Character, Compassion & Conviction

BAPTISM OF THE LORD SUNDAY
Readings;  Psalm 29, Acts 10:34-43, Matthew 3:13-17, Isaiah 42:1-9 
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, January 12th 2014

A printable PDF file can be found here

In the church calendar today is 'Baptism of the Lord' Sunday. Many congregations will be focusing on the passage we heard from Matthew's gospel 3:6-7 “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as He came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

In his description of the baptism of Jesus Matthew references passages from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, that are known as 'The Servant Songs'.  Matthew emphasizes that Jesus is both the beloved Son and the beloved Servant of God.

We also are much loved sons and daughters of God, adopted into God's family, by grace, through our faith in Jesus Christ. This passage from Isaiah paints a picture of the characteristics a follower of Jesus should strive to embody. The Servant Songs speak about the character, compassion and conviction that drive a servant of God.

The Character of Christ
Isaiah 42:1 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.”

The mission of the servant is to bring God's justice to the nations. Now, I can't speak for you, but if I was on a campaign for international domination, I would want to mobilize a lot of different forces.  A lot of people would need to hear and understand, so I would need to make a lot of noise. There would have to be media overload, a lot of propaganda, a lot of promotion. 

I would have to mobilize the grass roots so that everybody, in every street, of every town and city was fully behind me. Because a lot of people wouldn't want to be taken over, I'd  probably need some military might. So it is astounding that when God speaks of His servant who will bring justice to all the nations, we read that “He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.”

In the original Hebrew, the word 'voice' is absent. The passage literally translated would read “He will not shout out, or cry out, or lift up” What won't he 'lift up?' His voice, of course, but the verb nasah (to lift up) is also used in the Old Testament  to describe the 'arms' that are lifted up in battle. In other words this servant will not 'lift up' the kinds of weapons we might expect. There will be no military campaign or media blitz.

Another Old testament prophet, who faced what seemed like an impossible task, was a prophet called Zechariah. He was given a message that said;‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ saith the Lord of hosts”. This is translated in the Good News Bible, 'You will succeed, not by military might or by your own strength, but by my Spirit.'

That intersects with the first part of Isaiah speaking of the servant about whom God says, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on Him,”

The character of Christ was formed by His total reliance upon God to empower Him and accomplish through Him the mission that God intended. The power of Jesus is not shown through His ability to dominate others or His excellent promotional skills, but through His dependance upon God, whom He knows loves Him, and whom He sees as empowering Him through the Holy Spirit, visualized at His baptism as coming down upon Him as a dove, an emblem of peace, and through a voice that declared, 'This is my beloved Son, I am well pleased with Him!”

To be a servant of God, we don't need to be the biggest or the best, or the strongest or the loudest. We don't need to run an ad-campaign or devote ourselves to self promotion as though we were running for election. Our identity is found through our relationship with God, our character is formed by allowing God's Holy Spirit to graciously mold our lives. Our security is found though knowing that we are children of God over whom God rejoices and with whom God is well pleased. Our calling is revealed when we surrender our will to God's will and seek to be the people God wants us to be. God calls us to be people who have the capacity to love, because they know themselves much loved. Which beings us to a second characteristic of Jesus.

The compassion of Christ
Isaiah 42:3 'A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.'

How do reeds become bruised or broken? By the forces of nature or of people. Reeds become broken because of storms and diseases, because of people trampling over them,  because of inadequate nourishment. We are reeds, subject to the forces of life that we cannot control and that sometimes descend on us with frightening speed. We live our lives in a bruised and broken condition.

The Servant will not crush one who has been bruised or broken. He knows the weaknesses and abundant vulnerabilities of people and decides that the best thing to do is to caress and hold the crushed reeds and not to destroy them.

Likewise with the smoldering wick. Let's face it. We are not often people burning with a bright flame of compassion and love. We are often just hanging in there. We are smoldering disciples. This verse tells us that God knows our every weakness and that it is the purpose of God's love not to destroy but to renew and bring hope, to rekindle our passions and dreams.

