There are many famous last words:
“Either the wallpaper goes, or I do.”—Oscar Wilde
“Oh wow!”—Steve Jobs
Similarly, there are famous opening lines:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”—A Tale of Two Cities
“All this happened… more or less.”—Slaughterhouse Five
“Rosebud”—Citizen Kane
“The hills are alive with the sound of music.”—… well, The Sound of Music.
Often times these first and last words tell us a whole lot about the person who said them, or they lay out a plot or mystery clearly…
And Matthew confronts us with his own set of first and last words…
Today we read Jesus’ first words found in Matthew’s Gospel
—This baptism fulfills all righteousness.
Jesus’ last words in Matthew are on a similar subject
—Go to all the nations and Baptize them in the Triune name, for I am with you.
The good news Matthew offers us is about the righteousness of baptism and Jesus’ presence in it, with us.
Prayer
Isaiah writes to his people at a time where everything seems to have gone wrong. They’ve been kidnapped and dragged off to Babylon,
the king and his sons are dead,
the Temple is destroyed…
It would NOT be irrational to:
-wonder if God has stopped speaking
-think that Divinity’s last words have already been spoken…
But Isaiah writes about one who will make things right
—a servant of God, a beloved, one who pleases God
—who will make things right,
-who will erase the I and N from injustice, so that justice reigns.
-One who will teach the Babylonians and the various nations who have oppressed Isaiah’s people, how to be upright…
-One who will do a new thing!
And not only that
—all this, making things right,
…will be done without shouting,
or breaking,
or even so much as a jolt, that would put out a candle.
(To be clear, this is “Vegan Lion Café” territory!)
The wild thing about Isaiah’s promise is that
this Relentless Teacher of what is right,
this bringer of justice,
will do so in a way that itself is just and right…
It won’t be an “ends justify the means” kind of thing,
because the means and the ends are one in the same…
In other words he’s going to make an omelet without breaking some eggs.
Some six hundred years after Isaiah wrote these words,
their meaning was still astonishing.
So much so that even John the Baptist couldn’t imagine such a reality…
When he tells everyone about the one who comes to make all things right:
He warns the faithful that the Relentless Teacher will make things right like a lumberjack, chopping down bad trees.
He warns them that justice will be meted out the way a farmer winnows his threshing floor, burning chaff with an unquenchable fire.
Yet when Jesus comes he does so requesting to be baptized,
humbling himself before John,
showing the way he will make all things right.
I think that is what Peter means in his speech to Cornelius’ family,
who he has just baptized,
when he uses the phrase, “Peace by Jesus Christ.”
Jesus’ Lordship,
the kind of baptism these early Christians are baptized into (and we are as well)
is a peaceful joining with Jesus
—being part of the righting of the world,
without breaking the world in the process.
It’s about impartiality, doing good, and healing the bedeviled,
life beyond death, holy meals, God conversations, and forgiveness, in Jesus name.
That’s the kind of Baptism we are baptized into…
Baptism—in a way, God’s first words to us, mirroring Heaven’s words to Jesus, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
God’s first words to us, “You belong to Christ. You are God’s Child.”
This water,
God’s words of promise
—together…
Oh wow!
It simultaneously kills us and makes us alive!
The Old Creature in us
—that which would right the world with wrongs,
Sin, Death, and the Devil,
is spiritually drowned,
So that the New Creature,
Peace by Jesus, righteousness fulfilled in Jesus’ faithfulness
—Forgiveness, Redemption, Salvation that sticks,
might live in us.
Baptism—in a way, God’s last word to us. “I am the God of peace,
who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus;
I am with you even at the end and beyond the end.
I see you, a sheep of my own fold, a lamb of my own flock, a sinner of my own redeeming.”
Baptism, God’s words for us from first to last
—a bath joining us to Jesus’ gentle righteousness,
Water and Word poured out upon us,
so we, and all the world, might know peace by Jesus.
Amen and Alleluia.
