The Work of Worship, Matthew 3:13-17

Last updated on: January 14, 2017 at 3:01 pm by Amy Butler

The Work of Worship, Matthew 3:13-17 2017-01-14T15:01:06-04:00 Amy Butler

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

When they teach us to plan worship and preach in seminary one of the first skills we learn is how to use the historical-critical method to exegete the text we’re working with. That sounds very complicated, but what it essentially means is this: before creating liturgy and proclamation we look at the biblical text from several different angles to make sure we understand the history, context, language, theology, and meaning of the text. This is important, as you know, because it’s easy to use the Bible to say pretty much anything you want. Exegesis keeps us true to the intended meaning of the text.

For the next three weeks as we do the Work of Worship, we’ll be trying to open up the different parts of our worship experience to show you why and how we plan for, prepare, and deliver a worship experience. As we do every Sunday, in just a moment we’ll hear the gospel text for the week, which also happens to be the foundational text for the sermon today. To let you in on a little background, before I read it I want to share some exegesis with you.

Our gospel passage today is Matthew’s version of a familiar story: the baptism of Jesus. There are four gospels in the New Testament: different versions of the story of Jesus’ life. Three of them: Matthew, Mark, and Luke, tell the story of Jesus’ baptism.

download Matthew’s version of the story is a bit more brief than the others: basically, Jesus goes to his cousin John, who was a kind of itinerate preacher, and asks him to be baptized in the Jordan River, as many other people were doing in those days. John doesn’t want to do it—who is he to baptize Jesus? But John goes ahead, and when Jesus comes up out of the water, the heavens open, a dove comes down, and the Jesus hears God’s voice calling Jesus a beloved child of God. Most New Testament scholars agree that this language is a quotation or reflection of the first verse of chapter 42 of Isaiah that reads, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.”

An important question to ask when reading this text is: why would Jesus need to be baptized? Matthew’s gospel was written near the end of the first century and it wasn’t until the fourth century that Christians got to arguing about whether Jesus was human or divine or some combination of the both. In other words, Jesus didn’t really need the endorsement, so the reader might wonder why he did it and even why Matthew, Mark, and Luke felt it was important enough to include in their accounts of Jesus’ life.

Another important detail to notice in this passage is that the crowd doesn’t hear God’s voice or see the dove come down from heaven. The text says, “the heavens were opened to him.” Was this a private moment for Jesus?

This incident occurs just as Jesus was beginning his ministry—preaching a message of radical love that flew in the face both of the corrupt Roman occupation and also the religious machinery of the Temple. Careful exegesis might lead us to conclude that what we are witnessing here is a moment when Jesus was facing doubt or fear, when he needed to gather resolve or courage for the work ahead of him, when he needed most of all to remember who he was.

Listen carefully to the reading of the gospel as we do the Work of Worship together:

Matthew 3:13-17

3:13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.
3:14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
3:15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
3:16 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.
3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

*This was a partner piece to last Sunday’s sermon.

Answering the Call

Being the Church

Previous Post

January 10, 2017

Resolved

Next Post

January 15, 2017 Brave

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Answering the Call Being the Church Curating Wisdom Laughing Out Loud Living in Relationship Practicing Discipleship Reclaiming Baptist Speaking from the Pulpit Uncategorized

Select a Month July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005

Search for:

The Work of Worship, Matthew 3:13-17

Recent Posts

Recent Comments

Archives

Categories

Meta

Which book of the Bible contains the most chapters of any prophetic book?