The First Sunday of Epiphany
First Sunday of Epiphany
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Reverend Bart Morrison
January 11, 2026
To Fulfill All Righteousness
Text: Matthew 3:13–17
This morning we’ll be treating with Matthew, our gospel reading. There are moments in the gospel when Jesus does something so unexpected that even the holy people around him are caught off guard. And this is one of those moments. There’s a lot going on in this very short passage. As we were talking about this morning in our our 8:30 Anglican Foundations class, this is one of the first places explicitly in the gospel where you have all three persons of the Trinity doing very important things. And we’ll get to that in a minute.
John the Baptist as everyone knows is a special person. He’s a transitional figure and Jesus has some things to say about him that we’ll learn in a minute. But he’s been standing in the Jordan River calling Israel to repentance. He’s the last and the the greatest of the prophets summoning God’s people to prepare for judgment and renewal. When Jesus steps into the Jordan, he is stepping into a story that God has been telling for centuries.
And you know that in these stories in the Old Testament, water is very seldom a neutral thing. It it is the place where God judges sin and brings new life. In the Pentateuch, we have the flood. We have the Red Sea. The Jordan itself is a place where God’s people are washed and cleansed. Israel learned that you do not pass through water unchanged.
The ritual washings of the law taught that God’s people must be cleansed to draw near. And the prophets promised a day when God would wash not only bodies, but hearts, giving his spirit within.
But here John, who is the arguably the greatest of prophets, is stunned and so would we. Later in Matthew Jesus will tell us that among those born of a woman none is greater. He knows who Jesus is…at least enough to know that something is wrong with this picture. “I need to be baptized by you,” John says, “and do you come to me?” It’s a reasonable objection. John baptizes sinners. Jesus has no sin. John prepares the way for the Lord. Jesus is the Lord. And yet Jesus insists, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” I’m not any great namer of sermons, but this one is going to be “To Fulfill All Righteousness.”
These words, to fulfill all righteousness, are the key to understanding not only this scene but the whole gospel. Why is that so? To understand what Jesus is doing here, we need to notice something simple but profound. And I think this is really pretty neat insight: Jesus goes where we are. And we witness this. We memorialize this in our Christmas story and in the Epiphany story where Jesus is revealed. He reveals himself to Israel. In Epiphany he reveals himself to the Gentiles, us.
He does not stand safely on the riverbank observing human repentance from a distance. He does not magically hover over the water. He obviously could, untouched by it. He he steps down into the river with everyone else which in
and of itself kind of amazing. This is how Matthew wants us to meet Jesus. Not not as a miracle worker teacher but as the obedient son who enters fully into the human condition, our condition. Jesus does not merely come to instruct us how to live better lives. He comes to take our place in the Jordan. Jesus stands where sinners stand. He aligns himself with Israel in her need.
And that the need is great. It’s never been greater than now. He accepts from the very beginning his public the burden of obedience that Adam failed to bear and Israel just couldn’t sustain.
This is what the church, our church, has always meant when she says that Christ is our representative. He does not merely show us righteousness. He fulfills it for us in obedience to the father.
When Jesus says that his baptism is necessary to fulfill all righteousness, he’s not talking about personal moral improvement. In Matthew’s gospel, righteousness needs means faithful obedience to God’s saving redemptive plan. Jesus is doing
what the father has given him to do. He submits to baptism not because he needs cleansing but because obedience itself is the path he has chosen. From the Jordan onward, Jesus will live a life of complete trust, complete surrender, complete faithfulness, right up to the cross.
This moment that we’re talking about this morning at the river already points toward Calvary. The descent into the water foreshadows the descent into death. The obedience of the son here anticipates the obedient of the son there. Jesus fulfills righteousness not by avoiding suffering but by walking straight through it in love.
What else is going on here? After Jesus is baptized Matthew tells us that the heavens open. This is not just a dramatic flourish, but it is dramatic. In scripture, “closed heavens” are a sign of exile. We don’t want the heavens to be closed to us. No. It’s a separation between God and humanity. “Opened heaven” means access to the to the light, to the love, to the mercy. It means reconciliation between between God and ourselves. It restores communion.
What was closed by sin is opened by obedience. This is why this day is so important in our church calendar. The heavens open not because Jesus has said the right words or performed the right ritual, but because he has placed himself fully within the father’s will.
And what opens over Jesus will never be closed again to those who belong to him. This is why Christian baptism is not merely symbolic. When the church baptizes, she does so in the confidence that Christ has already opened the way to the father. Baptism is participation in that opened heaven.
