“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights” (Is. 42:1).
A lot can hang on a single word, and in our first reading today a whole lot is hanging on the word “here.” It’s the call of a prophet: the one who is “my servant… my chosen, in whom my soul delights” (Is. 42:1), as it says in the reading. God announces, “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you.” God tells the prophet, “I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations” (Is. 42:6). “New things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them” (Is. 42:9).
All well and good, but in our reading it all hangs on the word “here”: as in “Here is my servant…” (Is. 42:1). In ancient Israel, the call of a prophet usually took place privately. In the call of Isaiah, God speaks to the prophet in the midst of a vision, of God enthroned in the temple surrounded by seraphs. Only Isaiah sees the vision. Or the call of Ezekiel, where God appears again in a powerful vision by the river Chebar seen only by the prophet. The prophet Jeremiah simply tells us “Now the word of the Lord came to me” (Jer. 1:4). He, like the other prophets, has got to tell us about the call because no one else is around to hear it.
In the call of the prophet in our reading this morning, the word “here” means that others are listening in. “Here” is the key word of designation addressed to witnesses: those who witness to the word of God spoken to the prophet. The word “here” is the clue that what God is saying is not a word spoken in a vision or in a dream or even in the quiet of a private chamber. The message is not for the prophet but for the audience. God is publicly revealing the prophet’s call: saying “here he is” to a waiting world.
Our Gospel reading from Matthew, for the feast of the Baptism of Christ, is similar in giving us a public call. The voice from heaven, the voice of God, designates Jesus as “my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17): words very much like our first reading. Again, the message is not for Jesus but for those who are assembled for the baptism. In Mark’s version of Jesus’ baptism, the voice tells Jesus that he is God’s Son, but in Matthew’s account the words are addressed to those who are listening in.
The call of Jesus at his baptism in the river Jordan tells the People who Jesus is, and what his mission is. In the words of our first reading, God is announcing that Jesus is the servant of God, the one who “will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth” (Is. 42:4). The prophecy is pointing the way. Jesus is the one who is going to “bring the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness” (Is. 42:7). Jesus’ call, like the call of the prophet in our first reading, is given as a public service announcement of the ministry of Jesus Christ; one that is broadcast to the whole world.
Now here’s why this is important to us: this morning, we are the ones who are listening in. We’re the ones who are being addressed. We are the ones who are called to be witnesses to the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ. The call of Jesus is not a private communication between God and Jesus, but one that is witnessed by all of us. We are called to testify to what God has done in Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world. We’re witnesses to God’s love in sending the Savior. Jesus’ call means that we are called; our baptism into his name means that we walk in his footsteps.
Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, new life has come into the world. Those who stood by when Jesus was baptized had the luxury of hearing the words spoken by the voice, and then going home at the end of the day. We don’t have that luxury. We can’t be bystanders in the life of faith. We know he is the source of life. We’ve been baptized into Jesus Christ, into his death and resurrection, and so we are bound to be his followers.
This is the season of Epiphany, at the Church of the Epiphany. Epiphany means “manifestation” or “revelation,” as Jesus is revealed to the whole world. His call means that we are called. “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights” (Is. 42:1). God is calling each of us today, all of us who are listening in, to witness and testify.
