January 13, 2019
During his first night there, some older boys drag him out of bed. They are not English. They are Afrikaner and, since the Boar Wars, have been bitter enemies of the English. They drag him before their kangaroo court. They blind fold him and accuse him of various crimes and sentence him to death. They drag him into the shower area. They order him to take off his pajamas and kneel down on the ground. As he whimpers and cries, the older boys stand around him and urinate on him.
After they have gone, he dries himself off with his pajamas and, since he does not know what a shower is, he goes back to bed. Even though the older boys do not repeat that particular treatment, it begins a long series of nights in which the boy wets the bed. Now, the older boys have even more reason to torment him. He is not only English – he is a bed-wetter!
At long last, May comes and with it the end of the term. The boy goes back home. When he arrives, he pours out his heart to his beloved Zulu nanny. The nanny sends for a great Zulu medicine man, Inkosi-Inkosikasi – the last son of a great Zulu warrior, born of a 14 year-old girl, born not to be a warrior, like his father, but born to be a man of wisdom.
Now he is nearly 100 years old. He arrives in a cloud of dust in a big, black Buick. The village women fawn over him. He commands them to get five chickens, which he puts to sleep in five circles on the ground. Everyone is amazed. Then he calls the boy to sit with him. He tells him in a low voice that it is no special magic to put chicken to sleep, but rather a simple trick. The old man promises to teach the boy later how to hypnotize chickens.
After the nanny recounts the boy’s trials and tribulations in moving fashion, the end of the day is near. Inkosi-Inkosikasi tells the boy that he will be in the boy’s dreams that night and the next day they will deal with the unfortunate business of the “night water.”
That night, the medicine man is indeed in his dreams. And the next day the two sit together. The old man speaks. “Last night you and I stood together at a place of three waterfalls. When I tell you, I want you to close your eyes and return there. I want you to stand on a rock at the top of the three falls. It is night and the falls are thundering. You are a young warrior who has just killed his first lion. You are not afraid of the lion. You are not afraid of the thundering falls. You are not afraid of the demons of the dark night.”
The old man goes on. “I want you to say the number three to yourself and dive off the first falls. As you are swept over the second falls, you are to say the number two. As you come up to the surface of the third falls, you are to swim to the first black rock. Counting backwards from ten to one, you are to step from rock to rock to the other side. Dive now, my young warrior.”
So, he did. The boy closed his eyes and returned to that place. He dove off the first falls. He was swept quickly over the second. When he came to the third, he swam with confidence to the first rock. When he reached the last rock and stepped on the pebble beach, the old man spoke again.
“We have crossed the night water to the other side, and it is done.” And the boy opened his eyes. Then the old man concluded.
“When you need me, you may come to the night country and I will be waiting. I will always be there. You can find me if you go to the place of the three waterfalls and the ten stones across the river.
“Now,” he said, “let me show you the trick of the chicken sleep.”
After the break is over, the young boy returns to school. The bed-wetting stops, but the treatment of the older boys does not – he is still English, after all! Yet now when he stands before them, he does not cry, and that is disconcerting to them. He does not cry, because when they accuse him and threaten him, he closes his eyes and goes to the place of the three waterfalls and the ten stones across the river.
Jesus has just come out of the water, not the night water, of course, but the baptismal waters of the Jordan River. There he has been baptized by the great John the Baptist. He is now at prayer and the heavens are opened. The Spirit descends like a dove on him. A voice comes down also from heaven. It speaks to him and says, “You are my Son. You are my Beloved. You are my pride and joy.”
I imagine that that is a place to which Jesus returns often in his ministry. He returns there when Satan tests him. “If you are the Son of God,” the Tempter says, “turn these stones into loaves of bread…assume power over the nations of the world…throw yourself down off the top of the temple – if you are the Son of God.” But Jesus has no need to prove to anyone – even to himself – that he is God’s beloved Son. He has already been told by the voice from heaven. That has already been settled through his baptism.
But it is not only his wilderness encounter with Satan when he returns to the baptismal waters. Jesus returns there, I imagine, when the Pharisees oppose him. He returns there when his disciples misunderstand him. He returns there when the crowds are so demanding of him.
Finally, Jesus returns there when he is betrayed, when he is abandoned, when he is put on trial. He returns there when he is crucified, and the temptations begin again – “If you’re really the Messiah, if you’re really the king of the Jews, if you’re really God’s Son, then save yourself! Come down from the cross!”
But Jesus knows who he is. He has no need to prove himself. In fact, his proof lies in his baptism. His proof lies in his faithfulness to God. His proof lies in his willingness to give his life for us all.
This does not mean that nothing bad ever happens to him, quite the contrary. When the boy who came to be called, “PK,” returns to his boarding school, the torment does not stop. But it does not overwhelm him. He is able to stand with confidence in the face of his tormentors by returning to the water.
So also Jesus. Jesus is harassed and plagued and tempted. Then Jesus goes back to the water of his baptism. Jesus returns there to remember who he is. He returns to remember, not who he is in the world’s eyes, not even who he is in his own eyes, but who he is in God’s eyes. He returns to hear again the words, “You are my Son. You are my beloved. You are my pride and joy.”
Of course, we could say he has a natural, in-born connection with the Father, not merely through is baptism, but through his birth. But Jesus also connects regularly to God through prayer. This is clear especially in the gospel of Luke.
It is, as we have just heard, while Jesus is at prayer – after his baptism – that the heavens open. But that is not all.
After beginning his ministry – preaching and teaching, healing and casting out demons – Jesus goes off into a deserted place, to remember for himself who he is and what his real mission is.
Before calling the disciples, Jesus goes out to the mountain and spends the night in prayer.
When he takes Peter and James and John up a mountain, it is while he is at prayer, according to Luke, that he is transfigured before them.
And, of course, on the night in which he is betrayed, while he is in the Garden of Gethsemane, he prays to be spared the trial he is to undergo.
Jesus consistently maintains his connection with God throughout his life and ministry. He doesn’t check his to-do list. He doesn’t rush off to the next thing. He stops. He prays. And then he acts. This keeps him connected to the one who will never abandon him.
Despite opposition by all the powers of the world, Jesus remained faithful. Through his birth. Through his baptism. Through regular prayer. But there is one more way.
In two weeks, we will read how Jesus enters his hometown synagogue on the Sabbath. He takes and reads from chapter 66 in the scroll of Isaiah – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor…”
If Jesus knows that reading from Isaiah 66, he likely also knows the reading from Isaiah 43, that we shared earlier –
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not consume you…
Because you are precious in my sight, and honored,
and I love you.
It is through God’s word – God’s own promise – that Jesus is able to trust the presence and power of God to bring him through all things.
This promise is not only for Jesus. It is for us. It is for you. It is for me. It is not a promise for a smooth ride through life. It is not a promise that we will meet with success at every turn. It is not a promise that nothing bad will ever happen to us. It is a promise, however, to bring us through the hard times that will surely come, through the dark times, even through the valley of the shadow of death, to the other side.
For you have been baptized. You have come up out of the waters. You are precious in God’s sight – and God loves you. Always.
Comments
Post a Comment