleased’. This is the first time that we see clearly the three persons of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and it is why the Baptism of Jesus is always the reading on the first Sunday of the epiphany: epiphany means revelation.
John, in our reading, points to Jesus. He says, “I am not worthy to undo his laces. He is far more powerful than me. I baptise with water; he will baptise with the Holy Spirit. He is the one who has come to judge the world”.
And if you look at the icon, you see how everything points to Jesus.
The ray from heaven, from the Father, points to Jesus.
John points to Jesus with his left hand.
The angels are looking at Jesus.
The figures in the sea (we’ll come to them later) are lifting their hands to Jesus.
And if we look to the left, we see another depiction of John and Jesus. And again, John is pointing to Jesus,
It is all about Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God.
On Tuesday I read an article in the Spectator titled ‘The end of the Church of England’.
“The tragedy of our dying Church is that when it finally disappears, few will gather around the grave to mourn an institution that has long since abdicated its real role. As it sinks into eternity, who will remember Hugh Latimer’s injunction to his fellow martyr Nicholas Ridley: ‘Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. For we shall this day light such a flame in England that I trust by God’s grace shall never be put out’?”
I don’t think that it is the end of the Church of England, but even if it is, so what?
What we are doing here is not about the Church of England; it is not about Archbishops or Bishops; it is not even about morality. It is about the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And, no doubt, there were a few editorial comments on that first Good Friday titled ‘the end of Jesus the Christ’.
2. The Baptism of Jesus is about his identification of himself with us.
What we see here is the divine descent.
Jesus has come from heaven to the earth and identifies himself with us in our brokenness.
He has come here into the pit, into the deep. The rocks tower up on the right and the left.
This is Philippians 2: Jesus strips himself of divinity and becomes one of us. He humbles himself and becomes obedient to death on the cross.
The baptism of Jesus is an echo of Christmas, when God became human, and a preview of the crucifixion. Jesus goes down into the water, as an act of obedience and love, just as three years later as an act of obedience and love he will allow them to lead him to the cross.
This really is Jesus emptying himself.
Notice how Jesus is almost naked. In many baptism icons he is completely naked. He is also bare footed, a symbol of humility.
And he is in the sea, a symbol of the primordial chaos out of which God brought life. The sea was the symbol of everything that was terrifying and out of control and that could overwhelm you. The two demi-gods in the water represent mythical sea creatures. The sea was a symbol of death
There will be no one here who does not know what it is like to be in the pit.
Our Christian hope is that we are not on our own. Christ has come down into the pit with us.
As the prophet said,
“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you” (Isaiah 43:2)
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, in his baptism chose to identify himself not with us in our achievements or success, but in the pit, in our brokenness, in our sinfulness, in our despair and in our death.
3. The Baptism of Jesus is about the transformation of the pit
Jesus has come into the waters of baptism, the waters of death, and he has radically reshaped them.
There are some verses from Psalm 114 which are often quoted in the Orthodox feast of the epiphany/baptism
“Why is it, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back?
6 O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the LORD, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water.” Psalms 114:5-8
Jesus came to shake mountains. He came to turn rocks into life giving streams of water.
The two figures in the water are often portrayed as the Jordan fleeing and the sea turning back – overcome by this overwhelming figure of Jesus.
He comes into the deep, the pit, he drives out the demons and he transforms the pit
And Jesus stands in the deep, an image of the ideal person.
He is represented as having an elongated nose, small ears, small mouth – you will see that on many icons. They reflect what the ancients perceived as ideal characteristics, what we will be like in our heavenly bodies.
With his right hand he is blessing the pit.
And we see the 15 fish, symbols of believers, swimming around him.
Jesus comes to our mountains and he shatters them. He turns our problems into opportunities and openings.
He comes to the rocks which block our way, and cause us to stumble, and he turns the flint into springs of living water – he turns our barren places into places where we meet with him.
He comes into death, and he destroys death. He turns our death into the door to life.
4. Our baptism is about our identification with Jesus
John reaches out and places his right hand on the head of Jesus. He is baptising Jesus, or – more accurately – identifying himself with Jesus as Jesus is baptised. (Notice that John’s role in baptising Jesus is minimised in Luke . It implies but does not specifically say that John baptises him)
That is one of the ways to see our own baptism: a reaching out, a touching of, an identification with Jesus.
Just as we went down into the water, or the water was poured over us – it doesn’t matter, and it doesn't matter whether it was our parents’ decision or our own adult decision – we were identified with Jesus in his baptism, we were united to him.
Please forgive me. There is the tasteless chicken crossing the road joke.
Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side
Why did the second chicken cross the road? It was superglued to the first.
Jesus was baptised, and in our baptism we are superglued to him.
So his humbling and obedience becomes our humbling and obedience
His death becomes our death
His Spirit is poured out on us and becomes our Spirit
Just as the voice from heaven proclaims that Jesus is his beloved son when he humbles himself and identifies himself with us, so when we humble ourselves and identify ourselves with him, at our baptism or in our mini daily baptisms, when we die to ourselves and come alive to him, we too can hear that voice declaring that we are beloved children of God.
And his resurrection will become our resurrection.
That is quite complicated. ut perhaps as we look at this fresco, this icon: we see the various ways that we live out what it means to be baptised people.
We see repentance. notice the ax in the bottom left. John calls people to repentance and declares that ‘even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire’ (Luke 3:9). We are called to a life of daily repentance
We see witnessing. as John on the left points to Jesus on the left: One hand points up to Jesus, the other points down: In John 3:30, John the Baptist says, ‘I must decrease, and he must increase.
We see discipleship. Again, on the left we see two figures, probably Peter and John. They are with Jesus, listening to Jesus, following Jesus. They are being taken up the mountain with Jesus
We see service. We look at the angels. Their hands are covered, a mark of humility, and they wait to serve Jesus as he comes out of the water. Mark writes that as Jesus comes out of the wilderness after being baptised and tempted, ‘angels ministered to him’.
And we see worship. In many icons of the baptism, and they all follow this sort of pattern, John’s left hand is lifted to heaven in praise. And here one of the angels, the one on the top right, is not looking at Jesus, but looking at the star, with covered hands raised. And even Jordan and the sea seem to be praising Jesus: “Praise the Lord .. you sea monsters and all deeps” (Psalm 148:7)
I hope that you have found that helpful. Please feel free to take the card home with you and reflect on the icon or on the words on the back.
The Son of God came down from heaven, he identified himself with us, and he is here with us in the pit. And with John the Baptist, in our baptism, we receive all he has given to us, and we identify ourselves with him - in the love of the Father, in his humility and obedience, in his death and in his resurrection.