{"id":1549,"date":"2012-01-26T17:54:20","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T17:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.powerofforgiveness.net\/?p=211"},"modified":"2012-01-26T17:54:20","modified_gmt":"2012-01-26T17:54:20","slug":"forgiving-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forgivenesslab.com\/forgiving-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgiving Jesus?"},"content":{"rendered":"

“But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper to fulfill all righteousness.”\u00a0 The he (John) consented.” –Matthew 3:15 <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the wake of Christmas, the lectionary moves quickly from the very spare accounts of Jesus’ early life to the event of his baptism and the advent of his public minstry.\u00a0 On this blog, I am still catching up!\u00a0 The first Sunday after Epiphany is “Baptism of Jesus Sunday” for us, with the gospel text for the day drawn from one of the accounts of Jesus’ baptism.\u00a0 In that spirit, I would like to consider that which is particular to Matthew’s version (Matthew 3:1-17), and to pick up a thread I began to explore while blogging several years back.<\/p>\n

Jesus emerges from nearly three decades of obscurity in Nazareth, travelling the physical and spiritual distance to John at the Jordan.\u00a0 There he joins the throngs who have presented themselves for John’s invitation to be washed in “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”\u00a0 What is unique in Matthew’s version is the way he records John’s strong\u00a0objection: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”\u00a0 John “would have prevented Jesus (v.14).”\u00a0 He does not believe it is proper for Jesus to be immersed in the river water muddy with the manifold sins of God’s willful, wayward children.\u00a0 He does not know what to do with a Messiah who kneels before him, asking to be ministered to.\u00a0 The church has grappled with the implications of this for centuries.\u00a0 Why does Jesus need to be baptized?\u00a0 Surely he does not need forgiveness!<\/p>\n

I find Jesus’ response to John’s hindrance inviting.\u00a0 “Let it be so now,” the NRSV translates.\u00a0 In the koine Greek it is “Aphes arti<\/em>,” “let” or “permit now.”\u00a0 Aphes <\/em>is a form of aphiemi, <\/em>the most common NT verb for “forgive.”\u00a0 It communicates release.\u00a0 As in Jesus’ mission statement in Luke 4:18:\u00a0 “He has sent me to proclaim release (aphesin,n) to the captives . . .” <\/em>Perhaps we can allow the text to tickle our imaginations.<\/p>\n

Imagine Jesus’ reply to John’s prevention effort sounding like this: “Forgive me, but this is the way that the kingdom comes.”\u00a0 In a scandalous and vulnerable birth, in a life long-hidden amidst the world’s ways of doing, in a realm where the greatest is servant of all, where the master washes the feet of the disciples, where the last and least are first in God’s attention, where enemies are loved, where even\u00a0“the brood of vipers” is included in God’s gracious design of deliverance, where violence will be overcome through submission to the cross.<\/p>\n

It can be noted that the term for “prevent” is the same one used in the famous scene where Jesus corrects his disciples: “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such as these belongs the kingdom.”\u00a0 Jesus says to John:\u00a0” Yield. Permit.\u00a0 Receive.\u00a0 Open fully to the love of God, to the fullness of my humanity, and to your own.\u00a0 Prepare room.\u00a0 God’s intention for all of creation is fulfilled in this kind of life.”<\/p>\n

Surely we can understand John’s objection.\u00a0 The order is wrong.\u00a0 The setting improper.\u00a0 A salvation that is unearned. A Messiah that seems powerless. A proclamation that sounds frighteningly universal. In a congregation like mine, most of us were baptized\u00a0 as infants.\u00a0 We grew up shaped substantially by the order, the rituals, the “proper” attitudes, the in-group\/out-group perceptions, the assumptions of how you “get to\u00a0heaven” that have characterized our tradition for\u00a0generations.\u00a0 It is often when we are already well into adulthood that the Jesus of the gospels mercifully \u00a0emerges in our lives, startling us and staking a new claim, one that is every bit as destabilizing as it is salvific.\u00a0 We must contend with our\u00a0many objections, as well as the objections of\u00a0others to our newly unrestrained behavior.<\/p>\n

I know it sounds outrageous to talk about “forgiving Jesus.”\u00a0 Truth be told, there is much about the gospel that sounds outrageous when it first meets our ears.\u00a0 And while my translation here is colloquial, to say the least, it is disarmingly true to the spirit of this interaction. We each are\u00a0forgiven, ready or not.\u00a0 The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus is all gift, graciously offered in a way the church cannot administrate, only receive.\u00a0 We are baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus just as surely as he joins us first,\u00a0\u00a0without reservation, in the muddy waters of our daily lives.\u00a0 The final portion of verse 15 is profoundly hopeful:\u00a0 “Then John consents.”\u00a0 In our emerging translation, “Then John forgives.”\u00a0 We are gifted; and\u00a0in receiving, we are set free to make gifts of ourselves.\u00a0 That seems like the right order!<\/p>\n

In this person-to-person encounter Jesus meets even the beloved John’s sacrificial violence with\u00a0the gracious invitation to embody a new order.\u00a0 Now it is John that will respond.\u00a0 I am reminded of something many people have said to me when I have offered workshops and messages on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and ministry: “Everywhere he went there was violence.”\u00a0 They are offering it as a critique, the assumption being that if he and the movement hadn’t stirred things up there would have been no violence, and thus, order and “peace” would have been maintained.\u00a0 Many times I have found myself wanting to shout: “But it wasn’t his violence!” Then, upon further reflection, I realize the truth of their statement.\u00a0 Dr. King’s ministry shares much with that of Jesus; everywhere Jesus goes in the gospels he encounters violence from those with a vested interest\u00a0 in the prevailing order, all the way to the cross (in Jerusalem or Memphis).\u00a0 The dynamic is a healing mechanism; Jesus’ life calls forth all the violence within us that would impede the kingdom of God.\u00a0 It will be brought to the surface, into the light that shines through the darkness.\u00a0 It is for the healing of all God’s children, John among us; “all righteousness” will be fulfilled in\u00a0this<\/em> way.<\/p>\n

Biblical forgiveness is the removal of obstacles; it is the bridging of\u00a0 that which separates us; it is being set free from bondage; it is being released to live life fully with Jesus.\u00a0 For us to “forgive Jesus” is not to forgive his sins.\u00a0 But it is surely to give up our claims on who we insist\u00a0he must be; it is to receive the truth of his life; and it is to share with Jesus and with everyone that which we have been given, unto a blessed fullness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper to fulfill all righteousness.”\u00a0 The he (John) consented.” –Matthew 3:15 In the wake of Christmas, the lectionary moves quickly from the very spare accounts of Jesus’ early life to the event of his baptism and the advent of his public minstry.\u00a0 On[…] <\/p>\n

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