Pitching “The Baptism of Our Lord”
Why this? And why during Epiphany?
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Writing comedy narrative has been my main job over the last 25 years and so I’ve heard a lot of sitcom ideas. The most commonly pitched sitcom has historically been variations on this:
“You should write a sitcom based on my office. You wouldn’t believe the people I work with.”
The upside of more people working from home is that people don’t say this to me any more. I’ve heard a lot of sitcom ideas and have come up with plenty of my own but you need to ask two questions of any idea. And one of them is not, ‘Is it funny?’ That’s a given. These are the questions: ‘why this?’ And ‘why now?’.
These are not unreasonable questions to ask. When pitching an idea for a sitcom, writers can often forget what they are really asking for: a couple of million pounds of someone else’s money to be spent writing and filming their idea. A producer, who will in turn be asking someone else to spend their money on this idea, will ask the question they know they will be asked: why should we spend millions on this idea – ahead of all the other ideas we get pitched? And what’s so fresh and timely about this idea that we should do it now? If we could have done it five years ago, then it’s not fresh, is it?
These are genuine conversations I have in my day job. But I mention it because we could ask the same question of The Baptism of our Lord, celebrated on the First Sunday after Epiphany (on 6th Jan).
Not many events in Jesus’s life are remembered in the Church calendar, except for those at the beginning and the end of his earthly life and ministry like his birth and crucifixion. We do not commemorate Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness? Or the cleansing of the Temple. Or that weird story with the coin in the fish’s mouth.
Why celebrate Jesus’s Baptism? And why do so on the First Sunday after Epiphany? In short: why this? And why now?
First, let us ask another question. What happens when Jesus is baptised in the River Jordan by John the Baptist? Let’s have Luke’s account, which is the briefest:
Now when all the people were baptised, and when Jesus also had been baptised and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22)
You’ll find something like that in all four gospels. It’s even in John, albeit more obliquely as if reported by John the Baptist. Moreover, all four gospel writers place this event at the start of Jesus’s ministry. It’s clearly quite important.
But how is it important? Why does Jesus need to be baptised? If baptism is ritual washing, and Jesus is without sin, what is there to wash? More questions. Sorry.
Don’t Stand (in the water) on Ceremony
John the Baptist himself identifies is problem in Matthew’s account, saying Jesus should be baptising him. Is this baptism merely ceremonial, like a member of the royal family ‘planting a tree’? This normally involves dropping half a spade of dirt onto some roots. Everyone applauds but we all know someone else has literally done the heavy lifting.
It's easy to think of baptism as a rite of passage because we baptise infants and adults today. But it was not a requirement back in Jesus’s day. Circumcision for male babies on the eight day was required, and Jesus was circumcised (celebrated on 1st Jan). The first born had to presented at the Temple within forty days, and Jesus was duly presented (stand by for Candlemas on 2nd Feb). Baptism was not really a thing. It was an innovation started by John the Baptist: hence the name. By why?
Before the why, we need to ask one further question. I know, I know. More questions on top of our first two questions: ‘why this?’ and ‘why now?’ and then ‘what even is baptism?’ and ‘why does Jesus need to be baptised?’.
Here’s the final question which will really help us: ‘where is this happening?’
The River Jordan.
That’s where John the Baptist was baptising people. He was literally washing them. That’s all that Greek work for baptism means: wash. You would ‘baptise’ various pots and pans for eating. You would also ‘baptise’ people before going into the temple, so they could be made clean to be in God’s presence. It was just washing.
But what if you were unclean with, say, leprosy? Argh! Another question. Sorry. But this really is the last one. Naaman, a Syrian general, had leprosy. He sought out Elisha, known to be a wonder worker, and was told to wash in the Jordan.
But Naaman was angry and went away, saying, “Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call upon the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the leper.12 Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” (1 Kings 5:11-12)
No, Naaman. You couldn’t. Wind your neck in and get in the Jordan. It’s special. The river was parted when Joshua crossed over with the Ark of the Covenant and God’s people to be circumcised, destroy Jericho and take over the land they had been promised. And that was the day. Big day. Important river. In you get, Naaman. (Elisha didn’t say any of this, sadly.) Naaman swallowed his pride, went in and
“his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.”
So Jesus is not just ceremonially washed. He is baptised in the Jordan. He could have walked across the Jordan on dry land, like Joshua, his namesake. But Jesus went down into the watery depths, as if going into the grave, before rising up for the re-conquest of the land. He would not do with armies and swords, but with a ministry of restoration in which he would touch lepers and swallow their diseases and cleanse them. The lame will leap and the blind shall see. And Jesus will bear our sins and sorrows. So that’s good. Worth celebrating. Question 1 answered.
But why now? During Epiphany?
I love the gift! What is it?
We’ve opened all our gifts from our family and friends. Some have already been consumed or exchanged. But we know what they are. Occasionally, we remove the wrapping paper and are none the wiser. More boxes need to be opened. The giver needs to nudge us with a brief explanation and some gentle reminders of the nature and significance of the gift. Remember that weekend where we saw that tree and you said that thing about daffodils? Behold a commissioned painting of a tree and some daffodils that will give that special moment a perpetual memory.
In Epiphany, we take our time unwrapping God’s gift to us, his Incarnate Son. We don’t fully understand what a blessing this is straight away. We don’t appreciate the ways in which Christ’s incarnation is so wonderful and significant. The Baptism of our Lord is once such clue and reminder.
We’ve not even mentioned how the voice of God the Father from heaven expresses pleasure over his Son as the Spirit descends like a dove. Maybe that’s one for Trinity Sunday.
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