The First Sunday after the Epiphany: The Baptism of Our Lord (A)
11 January 2026
Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan didst proclaim him thy beloved Son and anoint him with the Holy Spirit: Grant that all who are baptised into his Name may keep the covenant they have made, and boldly confess him as Lord and Saviour; who with thee and the same Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.
Isaiah 42:1-9
Acts 10:34-38
Matthew 3:13-17
Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism is nearly identical to his source material, Mark’s gospel. Of course, Matthew has built upon the story. Among other small details, he has, for example, added that exchange between the two men where John explicitly says to Jesus, “I need to be baptised by you, yet you come to me.” However, the words that give us the theological heart of this episode are almost indistinguishable: “this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Same vocabulary, same forms (most notably in that phrase “my beloved son” (1)).
To our ears, perhaps, this simple affirmation sounds very positive and affirming: a father acknowledging his son, proclaiming his importance, patting his boy on the head, naming him, “beloved.” Yet, everyone standing there on that day along the banks of the River Jordan would have seen beyond the apparent, face-value meaning of these few words. As soon as they were uttered, they would have rung bells in the heads of all who heard them, pointing them to other texts and a very specific meaning. Events unfolding before their eyes in the here and now reveal the hand of the God of Israel working in ways that are completely recognisable. Just a few words are all that are needed to recall the great works of God in ages past, the wisdom of the Psalms, the visions of the prophets.
Indeed, this is how the Hebrew Scriptures function in the New Testament. Words from the Scriptures were never used out of context either as handy turns-of-phrase, nor as selective quotations to prove a point. Rather, these words are signifiers, pointing us to a particular text where we will find how what is unfolding before our eyes connects with the larger plan of the God of Israel for the reconciliation of all creation. This means that how we understand God’s pronouncement that Jesus is his “beloved son” is not a matter for our speculation, for our sentimental reaction to the words themselves, but rather is founded in a specific understanding of scripture that would have been widely held by those who heard them. Here, these words are pointing us to Psalm 2 and to the passage from Isaiah that we heard just now.
The words, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee” sit at the centre of the second Psalm, which tells the story of what Schuyler already reminded us at Epiphany: there are two kings: the false king (or kings) of this world, and the true King who is God’s anointed one. The rulers of this world hold the people in bondage and make their stand in opposition to the works of the Lord and his anointed, and so God sings a song rallying the people: “Let us break their bonds asunder and cast away their cords from us.” And this is no mere rallying cry, for God has already acted. “I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion,” says God. And this king, the king, is no mere vassal, for God has proclaimed to him, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” The beloved son is at the very heart of God’s redemptive activity, he is the true king who calls the world’s rulers to account and demands that they must “be wise now,” execute justice on the earth, “and serve the Lord.” The son is the one to whom shall be given the nations, all the peoples of the earth, for his inheritance and bring them into relationship with the God of Israel. So when the voice from heaven says those three little Greek words, “my beloved Son,” this is what the people hear.
And not only this. They also echo in our passage from Isaiah: Behold 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. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.
In the words, “my beloved son” they would have also recognised Jesus as God’s “chosen, in whom my soul delights,” heard him marked as that bearer of justice we also recognises from Psalm 2, who will extend God’s reach beyond Israel to the nations. Here in Isaiah we also hear warnings that the path of this beloved, this chosen one, will be hard, and yet he will not “cry or lift up his voice,” that he will persevere in the face of the obstacles he will face and that, “He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth.”
Here we see in action the power of the interpretative framework that was second nature in Jesus’ world, and this was possible because the texts of the scriptures were so ingrained. Reading our Gospel texts as always in conversation with the rest of Scripture, being open not only to what we hear with our modern ears, but to all the voices that have come before, helps us see the depths of meaning that may not be apparent to us, but would have been clear in ages past. All the so-called secret meanings found in scripture are not so secret, certainly not to those for whom they were written, but are simply harder for us to hear given the gulf of time and culture. And so, the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection is richer and more nuanced, than on our first hearing it. Jesus’s baptism, as we now see, is more clearly understood, more meaningful to us when it is in understood in conversation with the whole of Scripture. From this vantage point we can grasp the significance, the scale of what Jesus came to the Jordan to accomplish. We now know that Jesus did not come as the beloved son of God merely to effect the personal salvation of a small band of faithful disciples, but he came so that what God promised in Isaiah, may extend to all:
:I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness….Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them. .
God has sent the king of whom the Psalmist and the prophets have spoken, the one who will bring justice, who will bring sight to the blind and free the prisoners. God has sent the king who will triumph over adversity and reveal the one in whom true kingship resides. And we understand this all this from those simple words, “this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” :
Today Charlotte comes to the waters of baptism, herself already a beloved child of God, to enter into the life of the Kingdom of God, working with the true king to help bring justice and love into a world sorely in need of it, to bring the nations into relationship with the God of Israel. We know that this path will not always be easy, but she will always be supported and loved in this work. We also know that today is just a beginning, not an end, the beginning of understanding, the beginning of ever increasing relationship with God and those whom she loves, and this is summed up in our prayer for her, that God may “give her an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, and the gift of joy and wonder in all thy works.” Amen.
Andrew Charles Blume ✠
New York City
William Laud (Archbishop and Martyr), 10 January 2026
1. Matt. 3:17 = Mk. 1:11: “μον ὁ ἀγαπητόϛ.”
© 2026 Andrew Charles Blume