When?

First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of our Lord

Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River
Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him
with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptized into his
Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly
confess him as Lord and Savior; who with you and the Holy
Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

One of the two grand epiphanies or theophanies of the church year (the other being the Transfiguration on the Mountaintop) this is a Sunday when we are especially mindful of Baptism and that the Church commends as especially appropriate for having baptisms. Often there are questions and discussion about what Baptism is and means to us, our baptismal theology. This is readily found out. Anglicans appreciate a Latin phrase, lex orandi lex credendi, the law of praying is the law of believing, which means that one doesn’t have to do a bunch of research to figure out what we believe, only come to church and find out what we say and do: we pray God to bless water, we splash the blessed water, and we say certain words. 

The words we say in our Baptism liturgy raise interesting theological, or specifically, christological, discussion: 

We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water. ... In it your Son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, 

Who or what made Jesus the Messiah (Christ)? God the Father? Or did the Holy Spirit do that? Do we say Jesus was not Christ until the Holy Spirit came upon him at his baptism? What is “christ”? We know: “christ” is Greek for the Hebrew word “messiah,” which means “anointed.” Starting with Saul and David, the kings of Judah and Israel were anointed with oil as a sign of their being appointed king: they were God’s messiah. At Isaiah 45:1 the Lord speaks to Cyrus his anointed or messiah. Being anointed was messianic. Jewish expectation was for a new messiah, anointed one, to reestablish the throne of David. If Jesus wasn’t anointed until the Holy Spirit came down upon him as a dove at his baptism, then he wasn’t Messiah or Christ until that moment, was he. 

Does this notion offend anyone’s theology?

It seems to fit Mark’s account. 

Seems to fit Matthew and Luke as well were it not for their Nativity Narratives -- but then being conceived and born Son of God doesn’t necessarily mean anointed as messiah/christ that early, does it; did that have to wait until his maturity? What about Luke's account of Jesus in the Temple at age twelve, was he Messiah/Christ already by then, or not?

The notion that Jesus wasn't messiah/christ until his baptism doesn’t seem to fit the Gospel according to John though except perhaps in that while the Word is eternal for John, the baptism was an event in time and space, and messiah/christ was an earthly role. 

None of this seems satisfactory though, not a satisfying answer or conclusion. 

Not at all.

Come to Sunday School.

T+