Baptism of Our Lord
Mt
3:13-17
1/9/22
Most
merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against You in thought, word,
and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
We justly deserve Your present and eternal punishment.
These are
the words that you just spoke at the start of the service. Every Sunday we begin the Divine Service by
confessing our sin. As we prepare to
come before the holy God we begin by confessing our sinful status and the sins
we have committed. The Lutheran service
did not always begin this way, since there were several centuries when those
who were going to commune had gone to private confession in the days before the
service. But this is the only practice any of us have ever known. And it certainly makes sense. We come as repentant sinners who are here at
the Divine Service to receive God’s forgiveness in a variety of ways through
his Means of Grace.
Repentance
was the theme as well for all who came to receive the baptism administered by
John the Baptist. Matthew tells us, “In those
days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of
Judea, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” John called all the Jews to repent because
the kingdom of heaven – the end time reign of God was about to arrive.
God was coming with his end time judgment and people needed to
be ready. God’s final judgment always possesses two sides. It is salvation for those who receive him in
repentance and faith, and damnation for those who remain in their sin. John called people to repent so that the arrival of God’s end
time reign would mean salvation for them.
Many people took John’s message to heart. Matthew reports, “Then Jerusalem and all
Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they
were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.”
I have mentioned several times recently that what made John
truly unusual was that he administered this baptism to others. Unlike other washings present in Judaism it
was not self-administered. Instead, John
did the baptizing and by receiving John’s baptism people demonstrated that they
were truly repentant as they looked for God’s reign to arrive.
Our text begins with the words, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan
to John, to be baptized by him.” We have
heard these words so many times that it is easy to overlook an important
factor. It is one thing to say that
people from Jerusalem and Judea were going out to John to be baptized. After
all, John was in the vicinity of Judea, carrying out his baptizing ministry in
the wilderness on the other side of the Jordan.
However, Matthew tells us that Jesus came from Galilee
to be baptized by John. This was about a
sixty mile trip that Jesus probably made by walking. It took some real effort for Jesus to go to
John. This tells us that receiving
John’s baptism was very important to Jesus.
As John called people to repentance in preparation for the
arrival of God’s reign, he proclaimed a powerful figure who was coming after
him, “I
baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me
is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in
his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into
the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
When Jesus showed up to receive John’s baptism, John was
confused. In fact, John
wanted to prevent it as he said, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come
to me?” Why would Jesus be coming to John to receive his baptism? John didn’t
understand, but Jesus had not travelled sixty miles for no reason. He answered, “Let it be so now, for
thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Jesus said that John needed to baptize, and that Jesus needed to
receive John’s baptism. This was fitting – it was the role that each was to
play in order to fulfill all righteousness.
In the Old Testament “righteousness” is a word that describes God’s
saving action to put all things right.
Jesus was telling John that the reception of John’s baptism was a
necessary part of God’s saving action.
Persuaded by Jesus, John baptized him. Jesus went up from the water and we learn in
our text, “behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw
the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and
behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with
whom I am well pleased.’”
Jesus received John’s baptism that was tied to repentance. But the events that occurred immediately
after the baptism demonstrated that this was not “just another baptism.” First Jesus saw the heavens opened and the
Holy Spirit descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. Second, the voice
of God the Father was heard saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I
am well pleased.”
The words of the Father and the descent of the Spirit were the
fulfilment of Isaiah 42:1 which says, “Behold my
servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have
put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” God
identified Jesus as the Servant of the Lord. In Isaiah, the servant is the
nation of Israel, and Jesus as the Christ would be Israel reduced to One who
would fulfill what Israel was meant to be.
But the
servant in Isaiah is also an individual.
He is the suffering Servant about whom Isaiah says in
chapter 53, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have
turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the
iniquity of us all.” Jesus Christ, the Son of God who has not sin, goes to
receive John’s baptism of repentance. In
doing so he takes on the role that fulfills all righteousness – that will bring
God’s salvation to put all things right.
Our Lord joins other sinners in the water, so that he can take their
place – so that he can take our place.
We see a paradox here – a paradox that will characterize
Jesus’ entire ministry. Two mighty and
dramatic events occur at Jesus’ baptism. The Spirit descends and comes to rest
on Jesus. The Father declares, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” But this baptism makes Jesus the One who will
bear the sins of all. From the moment of
Jesus’ baptism, his life and ministry were on a one way path to the cross. It
sets Jesus on the course of suffering and death for you and for me. He does this to save us – take away our sins. As Jesus will say, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus was
faithful to the mission that God the Father had given him as the suffering
servant. Repeatedly he told the
disciples that he was going to die.
Matthew tells us later in the Gospel, “As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus
said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of
men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.’”
Because we are sinners who must confess what I read at the
beginning of the this sermon, Jesus died as the sacrifice for our sins on the
cross. As Isaiah had said, “my
servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their
iniquities.” Because of Jesus death on
the cross for our sins, we are now accounted righteous before God – we are
justified. And because of Jesus’ resurrection we know that death has been
defeated. We know that Jesus will raise
us up on the Last Day.
As far as
we know, John the Baptist was the first person to baptize others. Jesus received John’s baptism, died on the
cross, and rose from the dead. As the crucified and risen Lord, he then took
John’s baptism and transformed it. Jesus
made it his own when after his resurrection he told the disciples, “Go therefore
and make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
Jesus entered into the water of baptism in order to take on our
sins and go to his death. We now receive
the water of the baptism Jesus instituted in order to lose our sins and to live. Paul told the Romans, “Do you not know that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into
his death?
We
were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with
him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a
resurrection like his.”
Paul says that through baptism we
shared in Jesus’ saving death. The
forgiveness that he won has become ours.
Yet at the same time, the apostle says that our baptism give us life in
two ways. First, he says, “just
as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too
might walk in newness of life.” The
apostle is referring to the fact that the Spirit who raise Jesus from the dead
is the One who has given us the washing of regeneration and renewal.
Your baptism is the
source of the Spirit’s continuing work in your life. As Paul goes on to say, “Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not
present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness,
but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to
life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” Through God’s gift of baptism we receive the
Spirit’s continuing work in our life that enables us to love and serve others,
just as Jesus loved and served us when he took our sin and died on the cross.
The second way that
baptism gives us life is that it provides the assurance of our
resurrection. Paul says, “For if we
have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be
united with him in a resurrection like his.”
In baptism we have been buried with Christ. But our Lord Jesus did not
remain in the tomb. On Easter he rose
from the dead and went forth as the exalted Lord. Since we have shared in Jesus’ death through
baptism, baptism also provide the guarantee that we too will share in Jesus’
resurrection when he returns in glory on the Last Day.
Jesus traveled some
sixty miles to receive baptism from John. He did this because the paradoxical
act of the sinless Son of God receiving a baptism of repentance was necessary
to fulfill all righteousness – to carry out the saving action of God to put all
things right. Through this action Jesus
took on the role of the Servant of the Lord.
He entered into the water of the Jordan in order to take our sins as his
own. He went into the water into order
to die on the cross as the ransom for us.
Yet in his
resurrection Jesus has defeated death.
And now through baptism we receive not only the forgiveness of sins, but
also the work of the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. The Spirit
leads us to live the life of love and service Christ has shown to us. And the Spirit is the One who will raise us
up on the Last Day, just as he raised Jesus. Through baptism we have shared in
the death of the risen Lord, and so we know that the we will also share in his
resurrection.
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