Readings

Welcome to the First Sunday after the Epiphany. ‘Epiphany’: the Greek word for the appearance of something normally invisible, confirmation that there’s more here than meets the eye. Our lectionary creates, effectively, an epiphany season, starting with the magi’s visit (the Feast of Epiphany) and the heavenly appearances at Jesus’ baptism (today), and ending with the Transfiguration, with the intervening Sundays more or less continuing this epiphany theme.

The other readings key off the Gospel reading. There’s general agreement that the voice from heaven (“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”) picks up the opening declaration from our Isaiah text (“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights”). The celebration of God’s power as experienced in the earth-rattling thunder in the psalm provides an interesting counterpoint to the Gospel’s heavenly voice. Peter’s speech in Acts is a nice twofer: it recalls Jesus’ baptism, and, since Peter is speaking to the gentile Cornelius and his invitees, continues the theme that this divine appearance is good news for all peoples.

Jesus baptized by John: a striking scene, but also, apparently, profoundly unsettling. Shouldn’t Jesus be baptizing John? So the Gospel of John omits it. Luke narrates John’s arrest before Jesus’ baptism, leaving us wondering who baptized Jesus. It’s Matthew that sets the question centerstage: “John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’” OK, and how is “fulfill all righteousness” an explanation? How does Matthew think it’s an explanation?

It turns out that “righteous” and “righteousness” are important words in Matthew’s Gospel. Unique to Matthew from the Sermon on the Mount: “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (5:20). And of all the ways Matthew could have introduced Joseph back in chapter 1, he chooses: “Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man” (1:19). And in case we’re wondering what ‘righteous’ means, he’s included Tamar in Jesus’ genealogy, for ‘righteous’ is in the punchline of Tamar’s story.

Tamar is the widow of Er, the patriarch Judah’s son. Following local custom, Tamar is given to Er’s brother Onan, both so that Er won’t be left without posterity, and that Tamar will be provided for. That custom, levirate marriage, turns out to be common in many cultures—see Wikipedia—and shows up also in the Book of Ruth. But Onan also dies. By custom Judah should give Tamar to Shelah, his next son. But he’s decided that Tamar is bad news and procrastinates. And procrastinates. Tamar, honor-bound to do right by Er, improvises. She dresses as a prostitute and puts herself in Judah’s path. As payment he agrees to send a kid from the flock, and Tamar keeps his signet, cord, and staff as collateral (his wallet, more or less). Tamar returns to her widow’s garments, and Judah is left scratching his head. Let’s hear the next bit from Genesis 38:

About three months later Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the whore; moreover she is pregnant as a result of whoredom.” And Judah said, “Bring her out, and let her be burned.” As she was being brought out, she sent word to her father-in-law, “It was the owner of these who made me pregnant.” And she said, “Take note, please, whose these are, the signet and the cord and the staff.” Then Judah acknowledged them and said, “She is more in the right than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah” (Gen 38:24-26).

“She is more righteous than I.” Righteous: not a matter of checking off the boxes, but doing what’s necessary to do right by those with whom one’s in relation. So when Israel is in distress it’s good news that the Lord is righteous; the Lord can be counted on to do what’s necessary to come to Israel’s aid.

Joseph: his righteousness already orients him to mercy. But he needs the information the angel brings, needs to believe that information, that Mary’s pregnancy is holy. There’s no checklist. Given the angel’s information, taking Mary as wife, acknowledging Jesus as his son, is doing right by Mary—and by God, for that matter.

“John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.’”

“Fulfill all righteousness.” Let’s recall two other elements from the Joseph story:

• “you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
• “’and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means, ‘God is with us.’” (Mat 1:21-23)

(Note that I’m not suggesting that Jesus is recalling these, but that Matthew has included these also because they help him—and us—make sense of “fulfill all righteousness.”) “Save his people from their sins”: at arm’s length, or by standing in solidarity with them? “God is with us”: does Jesus get wet or not? “Fulfill all righteousness”: do whatever it takes to save his people from their sins, to fulfill that promise “God with us.” And the Father, Matthew tells us, responds: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We might paraphrase: “Son, you nailed it.”

Next month the lectionary will have us hearing that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees” text. Before Jesus directed it to the disciples, to us, he directed it to himself.

Two concluding observations. As a celebration of raw power, it’s hard to beat today’s psalm, Psalm 29. The juxtaposition of Psalm 29 with the divine voice at Jesus’ baptism, Jesus dripping wet, identified with this sinful people, does invite us to wonder about the relation between power and vulnerability. “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees…” We prefer to do that from a position of power; today’s text might give us another way of thinking about that, perhaps aided by those strange words Paul heard: “”My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9).

Second, this righteousness we’ve been exploring is clearly open-ended. Open-ended on our part, which can (should?) be disconcerting. “Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times’” (Mat 18:21-22). Or Paul on love: “It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1Co 13:7). Open-ended on God’s part, which can and should be profoundly encouraging: “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?” (Rom 8:31-32)