Second Sunday after Epiphany

Sermon

Text: John 1:29-42

Last week we talked about Jesus’ baptism, and how through it we see one more example of Christ entering the human condition. Our Messiah becoming one of us, going through what we go through, walking with us during the intensely hard and difficult moments of our lives. Our savior entering the beginning of his ministry and the salvation of the world through his death.

This week we hear the same story. Here we see the Gospel of John’s telling of Jesus’ baptism, while last week we heard Matthew’s. John the Baptist sees Jesus again on the road while John is walking with his own disciples. He declares to them, “John 1:29 "Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” “John 1:32 "I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him.” John 1:34 I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God." The Gospel writes in this way to not give John more power than he needs in the story. John is important not because he was the one who baptized Jesus, but that through this Baptism he testifies to who JESUS is.

And so, again we hear John stating for the second time in this passage, “Look, here is the Lamb of God!” Andrew and another of John the Baptist’s disciples decide to follow Jesus. And so they begin to do so, and Jesus sees them following him and he asks. “What are you looking for?”

They spent the whole day with him, and finally one of them, Andrew, goes and talks to his brother, Simon, and tells him that he has found the Messiah, the Anointed. Andrew brings Simon to Jesus and Jesus looks at him, and says, “You are Simon, you are to be called Cephas, Peter.”

There is a wonderful example of baptism in the book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis. The whole series is a way of showing the Christian life as an allegory to living in a world of adventure and out of this world events. In this book three children from this world have found themselves falling through a painting into the world of Narnia. One of the children, Eustace, is rather annoying and fails to help on-board the ship. They adventure to different islands and Eustace always tries to go off by himself not helping them gather the supplies they need. On one island this eventually catches up to him. He finds a gold armband and through it is transformed into a dragon. After many adventures trying to let the others know who he is, he flies off by himself thinking that he is a dragon forever. One night he has a dream, in his dream Aslan the Lion, who Lewis says represents Jesus in his books, comes and talks to him. He tells Eustace that he needs to be washed, that he needs to remove his dragon skin. Eustace tries to take some off himself, but cannot get anything off, every time more dragon skin is below. He turns to Aslan and using his claws he rips all of the dragon skin off, leaving him smooth and clean once again. Aslan then throws him into a pool of water, which stings for a bit, but then coolly refreshes him and all of his pain goes away.

Our baptism is not quite as dramatic, but it is nearly the same. Baptism is an event that occurs once and then continues to act. It is in the waters of our baptism that we are forgiven each week, each day, each minute. Baptism is the welcoming into the body of Christ. In Baptism we are connected to Christ’s own baptism. Just as the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was present at the Son’s Baptism, so are we baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our Baptism is a relationship with our Savior Jesus Christ. As the language of our psalm says, it lifts us up from the pit, our baptism frees us from the power of sin, it connects us with the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus takes all the dragon of us, all the scaly parts, the pains and hurts that we feel, and makes them smooth. We cannot remove them ourselves, our sin only continues to well up in us, but through Christ we are clean and smooth.

In “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” Eustace’s search for healing has made him finally ask the deepest questions. It takes him turning into a dragon, not being himself, turning into a monster for him to ask the question we all ask ourselves. What are we looking for? He is looking to be himself.

This is Jesus’ question to the disciples upon the road. “What are you looking for?” It could also be seen as “What do you want?” But, it is much more than an annoyed spurt of language. This is not as a parent annoyed at a child. A better understanding is: What do you seek? Or What do you desire or hope for? What do you strive for? Jesus in his first words asks them about their inmost desires. He looks into who they are and asks. They do not need to say anything first, Jesus begins the relationship with them immediately. It is the same in our baptism. In our baptism God asks of us, what do you desire? And God gives us what we ask for, community, relationship, importance, strength, freedom, and forgiveness. Baptism is more about God than about us. Baptism is a sign and a daily reminder to us that we have a God who seeks to be in relationship with us, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Jesus knows that this is our question, it is the question we constantly seek to answer. What are you looking for? We try to find our answers in every other part of our life. It is the simple, yet valuable question that we seek. Jesus gives us our question and answer. We constantly seek to find out who we are, we seek to rid ourselves of our scaly sinful selves. And it is only through the grace shown to us through his death upon the cross that we are given our answer. Our baptisms define who we are. It is the words of our God telling us that we matter, we are important, we are free from the powers of sin that invade our world. It is the water that washes us and makes us smooth, clean of the dirt and scratches of our lives. Baptism tells us that God knows who we are, God cares about us, and strives for us. God asks us what we are looking for because God is looking for us.

Let us pray,

God of knowledge, show us who we are, show us that it is you that defines us, tell us that it is you that gives us meaning, that it is you who restores us and makes us clean.

Amen