Text: Matthew 3:13-17; Isaiah 42:1-9

Earlier this week, some friends and I were discussing the American presidential primaries, and the hugely complex electoral process used south of the 49^th parallel. Perhaps we were just being smugly Canadian, but we agreed that we preferred our much simpler system, even with its all-too-obvious imperfections.

There are all sorts of processes known in history for the choosing of leaders. We are rightly proud of our democratic heritage, although we should always remember this saying of Winston Churchill’s:

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

One of the most important events in ancient Israel’s history was the beginning of the monarchy, as recounted in the first chapters of the First Book of Samuel. Before the monarchy, Israel appears to have been a loose confederacy, without any consistent leadership. The Book of Judges tells of how God raised up a number of leaders (the “judges”) to save Israel from its enemies, ending by telling us that:

In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.
                                                                  (Jg 21:25)

The people went to Samuel, asking him to appoint a king. He did so reluctantly, warning them that they wouldn’t like having a king any better than not having a king. (1 Sam 8) So the people got their first king—Saul, chosen by God, and revealed to Samuel, who anointed him with a vial of oil. Thereafter, anointing remained the main act of designating kings of Israel and Judah. The king was “the anointed one,” (in Hebrew “Messiah”, in Greek, “Christos”), whom the psalmist referred to as God’s son. (Psalm 2:7) The king was unique among the people and superior to all. The act of anointing set him apart from the people, placing him on a pedestal.

If Jesus is the Messiah and God’s Son, the true King of Israel, the history might lead us to expect a royal anointing, setting him apart and superior to all his people. This did not happen—the anointing he received was not oil, but with water, an act shared with all the people, in submission to God’s will—“to fulfill all righteousness.”

John the Baptist had warned the people to be ready for the coming of the long-expected Messiah, the true son of God, who would shepherd his people. When Jesus arrived at the Jordan in the midst of the crowds of repentant sinners, John recognized him as the one who was to come, and John would have submitted to Jesus’ ministry. As we have heard, Jesus turned the tables on John, accepting baptism from him—“to fulfill all righteousness.”

This reason is hardly a “model of a crystal-clear explanation,” but it seems safe to suggest that only by acting in complete solidarity with all people is Jesus able to “fulfill all righteousness.” He becomes one with us, by wading with us into the murky and dangerous waters of the river, and by submitting faithfully to God’s just and righteous will.

He is not so much set apart from God’s people as set among us, to be one with us, by receiving an anointing that must be shared, and that must be available to all. He provides the model for leadership for all who would follow him—the servant, the one given

…as a covenant to the people,
a light to the nations,
to open the eyes that are blind,
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon,
from the prison those who sit in darkness.
                                                              (Isa 42:6b-7)

This leader is not set on any pedestal. He does not reign from a high and lofty throne. His only pedestal and his only throne is the cross, the definitive sign of his total solidarity with God’s people.

Leadership in the church, whether ordained or lay, has only one model. Our model is not the anointed Kings of Israel, but the baptised Son of God, the one on whom the Spirit descended, the one with whom God was well pleased, the one who still reigns from the cross.

Jesus’ baptism is important because it marks the beginning of his public ministry, and because it shows us his identification with God’s people and his submission to God’s holy will. Our baptisms are important because they mark the beginning our ministries, and because they show our identification with God’s people—the church—and our submission to God’s holy will. Every time we reaffirm our faith, recalling the waters of our own baptism, we wade with Jesus into the Jordan, following the one who came not to be served, but to serve God’s people.

In four weeks’ time, we will elect a new vestry for the coming year, people who will give of their time and energy to be the chief stewards of this parish. They are called to be leaders in the midst of the people, not wielding power but caring for God’s people, with Jesus as their leader and model. The sign of this leadership is the cross, the same sign that Jesus accepted as he gave himself to the will of God—“nevertheless, not my will but yours.” As we look for this servant leadership within the church, so we ought to seek it in those who aspire to office in the secular world.

Jesus calls us to follow him, to fulfill all righteousness by following God’s will, just as he did. He is the perfect leader, the one who leads by following God's call, calling us to follow him all the way to the cross.

May all our leaders, both within and beyond the church, know their calling as shepherds of God’s people, followers of the perfect and righteous will of the God who gave us his Son. And so in our lives may all Righteousness be Fulfilled, as it was at the Jordan.

Let us enter the waters with Jesus, and rise together as the faithful people of God.

Amen.