Isaiah 42.1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10.34-43; Matthew 3.13-end
THE Baptism of Christ, taken with the Epiphany, sets the pattern for each new year of our discipleship. Last week, the identity of the Christ-child was made known to the Gentiles, who stand for “the whole world”. Thus, the Epiphany reveals the one who is “King of the Jews” as “the great king over all the earth” (Psalm 47.2)
Now the Sonship of the King is disclosed, by Jesus’s baptism. This disclosure of family relationship is a first step on our Christian journey to the fullness of revelation. We call that fullness of revelation “the Trinity”. Our God is not a God of transcendent isolation, but the God of relationship. Or, to use the theological jargon, God perfectly “coinheres” (the Spirit belongs here, too, but is a theological bridge too far for this short reflection).
“Coinherence” is a word to solve a problem, to define the indefinable. Augustine once had a conversation with his son Adeodatus about teaching. In it, he remarked that it is impossible to use words as tools for understanding words.
Using words to discuss words runs the risk of causing a tangle of confusion, as when we interlock fingers and rub them together, which makes it almost impossible for anyone but the person doing the scratching to tell which fingers are itching and which are relieving the itch.
Putting together “co-” (meaning “with”), and “inhere” (meaning “stick together”) gives us a technical word with no backstory in daily speech. Now we can use that word as a fresh expression for something — a something for which all the other words we know are inadequate.
But we can use it only when we are talking to others like ourselves. Outside the body of Christ, technical words such as “coinherence” (or “Trinity”) are merely noise. If we want to find ways to speak about the theological truth of how the Father and the Son relate to each other, we need to say it in words that everyone can understand. So, the voice comes from heaven. The Dove descends; the Father acknowledges his Son. The message is clear. The gospel has been proclaimed.
Saying that the Father and the Son “coinhere” does not capture the nature of their being, either singly or together. But it does allow us to say something that points towards that spiritual perception that we have inherited: that both the Father and the Son are divine, and that each is mysteriously bound up with the other. It is not the terminology of this fact that matters. It is the truth of the relationship which changes us — changes the direction of our lives and turns hearers into disciples.
I like the fact that Jesus tells John what is “proper” (verse 15). That word (prepon in Greek) expresses more than that something is “correct”. It suggests how the world ought to be; it indicates moral appropriateness; it acknowledges the truest state of all the elements of creation as they individually relate to one another.
In the whole of Matthew’s Gospel, there are only two occasions when God the Father speaks directly. The baptism of Jesus (3.17) is one. The other is his transfiguration (17.5). It is easy to miss the fact that God’s own voice, speaking directly, personally, to humankind, is heard only twice in the whole Gospel. We hear so many messages from God coming by dreams and angels, and through the words of God’s Son.
These two sentences, direct from the mouth of God, affirm who the man Jesus is. They authenticate his identity at the highest level imaginable: not even angelic confirmation will do for such a message. If Jesus is to be a son, he needs a father, and his only true father is God, who is also the heavenly Father of all humankind.
Both of God’s direct utterances first confirm the fact of a relationship (“this is my Son”); then they both express the quality of that relationship: it is a case of loving and being loved. Once we have heard this Gospel, we know enough of the truth to grasp that this father-son relationship will be fundamental to all that follows in the life of Jesus. But, if we read further (rather than stick to the selected highlights of a Sunday lectionary), we will hear the Father’s voice a second time, at the transfiguration, reaffirming Jesus as Son and as beloved. This time, though, the voice will come with a commandment: “Listen to him!”
