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Follow Jesus’ public ministry through the words of the hymn “Christ Begins.”
Baptism
We stand and we watch on the bank, wide-eyed.
Water runs and all heaven opens wide,
And a voice like thunder replies.
Here’s my Prophet, my Priest, my King,
A light in the dark, Christ steps in;
Here’s my Savior, my God, my King,
The time has come, Christ begins.
When did Jesus begin his work as our Savior? Without a doubt, it was the moment of his conception, when Jesus took on humanity. In his mother’s womb, he had the complete DNA of the incarnate Messiah. Even there he had set aside full and constant use of his majesty and power to begin living in our place.
And yet we recognize that something special was beginning when Jesus was baptized. Although he wasn’t beginning his work as our Savior, we say that his public ministry was beginning. This was in some way what we might call an epiphany moment. God opened the heavens, pointed to Jesus with the wings of the Holy Spirit, and revealed in a very special way that this Jesus was the long-awaited Son-King God promised David (2 Samuel 7:13; Psalm 2:7). This Son-King would also be the ultimate Prophet (Acts 3:22) and Priest (Hebrews 7:17).
The first stanza celebrates this special moment when Jesus began to draw disciples to himself. Two thousand years later, I find myself still standing beside John the Baptist, wide-eyed, as God proclaims to me that his Son has come. Through the testimony recorded in Scripture, God continues to reveal to us at Jesus’ baptism that, as the apostle John put it, “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world” (John 1:9).
First miracle
Mary’s whispering, but it’s not the time.
Yet six jars are filled with the finest wine.
Tell me, who is this by our side?
Here’s my Prophet, my Priest, my King,
A light in the dark, Christ steps in;
Here’s my Savior, my God, my King,
The time has come, Christ begins.
Besides the baptism of Jesus, the gospels record for us several other epiphany moments, when Jesus and his Father chose to reveal a special truth about our Savior. One of these moments was the wedding at Cana. There John tells us that Jesus did “the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory” (John 2:11). In other words, this was Jesus’ very first miracle.
John calls the miracle a sign. Signs communicate something. What did this sign communicate? This was no mere teacher, but he whom the disciples will eventually identify as their ultimate Prophet, Priest, and King.
When I was attending Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, I helped plan daily chapel worship. During the Epiphany season (the weeks following Christmas), I was assigned to pick out the songs to sing for our meditations on the wedding at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine. The first place I looked was Christian Worship 1993, and I couldn’t find any song focusing on this part of Jesus’ public ministry. So I wrote “Christ Begins.”
It struck me that the wedding at Cana belongs in this family of special public ministry events where Jesus was being revealed in a special way. Just as Christ’s baptism announced the beginning of his public ministry, the wedding at Cana announced the beginning of his ministry of miraculous signs. Two thousand years later, the Holy Spirit has graciously worked in our hearts as he did with guests at the wedding: “His disciples believed in him” (John 2:11).
Transfiguration
See the sun outshined on the hill and hide.
Clothes like lightning white, heaven opens wide,
And a voice like thunder replies.
Here’s my Prophet, my Priest, my King,
A light in the dark, Christ steps in;
Here’s my Savior, my God, my King,
The time has come, Christ begins.
When Jesus was baptized, the Father said from heaven, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). A couple of years later, as Jesus gathered with his disciples on a mountaintop and transfigured before them, the Father spoke once more from heaven: “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him” (Luke 9:35). Is it a coincidence that the two times the Father speaks aloud during Jesus’ ministry, he points out Jesus as his Son? I don’t think so. I think that both the baptism and the transfiguration of Jesus have a special connection.
Many harmonies of Jesus’ life place the transfiguration of Jesus soon after the feeding of the five thousand, when feelings toward Jesus change and when opposition against him begins to grow. If this is correct, then we have another unique beginning in the life of Jesus. And just as the opposition begins to grow, as we prepare to head into the Lenten season, the Father gives us his confirmation once again: “Despite what things will soon look like, you’re following the right person, the very Son of God.” We need to be reminded of that often.
And so, as I walk with my Savior down into the valley of Lent, anticipating the cross and how unkingly Christ will look on it, Scripture’s testimony confirms for me that I walk with my Prophet, my Priest, and my King.
Ascension
We stand, gathered round on the mountainside.
Watch the closing clouds hide him from our eyes;
With a voice united we cry:
Here’s my Prophet, my Priest, my King,
A light in the dark, Christ steps in;
Here’s my Savior, my God, my King,
The time has come, Christ begins.
Where should our tour of special beginnings with Jesus end? At the empty tomb? At the end of our earthly life? In the new heavens and earth? We started with the thought that Jesus began being our Savior at conception, in the womb of his mother. There he set aside some of his glory. When did he take that glory back and begin making full and constant use of it? His resurrection. But just as Christ’s baptism drew our eyes to him in a special way, marking a special beginning, so does Christ’s ascension. At his baptism, the heavens opened up so that the Father might point out his Son called to suffer as our Savior. Now the heavens open once again to take the Son back, no longer suffering but victorious as our Savior.
Just as Scripture has testified of these other beginnings—his baptism, his first miracle, his transfiguration—Scripture testifies of our final beginning in the gospels. After this final beginning, the apostles will be transformed from observers to proclaimers. The ascension is our transition into the Acts of the Apostles where we find those witnesses declaring with united voices—united with the voices of all Christians throughout history—“This ascended Jesus is our Prophet, our Priest, our reigning King.”
“Christ Begins” is hymn 385 in Christian Worship. Its tune is new, written by Pastors Luke Thompson and Kent Reeder, with the hymnal arrangement by WELS teacher Marjorie Flanagan. Listen to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary’s Chorus sing this hymn.
Illustration by Corissa Nelson
Author: Luke Thompson
Volume 110, Number 1
Issue: January 2023
