This Is Us
Mark 1: 4-11
There is a television series called “This Is Us”. It deals with the joys and pains of being a family. "This Is Us" chronicles the Pearson family across the decades: from two young parents in the 1980s to their adult kids searching for love and fulfillment in the present day.
The series follows siblings Kate, Kevin and Randall as their lives intertwine. Born prematurely, Kate and Kevin were part of a triplet pregnancy, but one child, their brother, was stillborn. Their parents, Jack and Rebecca, having expected to bring home three babies, decide to adopt another newborn - Randall, born on the same day and brought to the same hospital, after his mother died in childbirth and his father abandoned him at a fire station.
Even though they are all talented individuals in their own way, their lives are marked by a series of setbacks and painful moments, including death. Kate grows into a woman unsatisfied with her life, Kevin is a successfully actor, but his is spiraling out of control, and Randall is a businessman and family man who, despite all his success, is haunted by the fact that he was abandoned by his birth father on the day he was born.
This series is a life-affirming drama that reveals how the events of our lives impact who we become, and how the connections we share with each other can transcend time, distance and even death. It deals in a real way with setbacks and success, with pain and progress, with failure and forgiveness, and it reminds us that the one thing that brings us through all of that is the love we share.
“This Is Us” looks at life with its pains and possibilities.
When I read Mark’s account of the baptism of Jesus, my mind went to that television series because I can picture Jesus looking at those broken lives, those sinners who went to be baptized by John, and saying to them: “This is us”.
John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Sins speaks of brokenness and falling short of what is good and right, just and loving.
Repentance means a complete change of mind, a new direction of the will, an altered purpose in life. John’s baptism was a public expression of one’s desire and decision to change course – it signified a turning away from that which creates brokenness, hurt, separation, and a turning to God.
Why was Jesus there to be baptized by John? Was he there to confess his sins? Was he there to repent – to do an about turn? If that were the case, the gospel writers most certainly would have recorded that, but there is no mention of that in any of the gospels, plus that does not accord with what we know of Jesus. Why then did he go to be baptized by John?
I believe that in his baptism, Jesus is acknowledging and drawing attention to both the pains and possibilities of life; and that he is not simply saying: this is who you are – people who need to confess your sins and repent, but he is saying: This is us. This is us - you and me in relationship. This is us; facing life’s pains together, and embracing life’s possibilities together.
Unlike the others who went to John be baptised, Jesus was baptised not because he needed to, but because he chose to. And in choosing to be baptized, Jesus was identifying with us, taking upon himself, not only our form, but also our frailty, and opening for us a new and better way.
Baptism was Jesus’ commissioning for ministry, and Jesus understood that his ministry is not just about doing things for people, it’s about being one with them. It’s about being with us, wherever we are and whatever our circumstance. In his baptism, Jesus gave himself to us; he took his place with hurting humanity and he gave everything – his love, his labours and his life. No wonder God declared to him: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Jesus’ baptism makes our own baptism significant and meaningful. In our baptism, we identify with Christ even as he identifies with us.
Our baptism is not just an event – an occasion for family and friends to gather and for cute pictures to be taken, it’s not a rite of passage; it is an act of commitment. A commitment to turn away from that which destroys and devalues life, that which is wrong and harmful, and to take our place as children of God.
As the baptized, we are called to be members of a community that thinks and acts differently. We are required to tell the truth in a world that finds it easier to lie; to give in a world that is more inclined to take; to love in a world that’s often indifferent; to make peace in a world that’s ready to fight; to serve in a world that prefers to be served and to seek God in a world that relies upon self.
Our baptism is a commitment to share ourselves with others, and be there for them as Christ is there for us.
Our baptism is also significant and meaningful because it points us to the hope that is ours because of Christ. It tells us that Christ looks at us not as failures, but as family.
In Baptism God chooses us and says that we are loved. And God promises to be both with us and for us. That promise and blessing, helps us to face our challenges - at home, at church or in the community with greater confidence, and to approach our concerns about the world and our personal lives with hope, knowing that God is with us.
That is a promise that we especially need to hear as we enter into a new year. Think, for a moment, of all that will happen in the coming year – the decisions that will be made, relationships started (or ended), career changes, illnesses endured, challenges surmounted, risks taken, adventures dared, love shared. So much will come our way in the coming weeks and months. Some of it we may anticipate and be prepared for, but much of it we simply can’t imagine.
It can be daunting, until we remember that God is with us through all of it. God will not abandon us, but will walk alongside us, strengthening us, encouraging us, granting us grace sufficient to become the people God wants us to be.
We are God’s beloved children not because of what we do but because of who God is – a loving parent who wants nothing more than to see us flourish.
In our baptism we can hear Christ saying: This is us - you and me in relationship. This is us; facing life’s pains together, and embracing life’s possibilities together. That is the hope to which our baptism points. That is the promise that our baptism calls on us to accept and affirm every day and in every situation.
This is us; people in relationship with God through Christ.
Thanks be to God.
