Mark 1: 4-11
It's gone. I cannot find it anymore. It's been wiped off the face of the map. It is no longer available for sale. Back in 2005 – 2008 it primary target was weekend warriors. But after the economic problems that began in December 2007, perhaps this product no longer had a market. What was it? Well let me give you a hint.
The product was based on the fact that only about 5 percent of people who own SUVs or 4 wheel drive ever take their vehicle off-road, which means that you're more likely to see a Range Rover at Starbucks, for example, than anywhere near a mountain lake. Although car companies like Chrysler show Jeep owners taking long trips over rocks and through streams most SUV owners, most people who have 4-wheel drive, very rarely ever use it. Instead, the look and the possibility of one day actually locking in the four-wheel drive were worth the extra bucks in the purchase price back in the days.
What was that product that was sold to all those people who had SUV's who rarely ever used the capabilities. The product was "Sprayonmud." For a mere $14.50 per quart-sized bottle you could buy actual mud to spray on your vehicle in order to make it look as though you had just bumped back from a wild ride in the wilderness when, in fact, you had been merely hiking through the aisles at Costco or Wal-Mart. The product is no longer available perhaps because with the economic downturn people realized that $14.50 a week to show that you had played with your truck over the weekend was no longer worth it.
Or perhaps it could be because real off-roaders know that the best mud is free and generally available. People who drive over dirt or gravel roads or take their vehicle into the fields of south Texas know that vehicles wear mud not because it can be bought but as a sign of what it really is: a truck or SUV at work. Fake-mudders mark themselves as, well, fakers. To be real you have to work and live where the dirt is.
Why do I bring this up? Look at our gospel, when Jesus burst on the scene in first- century Israel, one of his first actions was to mark his life and ministry with some real mud. He traveled way off-road, all the way out into the Judean wilderness, to see his cousin John. In the manner of other ancient Israelite prophets, John lived a solitary life amid rocks, sand and snakes but preached a message so compelling that people were willing to get their feet dirty to go find him.
I had the honor and privilege to travel in Israel twice in my life and both times in my visit to the river Jordan, one of the startling facts that I noticed is that Jordan by the time it gets to the general area where Jesus was baptized is muddy. It was then and it is now. So in other words, standing there in the notoriously muddy water of the Jordan River, John offered a "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (1:4). First-century Jews were used to ceremonial washings, but the only one that involved immersion was for those converting to Judaism. John however, called everyone, even ethnic Jews, to be baptized or "marked" as being in need of forgiveness and salvation — human sin being washed away and replaced with a real mark of repentance and confession. John's baptism was, in a real sense, a great equalizer, declaring that rich and poor, Jew and non-Jew, righteous or roustabout drivers of Jeeps all must turn toward God.
But there is a paradox. We do not like to wash dishes in dirty water. Yet John calls his disciples to be "washed," marked, or cleansed in the dirty waters of the Jordan; in a sense intentionally, baptized in dirty water.
In other words, Jesus begins his ministry standing in dirty water, the muddy Jordan. He might as well have said, "Don't expect room service, and a mint on the pillow, filtered water and afternoon lattes." And if we walk with Jesus, we start in the muddy Jordan and we end up dying on a cross that Jesus himself will invite us to embrace.
When Jesus came to the edge of the water, John recognized that he was "the one" who "is more powerful than I ... I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals" (1:7). John is indicating that if anyone needed to skip this particular mud bath it was Jesus. In Matthew's version, John is incredulous that the Messiah would need any kind of baptism — "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" (Matthew 3:14). Yet Jesus willingly steps down into the brown water to take on the same muddy mark as his people.
When we are baptized we take on that same mark in the same muck. Jesus' baptism is the prototype for those of us who would follow him. Perhaps it would be good at the beginning of year, on the day we remember the baptism of Jesus, to review what does our baptism say about us?
First, we understand baptism as a mark of God's favor. Look at verses 9-11. Jesus comes to the Jordan River to be baptized by John and for him it is a form of anointing --- not just with water but with the Spirit. Here we see the Trinity in action: the Son receiving the blessing, the Father expressing his love for the Son, and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. Baptism marks Jesus as "the Beloved" in whom God's own nature is revealed and with whom God is "well pleased." It's a powerful expression of the intimacy of God's own relational nature.
For us, baptism is a sign of God's favor as well, but it is favor that is unmerited. We recognize that we cannot fake out God and be something that we're not, so we "come clean" and simply receive the love of God who created us out of earth and sees us as being "very good." No matter how much mud and muck we are living in and through, we can't fake God out rather baptism is a sign that God loves us.
Second, baptism is a sign that we pledge allegiance to a different kingdom — the kingdom of God. And that allegiance is worked out in our service to others. Baptism marks us, sets us apart as different from the world's idea of power.
When the great reformer Martin Luther was tempted, he would often put his hand on his head to remind himself that he was baptized — that he was different, that he could try to resist temptation for example, because of his connection with Christ. Our baptism into Christ calls us to be a different, peculiar and passionate people who are sent out to follow and model Jesus in changing the world.
We are called to "go" into the world and get dirtier serving others not with spray on mud. Nor are we called to find some clean place, cool clear meadow by a shimmering stream in the Rocky Mountains. Although we may be refreshed by those moments and places that are not where we work; no, we are all about the dusty Rio Grande. Our baptism is a commission and a call to go into or return to the wilds of a hurting world.
Finally, have you ever heard the expressions "Cheers" or "bottoms up?" It is done before we drink a glass of alcohol. There is another expression that you may have also heard "Here's mud in your eye." Although there are various ideas of where that expression may have come from, one strong contender is that it is based on the 9th chapter of the gospel of John. If you remember, Jesus spits on the ground, takes the mud and puts it on a blind man's eyes. The idea is that "Here's mud in your eye" is to wish someone healing and good health.
Knowing what we know about Jesus and the muddy Jordan, healing with mud, and dying on the cross, living as baptized followers of Christ is something we cannot fake. No amount of spray on mud or religiosity can hide who we really are called to be. As Jesus waded into the muddy water, he set the example for us, "here's mud in your eye" in 2012, because if the Son of God is willing to get dirty changing the world, we who follow are blessed because we wallow in the mud.
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