Isaiah 43:1-7
But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.
For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you.Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you,
I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life.
Do not fear, for I am with you;
I will bring your offspring from the east,
and from the west I will gather you;
I will say to the north, “Give them up,”
and to the south, “Do not withhold;
bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth—
everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in
their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by
saying, “I baptize you with water; but
one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong
of his sandals. He will baptize you with
the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his
hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary;
but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” So,
with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people….
Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been
baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in
bodily form like a
dove. And a voice
came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the
word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.
The two went
down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit(for as yet the Spirit had not
come upon any of them; they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord
Jesus). Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and
they received the Holy Spirit.
SOME BACKGROUND
Isaiah 43
Israel struggled with God. When
they lost their kingdom their faith was shaken.
Some thought God failed them by not protecting them from their enemies,
and wondered about God’s power. Others
believed God was punishing them for their unfaithfulness, and wondered if God
would ever favour them again. Together
they feared their history as God’s people had come to an end. But the prophet offers hope of God’s continuing love and power through the
difficult times.
The references to Egypt, Ethiopia and Seba are reminders of the ancient exodus from Egypt and the first gift of the promised land when God saw the people through difficult times in the past.
Walking through water is a strong image in Israel’s journey with God – through the Red Sea in the exodus from Egypt, through the Jordan when they entered the land of Canaan, and now (about 700 years later) through the Jordan again as they return from Babylon to the land of Israel.
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
By preaching about the kingdom of God in language drawn from Isaiah, and offering baptism in the Jordan, John invites the people to remember and relive those old through-the-water journeys. The message is, “Just as our ancestors journeyed through water out of Egypt and into the promised land – more than once, let us now also make that same journey from our old ways of being, into new and renewed life as the people of God in this land through the water of penitence and renewal.”
And then, the Gospels say, Jesus shows up as
the one who offers not only a symbolic ritual, but the real thing – not only
water as a symbol of rebirth and renewal, but the Spirit of God which is the
power of rebirth and renewal.
When the early church of Jesus began to spread out from Jerusalem into
other areas, the disciples wanted to be sure the church remained a community of
new and right life by the power of the Spirit.
Jesus was around for thirty years, but we read almost nothing of him, his work and his message until his baptism at the Jordan. Why does the story start then and there?
Israel passed through the water to new life many times in their
history. Is “passing through the waters”
a one-time experience in our life, or is it repeated many times over at
different times andf stages?
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