Mid-Lent
1
What
is baptism?
2/21/24
I
once heard about a pastor who had visited the Holy Land. I was told that he brought back some water
from the Jordan River so that he could perform a baptism using it. I was struck by the amount of effort he had
put into this. The water was obviously
very valuable to him.
As
I recall, the pastor had done this in the 1970’s or 1980’s. Things have changed quite a bit since then,
and so I got curious about whether now you can just buy water from the Jordan
River. Sure enough, a quick search on
the internet revealed that this is easy to do.
You can get 300 ml – about 10 ounces – for $9.45 at Amazon.com. If you
have Prime, there is even free shipping and you can receive it in a couple of
days. There are actually a fairly large
number of options and church supply houses sell it as well. It wouldn’t be
cheap to fill the font, but it also would not be hard to do.
We
can understand why people value water from the Jordan River. But as we consider Holy Baptism tonight we
recognize that the source of the water used in baptism does not make any
difference. The water used is water. In
itself it is plain water no matter where it comes from. Instead, it is Christ’s command and the Word
of God that takes any water and makes it into a baptism.
Water
is a material substance that is used by God. It’s not surprising that he chose
it since water has many prominent associations.
Water is needed to sustain life.
If you don’t have water, you can’t continue living. Water also brings death. It can drown those who are caught up in
it. Water brings cleansing. It washes
away dirt and filth.
God’s
choice to use this material substance in dealing with us reflects the way God
made us and his creation. We learn in
Genesis 1 about how God made his material creation. It is a place of water, land, plants and
animals. Again and again we are told
that God saw that what he made was good. Finally, we hear at the end of the
chapter, “And God saw everything
that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” God looked at the material world he had made
and considered it to be good stuff.
God created us as part of that
material creation. We learn in chapter two, “then the LORD God formed the man
of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” He created us as the unity of body and soul
joined together. Only in this way can we be what God intends. He created us as people who are located at a
place and time in this physical world.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they
brought sin into the world. Sin brought
death. Paul tells us, “Therefore, just
as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin,
and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” It brought the rending of body and soul. Sin also warped and twisted God’s
creation. It brought upon it what Paul
calls a bondage to corruption.
Yet God’s answer was not to abandon
and give up on us and his creation. Instead, he did something remarkable. God
himself entered creation. John tells us
about the Son of God, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among
us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth.” God
located himself in our world through the means of the flesh of Christ. Where was God for us? Jesus Christ was God’s located means. On Christmas Eve God was located in the
manger through the flesh of Jesus. That was where God was present for us.
Jesus Christ
was not simply the means by which God was present with us. He was the means by which God acted in order
to deal with sin. We prepare during Lent
to remember that on Good Friday Jesus’ body – his flesh – was nailed to the
cross in order to win us forgiveness.
Paul told the Colossians, “And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil
deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his
death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach
before him.”
Paul told the Corinthians, “For I decided to know nothing among you
except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
Christ crucified was the located means by which God won salvation for
us. This was God acting on Good Friday
to redeem us from sin.
The forgiveness of sins was won as
Christ hung on the cross in first century Jerusalem. But it is not given to us
there and then. Instead, God acts to
give forgiveness to us here and now. And we don’t have to wonder about how he
does this. He meets us where we are
at. He does this through the located
means of water. God gives forgiveness
through water in the font that is applied to our body.
Jesus Christ was crucified, died, and was
buried. But on Easter he rose from the
dead. He appeared to his disciples on a
mountain in Galilee and told them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has
been given to me. 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.”
Christ commanded his disciples to apply water in the name
of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. He instituted Holy Baptism. Martin Luther says in the Large Catechism,
“Observe first, that these words contain God’s commandment and institution, so
that no one may doubt that baptism is of divine origin, not something devised
or invented by human beings.”
Baptism is Christ’s gift.
It comes from God. And what is
baptism? The Small Catechism answers
this question by saying, “Baptism is not just plain water, but it is water
included in God’s command and combined with God’s word.”
Baptism is water. But it is not just plain water. It is not just plain water because it has
been taken up by God’s command and combined with God’s word. Christ has commanded the Church to use water
in this way. He has combined this water
with his word to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit. Paul tells us that “Christ loved the church and gave himself
up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing
of water with the word.”
It is God’s word added to water that makes it baptism. In this way it becomes God’s water. Luther says in the Large Catechism, “What is
baptism? Namely, that it is not simply plain water, but water placed in the
setting of God’s word and commandment and made holy by them. It is nothing else than God’s water, not that
the water itself is nobler than other water but that God’s Word and commandment
are added to it.”
Baptism is a wet word. It is water in which God’s word is
enclosed. It is this word and
commandment of God that sets it apart and makes it to be the means by which God
is at work. The Large Catechism says, “For the real significance of the water
lies in God’s word or commandment and God’s name, and this treasure is greater
and nobler than heaven and earth.”
When you see a baptism being performed it does not look
impressive. It is simply water being
poured on the head as the pastor says, “I baptize you in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
But God has claimed that water as the means by which he works through
his word. The Large Catechism says,
“Note the distinction, then: Baptism is a very different thing from all other
water, not by virtue of the natural substance but because here something nobler
is added, for God himself stakes his honor, his power, and his might on it.”
God has chosen to use water in this way. He has set the
water of baptism apart by his command and word.
And so the Large Catechism says, “Therefore it is not simply a natural
water, but a divine, heavenly, holy, and blessed water – praise it in any other
terms you can – all by virtue of the word, which is a heavenly, holy word that
no on can sufficiently extol, for it contains and conveys all that is God’s.”
In Holy Baptism God works through the located means of
water. He works through water in a font
that is applied to our body. He deals with us as a whole person – body and
soul. We know this because God has
included this water in his command and combined it with his word.
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