a servant tale

It is an odd thing that in Church today we move from this morning, thinking about the Magi and their presents to this evening thinking about today's other theme – and that is the Baptism of Christ. So from presents we go to presence – the presence of the Christ in the world and the presence of God in the lives of all those who have passed through the waters of Baptism.

There is not much to be drawn in many ways between these two things – our offering of all that we are and all that we have and God's offering of Godself in the person of Jesus and in our lives – they are not seperate. We sometimes see God as on one side of the room and us on the other, as if we are opposites. True there are things in our nature which might make us think that is true but, in fact, we are made in the image of God and it is in God that we find that we already truly are.

The book of Isaiah is really three books in one. The first part – chapters 1-39 is attributed to Isaiah of Jerusalem, and it is likely that there was such a person who either wrote those chapters or inspired a school of followers to do so. Tonights reading comes from the second chunk of Isaiah – second or deutero Isaiah which goes all the way up to the very last couple of chapters of our Book of Isaiah.

Sometime after that first Isaiah lived and worked the nation of Israel got taken away into captivity. In the prophets voice this was seen as a punishment for the nation turning from God. But then this second part of the book is a voice from captivity, or rather a collection of voices. The theme of God being high and lifted up is still there, but now there is hope of return and restoration.

One of the hallmarks of this section of the book is that it expects reverence – God is a God next to whom we are very small indeed and yet God is a God who will save and redeem God's people. As with all Biblical prophetic literature it is written at a specific time to a specific group of people and by a specific group of people with a definite outlook on life.

Whilst we, of course, see distant echoes of messiah in the writings it is by no means clear that this section of Isaiah about the servant is referring a priori to Jesus. That may sound strange – but in the socio-political world to which this passage was addressed and from which this passage came the revolution was political and in some senses finite.

Some people would say that that is the end of it but I think that is the genius of the Biblical literature. Whilst we should not apply passages carelessly, they can have layers of meaning. So whilst it might be perfectly possible that the prophet is talking about someone very human – the meaning transcends place and time and talks to us of Jesus, the Messiah who is to come and not just drag the people back from the hands of the Babylonions but drag people to full and wonderful relationship with God.

Sometimes we want to treat the prophetic literature as if is is a scientific formula capable of proof instead of as a wonderful painting capable of interpretation. There are truths which go beyond the constraints of time and place and the prophetic literature points us to these – sometimes quite rudely.

So when Jesus comes to the Jordan to be baptised he comes both as one who follows in the footsteps of the heroes of so many stories but also as one who turns all those stories on their heads and, if you like, fleshes out another layer of meaning. This incarnation which the Magi witnessed and adored becomes announced and public and engaged in a ministry which will redefine all that has gone before, but not just redefine it, redeem and fulfil it as well.

So in all this, Jesus is rightly the suffering servant, the one who restores righteousness and justice in the earth – right as far as land extends – but Jesus is more, not just the one who serves but the one who creates, the one who Himself was at the beginning, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth, who breathes life into all creation. Servant and God is the prophecies ultimate proclamation, not in space and time but beyond it and into eternity.

Jesus bows his head and allows himself to be washed clean by a man, his cousin John. In doing so the son creeps a little higher on the horizon, my son in whom I am well pleased, I am the Lord, my glory I give to no other – there is only one person who Jesus can be.