Baptism as epiphany

Baptism of the Lord
St Paul’s Church, Ipswich
12 January 2025

We are now in the season of Epiphany.

This is an elastic season that can be shorter or longer depending on the date of Easter each year. 

This year Epiphany last for 7 weeks, or 8 Sundays if we count last week when we had the feast of the Epiphany itself.

This is a time when the church invites us to pause and reflect on the many epiphanies—moments of insight and revelation—when we catch a fresh glimpse of God among us.

Last we celebrated the birth of Jesus and the visit of the magi. The greatest epiphany moment of them all.

This Sunday we are invited to reflect on Baptism as an Epiphany moment.

Over the next few weeks we shall reflect on various other epiphany moments:

• The miracle of the water becoming wine for the wedding at Cana (John 2).
• The epiphany of Jesus in the synagogue at Nazareth (Luke 4). We shall spend two Sundays on that episode.
• The epiphany of the miraculous catch of fish (Luke 5).
• The epiphany of Jesus that call us to think differently (Luke 6).
• And finally the epiphany of the transfiguration (Luke 9).

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is baptised by John.

This is a familiar story, and indeed we already heard the larger background story during Advent when we reflected on the role of John the Baptiser as a trail blazer— but also a spiritual master—for Jesus.

Finally today we get to the part of the story where Jesus gets to be baptised by John.

It is something of an anticlimax, and quite unlike the way the story is told in Mark and Matthew.

For Luke, the actual Baptism of Jesus is simply mentioned in passing:

Now when all the people had been baptised and when Jesus also had been baptised …

Luke is about to describe an epiphany moment for Jesus, but he makes no fuss at all about the actual Baptism itself.

We could rephrase Luke this way:

When everyone had been baptised, including Jesus …

Around the world today preachers will wax eloquent about the importance of the epiphany that Jesus experienced following his Baptism. The heavenly words and the outpouring of God’s Spirit upon Jesus, will be talked about at some length.

They are pretty amazing words, and it may be that we have a rare insight into the spiritual life of Jesus himself here.

Take some time during the week to read that section of Luke again. Perhaps the whole of chapter 3 in one go?

But today I want us to reflect on an aspect of the story where we may find a fresh epiphany, and one which we might so easily overlook.

I want us to think about the idea that Jesus was just one person in the crowd.

Now when all the people had been baptised and when Jesus also had been baptised …

We often think of Baptism as a very individual moment. 

This is especially so when an adult is being baptised.

There is something powerful when we hear an adult express their desire to be a follower of Jesus.

But for most Christians throughout most of history that has not been the case. They were baptised as infants and often in large ceremonies with many children being baptised at the one time.

Fundamentally, Baptism is about God’s choice of us; and that is always in the context of us being part of the people of God. Not simply me as an individual.

Later this morning I shall be baptising a little girl, Arabella. She turned 1 just a few weeks ago, so this is not something that Arabella has requested.

Rather, this is something that her home faith community, her family, has arranged for her.

They are claiming Arabella for Jesus, and they are claiming a place for Arabella among the people of Jesus.

There is a beautiful simplicity about the Gospel when we baptise a baby.

The child has not done anything special or expressed any faith. It is all about God’s action on our behalf, and also about the role of the wider community as we come to faith and then as we form our lives faithfully.

Even when the candidate for Baptism is an adult, there remains that collective element.

The adult candidate will speak for themselves, but they have sponsors who bring them to the water and then walk with them as companions on the way after the Baptism.

Indeed, the entire congregation are both witnesses and companions for each baptism candidates, regardless of their age.

We cannot be a solo Christian.

We need each other.

And that, I suggest, is the epiphany moment for us this week.

Look around the room and see the people God has placed us among.

We do this Jesus thing together with everyone else, just as Luke describes Jesus being baptised along with everyone else.

We are in this together.

That is our epiphany for this week.

And it is good news.