To quote a sermon by Rev. Bill Long “There is something so utterly attractive about the gentleness of this servant. He knows us and serves us in our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. He isn't the one who comes in to give us a blast of the divine power or a show of mighty strength. He is more like the quiet and sensitive physician who carefully sets a broken bone than one who is going to raise up the banner in the battlefield. He recognizes and accommodates human weakness.”

Throughout His ministry the compassion of Christ is so glaringly obvious that it seems unnecessary to even mention it. However, the compassion of some folk who claim to follow Him can be sadly lacking. As one cynic commented, “Jesus I like. It's his followers that I have problem with!”

Friends, we need to learn to be gentle with one another. I know of too many people who want nothing to do with the church because of the judgmental words or actions of church members, the disapproving stare, the unspoken prejudice, the attitude that declares 'You don't really belong here' has shut the door to them. Call it self righteousness, call it cliquishness, call it snobbery, call it whatever you like, that is not who Christ called us to be or the way we  are expected to act. And we need to be delivered from it because we are all guilty of it. I include myself in that condemnation.

We become focused on our own needs, we let our frustrations get the better of us, we simply don't take the time to care. Our love,our witness, it doesn't blaze, it smolders. We cradle our hurts and lash out at any who get near to us. So hear these words about the compassion of Jesus Christ. 'A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out.'

If today you are hurting, if today you are feeling you are dieing inside, if today you are feeling overwhelmed or over burdened, take courage and bring those things to the Savior. Know His love as a remedy, His Spirit as a healing power, His grace as a renewing force. That's why Jesus came, so we may know God's love at work within us, around us and through us.  John 3:17 'For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” That's why He went to the Cross.

The Conviction of Christ
Isaiah 42:4 “He will not falter or be discouraged till He establishes justice on earth”

One of the astonishing things about Jesus was that He never gave up. Though He was subjected to all the forces that trample us down and break our resolve, He never became that broken reed or that smoldering wick. We speak of Him as the 'Bread of Life 'and 'Light of the World.'

A New Testament Servant Song appears in Phillipians 2:7-8 which tells us “He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death-- even death on a cross! “

The conviction of Jesus. He knew at His baptism, He was called by God. He knew that His mission was not to be carried out through the ways of violence and domination, but through compassion and self-giving. He lived a life of obedience, even up to the Cross. Was it easy? Was it simple?

No! He sweated blood over the demands God placed upon Him. In the Garden of Gethsemane He pleaded with His Father, “Let this cup pass from me....Yet not my will, but Thine be done.”

To be convicted of something means that it won't let you go. If  a criminal is convicted in a court of law, then they face a sentence. Because of their conviction they have to do their time or pay their fine. But the conviction that love places upon us, is not a sentence to be endured or a punishment without reward,  but a mission to be embraced, a mission that lifts up justice, a mission that empowers the weak  and lifts up the fallen, a conviction that flows from compassion and is deeply related to the character of God that Kingdom living calls us to embrace.

We are the baptized children of God. The great reformer Martin Luther used to encourage his congregants to “Live into their Baptisms.” To put it another way, to be the people God claimed them to be when their lives, at the Font, were dedicated to God's service.

To do that we need to be people whose character is formed, not by their own power or might, but by the transforming grace of the Holy Spirit. We need to find our security in knowing ourselves much loved children of God with whom God is well pleased. Isaiah 42:1 "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations."

To live into our baptisms means seeking to practice the compassion of Christ. To put away harshness and be gentle with one another. To take with all due seriousness the mission embodied in the servants call of Isaiah 42:3 'A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.'

To live into our baptisms means having a sense of the conviction of Christ. Isaiah 42:4 “He will not falter or be discouraged till He establishes justice on earth.” The baptism of Jesus was the start, not the conclusion. Temptation would follow. Ministry would come. The lives of many would be changed. The world is not the same place because the love of Jesus has been expressed in so many ways and so many times and so many places.

Jesus calls us now to be His hands and His feet, His ears and His voice, to be the ones who continue His mission in our day, amongst our people, in God's way!  May God help us, through the strength of His Holy Spirit to live into our baptisms in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.