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I’ve been fencing since I was 11 years old. That is very long time, a significant portion of my life. While I am certainly not the best out there, I’ve been doing it long enough that I can more than say I know a thing or two.
Now a lot of clubs like to do some kind of a set of exercises before starting open bouts (or matches) with one another. After fencing for many years, this gets pretty boring and feels unnecessary. After a while, drills and exercises no longer cut it to get better at fencing. There comes a point where the best way to advance as a fencer is to actually practice against others in a bout/match setting. It is at this point that pre-bout exercises feel tedious, so for many years I would intentionally show up late so I didn’t have to do them.
When I was in seminary, that started to change. I also had a really good relationship with the coach there, an English professor at the University and a fellow Birminghamian. More importantly, I made a close connection with the other fencers, all undergraduates. I started to realize, I needed to be doing these exercises, not for myself but to be with them and to help them. It was a way for me not just to connect with them and be one with them, but to lead by example as well.
It’s not fun doing beginner activities. How much more amazing is it that Jesus not only does the beginner thing He doesn’t need to do by getting baptized, but He also does so without complaining?
Baptism is the first step for all of us to join the church. It is the ultimate beginner’s action.
Yet Baptism is not just about joining the church, the Communion of Saints, the Body of Christ, and all the names we Christians, or followers of the Way as we were first known, go by. Baptism is how we turn back from focusing on ourselves. It’s how we return to God. It’s how we are restored in our relationship with God and made whole.
The Baptism of John was a form of this. As we learned in the Advent Season, John’s Baptism was one of repentance. It was about turning away from sin. It was about turning back from the old and starting anew in right relationship with God.
Jesus didn’t need any of that though. He didn’t need to turn back from sin. He is the only sinless person to ever walk this earth. Jesus didn’t need His relationship with God restored. He is God the Son, God come down into this world in human form. Jesus didn’t need anything in John’s Baptism. These were below even the basics for Him. These weren’t helpful to Him at all. Yet Jesus chose to go through with Baptism anyway.
Jesus did so because Baptism is an important step needed for all of us in this human life. Jesus got baptized to be in solidarity with us. Jesus was baptized to help led us by His example.
In the moment of His Baptism, Jesus is showing us the path we must take of turning around from ourselves and back into God’s hands. Jesus is showing us that He is a fellow human with us, even though he is perfect unlike us, and at the same time He is demonstrating what it means to be human. He is both in solidarity with us and leading us by example.
How appropriate is it then that on this day we celebrate a baptism too? On this day when Jesus shows us what it means to live as a human being in this world, we celebrate the start of this child both in this world and in his life of Faith. On this day where Jesus demonstrates what the path back to God looks like, we are here to help this child grow in such a way that he will never know a time when our Lord was not part of his life. On this day where Jesus shows us the way to receive His gift of Grace, we are helping mark the path to that Grace for this child.
The depth of Jesus’ love starts here. It starts with our Lord walking the path of Baptism with us, even though He alone did not have to. This love continues, not just for this child’s life, but for all of us. What we do here isn’t just fundamental for this child and his family. It is at the very core of our communal Faith.