Monday, January 3, 2011

Matthew 3:13-17

Jesus, Israel of God

Jeffrey Gibbs wrote an article in the July 1, 2002 issue of Catholic Biblical Quarterly entitled “Israel Standing with Israel: the Baptism of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel” ** inwhich he made a good case that Jesus in his role of submitting to John's baptism is Israel. We have just seen this in the flight to Egypt wherein Jesus reenacts and fulfills the Mosaic prototype. Ditto in the wilderness temptation where he, unlike Israel of the Pentateuch, comes out of the wilderness with a passing mark. His triumph comes as he suffers depredations and temptations to idolatrous power just as Israel at Horeb, accepting his emptiness with faith that God will provide. There is no silver spoon. 

Which is why he submitted to John to be baptized. To compare their respective baptisms - Jesus' and John's - really misses the mark. I suppose we could imagine Jesus coming into his own, coming out of the Egyptian sojourn and boyhood in a processional of angels who wash him in light as he walks onto the Galilean stage – but that would not be the way of Israel's God. 

Israel's God came to a wandering Aramean without country or prospects. Israel's God does not disdain plain water for drinking, cleaning, and ritual. Or to get dirty fighting with Jacob (Israel) at the Jabbok. Or to bless birth in a barn. Or to open up the genealogies of his chosen people to include the names of women and aliens, even if it's not PC. Or to give Job his prayer space to rail at heaven. You get the picture. No, Jesus will be baptized in water like everybody else in Israel who, in his or her own messy, earthbound manner, is looking for the promise.

And when he is wetted and standing there dripping in the Jordan, the Spirit will join Him as his Father says “That's the way it's done, son! Exactly."

As Christian caregivers, we find ourselves, at some point, with someone who is watching a loved one suffer, and that person asks us, “Why is God letting this happen?” Of course if we try to answer with something pious or reasoned we will only embarrass ourselves. All that we really know about God in that moment - all that can be said – is that he is with us, sharing the hurt. Perhaps that is the greatest truth claim of the Christian faith. That he is with us, the people of his promise, getting wet just like we do.

© '2011' Andy Gay