The Rev. Dr. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Greeneville, TN
The First Sunday after the Epiphany
The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ
January 11, 2026
I’ve spoken before about the Season of Epiphany... That it’s a season of Light and Enlightenment... A season of revelation to us of who Jesus is.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t begin his ministry in a palace or a synagogue or at any place that is a center of power. He begins his ministry out in the wilderness among the people… He begins it by standing in line. Matthew tells us that Jesus comes from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. This alone should make us stop and think.
Why? Because John’s baptism is a baptism of repentance. It is meant for people who know they have missed the mark, people confessing their sins… people preparing for God’s coming judgment and renewal. And yet here comes Jesus, stepping into the same river, waiting his turn like everyone else.
John sees the problem immediately. He tells Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet, you come to me?” John knows who Jesus is, or at least who he ought to be. Stronger than John. Holier than John. Above all of this stuff that John is doing. But Jesus chooses to remain humble. “Let it be so now,” he says, “for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” This is the first revelation to us of who Jesus is.
Righteousness, in Matthew’s Gospel, is not moral superiority. It’s about faithfulness to God’s saving purpose. To “fulfill all righteousness” is not to avoid sinners, but it’s to stand among them and with them. Jesus does not come to rescue humanity from a distance. He comes by entering fully into the story. To enter our story… And the story matters.
The Jordan River is not just some convenient body of water. It is what is known as a boundary river. Much like the Mississippi River that separates Tennessee from Arkansas. Israel once crossed it to enter the Promised Land. Elijah crossed it before being taken up into heaven. To go into the Jordan is not just a step into a river... but it’s a step into a place of transition, a place of repentance... a place to begin again.
John stands there like a prophet of old, calling on the people to turn around, to prepare... Prepare because God is about to do something life-altering... Something world-changing. And then God does. As Jesus comes up out of the water, the heavens are torn open. This is not gentle language. Heaven doesn't just politely separate; it breaks open. The barrier between God and humanity is ruptured, and the Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove, echoing the Spirit hovering over the waters in the beginning of creation.
Matthew is telling us that this is not just a moment in Jesus’ life... it is the beginning of a new creation. And then the voice speaks, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” This voice gathers all of Israel’s Scriptures into a single declaration.
This is more of that high-context language that Matthew uses. Language the hearers of Matthew’s message would understand… The voice calls Jesus, “My Son,” recalling the psalmist’s parental prayer for guidance and strength… as in Psalm 2:7, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.”
It calls Jesus “Beloved,” echoing Abraham and Isaac... Where God tells Abraham to take his only son, his beloved son, up to Mt. Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice… And the phrase “With whom I am well pleased” or “My chosen, in whom my soul delights” points the hearer to Isaiah’s suffering servant. The one Isaiah speaks of, who is divinely chosen, is rejected and endures immense suffering on behalf of others.
Kingship, sacrifice, and servanthood all converge here in the statement, "This my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." Jesus didn’t begin his ministry in great power or conquest, but in a man dripping wet from the waters of repentance. A man who is embodied to be loved, and to love.
I want you to notice in this passage what doesn’t happen. Here at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus isn’t given a bunch of instructions. He doesn’t get a big to-do list or any marching orders. He is not told to earn his status. Before he heals, before he preaches, before he faces temptation or the cross, Jesus is named and claimed in love. This is my son, the Beloved.
This declaration of Jesus should matter deeply to us because we live in a world that teaches the exact opposite. We are told by the world, implicitly and explicitly, that our value must be proven. In society, we are told to measure our success by productivity and our worth by being right.
Even in the church, we can begin to believe that God’s pleasure is something we must earn through good behavior, correct belief, or even visible faithfulness. But there at the Jordan, God disrupts all of that logic. Jesus steps down into the waters of baptism not because he needs cleansing, but because we do.
And in those waters, God declares that belonging comes before achievement, grace comes before performance, and that love comes before worthiness. This is why the baptism of Jesus isn’t just about Jesus. It’s about us also…
It tells us the truth about the God whom we meet in Christ. It tells us that this is a loving God who doesn’t wait for humanity to get its act together. It tells us that this is a God who enters fully into our story… Into our mess, into our repentance, and into our vulnerability. We have a God who stands with us and by us, a God who stands where sinners stand and then calls that place holy. And that is good news.
Good news, because many of us carry the quiet fear that we are not enough... not clean enough, not faithful enough, not confident enough for God to truly delight in us. We sometimes imagine God watching from a distance, arms crossed, giving us that judgy look of an impatient parent waiting for us to get our act together. But the Gospel tells us otherwise.
The same God who called Jesus “the Beloved” meets us in our baptism... not as finished products, but as people who are still becoming... Still trying to figure out what it means to be beloved. Baptism does not mean we will never struggle again. It means we will never struggle alone. Because, hopefully, we are learning to do things with God’s help.
It means our lives are anchored not in our ability to be faithful, but in God’s faithfulness to us. We know that from the waters of the Jordan River, Jesus is driven out into the wilderness, and then into ministry, into social and political conflict, and eventually to the cross. The waters of baptism do not spare him suffering, but they name him before it. And that name sustains him through everything that follows. So it is with us.
We go into those hard places of our lives. We face temptation, grief, uncertainty, and fear. But we go as people who have already been named. Already been claimed. Already been loved.
The baptism of Jesus proclaims that our God has chosen to be one with us, not above us. God meets us where we are in the murkiness of the water, not after we dry off. And God’s first word over our lives isn’t judgment, but love.“This is my beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Thanks be to God.
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