Christ Crucified at Epiphany

            On this day, Orthodox Christians gather together for the Feast of Epiphany or Theophany.   This feast is often referred to as the third most important feast day in the Orthodox Church after Pascha and Pentecost.  Yes, it’s even more important than Christmas!  Today, we commemorate and celebrate the events that occurred at Jesus’s baptism in the River Jordan.  One of the main questions that arises during this festal season is, “Why was Jesus, the sinless Word of God made flesh, baptized by his cousin John the Baptist?”  There are, in fact, several theologically correct answers.  Many church fathers refer to the cosmic significance of Jesus’s baptism.  In today’s troparion of the feast, we sing that Jesus’s baptism renewed all creation.  We also sing that in His baptism the worship of the Trinity was made manifest.  Thus, Theophany is also about the revelation of the tri-hypostatic divinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  However, that is not what we are going to focus on today.  In keeping with the theme that began with the Nativity sermon, let us look deep into this feast day and into Scripture to preach ‘Christ crucified’ at Epiphany.  For in His baptism we can actually see the promise of the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies of His sacrificial death on the Cross.

            First, let’s take a look at John’s baptism.  It was not the same as our baptism today.  When you and I were baptized, we were cleansed of original sin, illuminated, justified, and given the seal of the Holy Spirit, and made complete and full members of Christ’s one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.  This is baptism’s function in the post-Resurrection and post-Pentecost Church.  But John’s baptism was before all this.  So, what was it?  In Mark 1:4-5 we read, “John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.  Then all the land of Judea, and those from Jerusalem, went out to him and all were baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins.”  The gospels also tell us that John the Baptist was the voice crying in the wilderness that prepared the way of the Lord as it was foretold by the Prophet Isaiah.  At the sound of that voice, the people came to John, confessed their sins, and were baptized promising to change their ways and to bear fruit worthy of repentance.  In other words, John’s baptism was a type of Jewish purification ritual in preparation for the coming of the Messiah.

            So again, the question arises, “If Jesus is God incarnate, and sinless, why does He need to enter into this purification ritual for sinners?”  Even John didn’t want to baptize Jesus, but stated that he should be baptized by Jesus.  In Matthew 3:15, though, Jesus states, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  Jesus says to do it so that all things can be made right with God and then Jesus submits to baptism at the hand of John the Baptist.  The meaning behind all this can be made clear for us if we turn to the Old Testament.

            In Leviticus, chapter 16, we read about the Day of Atonement.  This religious ceremony involved the sacrifice of several animals, including two goats.  In the text we read that Aaron the high priest is to “…take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.  Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot shall be for the Lord and the other lot for the scapegoat.  (…)  Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat.  So shall he make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins… (Lev. 16:7-8, 15-16).  So, we learn from this passage that the first goat was a sin offering that was offered on behalf of the sinful Israelite people. 

A few verses later we read, “And when he has made an end of atoning for the Holy Place, the tabernacle of meeting, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat.  Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.  The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat into the wilderness” (Lev. 16:20-22).  This second goat was the scapegoat.  It was not killed, but rather, hands were laid upon it, sins confessed, and the goat was then driven into the wilderness.  In Old Testament times, banishment into the wilderness meant certain death.  The scapegoat symbolized for the Israelite people the removal of sin by the placing of the sin on some other entity so that it became the bearer of sin.  In the New Testament, it is Jesus who takes on the roles of both of these sacrificial animals.

            Jesus is our scapegoat.  At his baptism, the Sinless One took upon Himself, willingly and voluntarily, all of the sins of man – past, present, and future.  Every sin, every transgression, every fault, and every error of fallen humanity is now laid upon Jesus’s head.  In doing this, He fulfills the function of the Levitical scapegoat and after being baptized and assuming the burden of humanity’s sins, He exits to the wilderness for 40 days.  The new scapegoat is now the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

            But wait, there’s more!  Jesus is also the fulfillment of the sin offering – the other goat from the day of Atonement.  Unlike the scapegoat, Jesus doesn’t die in the wilderness.  As we are told in the Gospels, He goes into the wilderness for 40 days to fast and to defeat the temptations of the devil.  But remember the baptism itself involves water.  This is important, because in the Old Testament, water is very often a symbol of chaos and death!  Thus, in his descent into the waters of the Jordan River at the hands of his cousin John the Baptist do we see the coming death of Jesus on the Cross at the hands of his own people.  By His death on the Cross does Life-Giving Divinity itself enter into the chaotic waters of death, subdue it, and destroy it.  Then, just as Jesus arises from the waters at His baptism, so to does He rise from the chaotic waters of death at His resurrection on the third day. 

            The good news for us on this feast day of Theophany is this: No longer do we have to offer goats and banish goats year after year which, as it states in Hebrews 10, can never make the offerers perfect.  Now we have the perfect sacrifice – a perfect someone – to lay our blame on.  Unlike the old Adam who tried to make Eve and the serpent his scapegoats and thus caused mankind to be cast out of the Garden of Eden, Jesus, the new Adam, comes and takes responsibility for sin and suffers God’s wrath against sin so we don’t have to and opens the gates of paradise for who believe.  By becoming the perfect and sinless scapegoat and sin offering, He takes away sin and the resultant sting of death and opens to way to the unending presence of the light and love of God.  So, let us lay our sins, our failures, and our despairs on Jesus so that He can drown them by the virtue of His baptism.  Then, just as those priests in the Old Testament partook of the flesh of the sin offering, let us, with joy in our hearts, as the priesthood of all believers, partake of the Body and Blood of Him who deigned to be baptized in the Jordan River for our salvation.  Glory to Jesus Christ!