Sermon for the Baptism of Our Lord - Mt 3:13-17

 

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.