What’s next? We have another person of the trinity who presents themselves to us. The Spirit descends. Then the spirit of God “descending like a dove and coming rest on him.” This scene echoes the opening of Genesis where the spirit hovered over the waters at creation. It also recalls the dove that returned to Noah, signaling the beginning of a renewed world after judgment.
Matthew is telling us that something new has begun. Baptism marks the beginning of new creation. And notice this carefully, brothers and sisters: Jesus receives the spirit not because he lacks the spirit as the eternal son but as the incarnate son—the one who has come to live our life and redeem it from within. What Christ receives here he receives for us if we are in him.
Finally the father speaks. This is called theophony. Have you ever heard of that? We still have them now. Miraculously, people hear God audibly. But here we have the father himself saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” I want to hear that. This declaration comes before Jesus has preached a sermon, healed disease or cast out a demon. The father’s pleasure does not rest on Jesus’ many accomplishments. It rests on who he is and on his willing obedience. Jesus didn’t earn the father’s merit. He is the eternal son of God who chose in trinitarian love to come and be our sacrifice. “This is my beloved son.”
This is where two great biblical themes meet. Jesus is the royal son of Psalm 2 and he is the servant of Isaiah who will suffer for many. Glory and humility are joined in one voice.
And this matters very deeply for us because we are baptized into Christ. We are united to this son. His relationship to the father becomes ours by grace. His obedience becomes the ground of our acceptance. His identity becomes our identity.
The Christian life does not begin with our striving toward God. It begins with God’s declaration over us in Christ. He calls us beloved.
In closing, let’s bring all this together Anglicanly. As my friend Father Chris Royer says, we want to bring it together Anglicanly, liturgically. At the baptism of Jesus, we are given a glimpse of the greater fulfillment already predicted at Christmas and Epiphany. At Christmas, the son of God enters to our world in humility, taking our flesh. At Epiphany, that hidden glory is revealed first to the Magi, then to Israel, as light for the nations.
But at the Jordan, that same son steps forward publicly to embrace his mission. The heavens open, the spirit descends, and the father speaks. There’s your three persons of the Trinity in case anyone wants to tell you that they’re not real. The child born at Bethlehem and revealed at Epiphany is now declared the beloved son. Not merely to be admired but to obey, to suffer and to redeem. Incarnation leads to his mission. Manifestation also leads to his glory.
If Jesus’ baptism reveals who he is, brothers and sisters, it also reveals who we are called to be. To be baptized into Christ is to live from a new center. We do not obey in order to become children of God. We obey because in Christ we already are.
Baptism does not remove the call to repentance. It deepens it. Baptism does not end the Christian struggle. It gives it meaning. We spend our lives learning to live out what God has already declared to be true. Each day, the baptized are called to return again and again to the Jordan to remember that we belong to Christ, that heaven has been opened and the spirit has been given. That obedience is not a burden but a gift.
Some of you may be listening today and realizing that although you know about Jesus or have been around the church for a long time, you’ve never really trusted Jesus as the Lord of your life. You may admire him as as many have historically.
You may respect the Christian faith as a wise way of living your life. But deep down you know that you are standing on the riverbank watching, but not yet stepping in.
Hear this good news friends. Jesus has already stepped into the water for you.
He has taken your place. He has lived the obedience you could not live. He has carried your sin to the cross. He has opened heaven in his resurrection. You do not come to Christ because you are ready. You come to Christ. You come because Christ is ready to receive you. If today, brothers and sisters, you sense God calling to you, calling you to repent, to believe, to to begin again, I pray that you would turn to Christ. Ask him to forgive you. Ask him to make you new.
Ask him to give you his spirit and lead your life. Our catechism to be a Christian has a very fine example of such a prayer. If you would bow your heads and close your eyes, I’m going to read this for us all.
Almighty father, I confess that I have sinned against you in my thoughts, words, and actions. I am truly sorry and humbly repent. Thank you for forgiving my sins through the death of your son Jesus. I turn to you and give you my life. Fill and strengthen me with your Holy Spirit to love you to follow Jesus as my Lord in the fellowship of his church and to become more like him each day. Amen.
Friends, if you prayed that prayer for the very first time, if you turned to God and entrusted yourself to Jesus, I want you to know this. God has heard you and Christ is faithful. You’re not meant to walk this this journey alone. The Christian life is live within the fellowship of the church. So if today feels like a new step for you, I invite you quietly and without pressure to speak with me after the service or with Father Mike in the days ahead. We will be glad to listen to pray and help you take that next faithful step.
Let’s pray. Lord Jesus Christ, you stepped into the water for us and carried our sin in love. We turn to you now. Forgive us. Make us new. Give us your spirit and lead us in the way of life. We entrust ourselves to you, our savior and our king. Amen.
©2026 The Rev. Bart Morrison
