First Reading: Isaiah 42:1-9
1Behold 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. 2He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. 5Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: 6“I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, 7to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. 9Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”
Psalm 29
1Ascribe to the Lord, you gods, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. 2Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his Name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. 3The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; the Lord is upon the mighty waters. 4The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice; the voice of the Lord is a voice of splendor. 5The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees; the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon; 6He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, and Mount Hermon like a young wild ox. 7The voice of the Lord splits the flames of fire; the voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. 8The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe and strips the forests bare. 9And in the temple of the Lord all are crying, “Glory!” 10The Lord sits enthroned above the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as King forevermore. 11The Lord shall give strength to his people; the Lord shall give his people the blessing of peace.
Second Reading: Romans 6:1-11
1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We 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. 5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Gospel: Matthew 3:13-17
13Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
His Baptism and Ours
The season of Epiphany began this past Tuesday, and the theme for the first Sunday after the Epiphany is the baptism of our Lord. As I was listening to Pastor Ryan’s sermon on Tuesday evening, I began to think about the church calendar and Epiphany. As far as the church calendar goes, we are, for the next 6 weeks, in ordinary time. Think about that term, Ordinary. This season began this week with the Wise men visiting Jesus, and this season closes with the Transfiguration of our Lord. In between we will examine several amazing events. My point being, it’s hard for me to call the season of Epiphany ordinary; it’s anything but ordinary, it’s filled with extra ordinary events! I digress.
This week we contemplate the Baptism of Jesus. It’s appropriate for us to celebrate this event for two reasons: one, the season of Epiphany is about the revealing of who Jesus is, Son of God and son of man. And two, Jesus’ Baptism informs us about our baptism. In Jesus’ birth, the angles and shepherds revealed Jesus’ true nature, Son of God, born of the virgin Mary, and the promised Messiah. When the wise men came, they revealed to us the fulfillment of God’s promise as well bring Him gifts suited for a King. And now, we look to Jesus’ baptism, the event by which the quiet son of a carpenter of Nazareth became consecrated to be the Kingdom-building Son of God and began His Messianic career. And there’s more. In His Baptism we see yet one more revealing, God Himself speaks.
God, from heaven, comes down in the form of a dove and proclaims Jesus as His Son, the Son in whom He is well pleased. What’s more, this event becomes even more meaningful when we see the bearing this consecration has upon our own baptism, the sacramental act by which our lives became dedicated to God and His Kingdom. In Baptism we are joined to Christ, we become heirs to His kingdom, our sin is forgiven, we are filled with God’s Spirit, and we become a member of His church, the body of Christ on Earth. Furthermore, the baptism of Jesus takes place in connection with the “Kingdom of God” movement led by John the Baptist, the fearless and eloquent prophet of the wilderness.
John is important in this event because he sets for us an example for how we’re to proclaim the Good News, boldly and without reservation. Preaching on the banks of the Jordan, John announces that the long-awaited Messiah is about to appear and the Kingdom of God is about to be ushered in. Of those who seek entrance into the Kingdom he demands repentance, a genuine change of heart, in place of mere adherence to the dead forms of their inherited religion. And those who repent step down into the river and John administers to them the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Again, we see John’s bold and direct appeal illustrated by an incident which possibly occurred one day. As John is preaching in the wilderness, a group of people build a fire to cook their meal, and some bush catches fire. Instantly some snakes that lurked in the undergrowth come slithering out to escape the flames. Seeing this, John points his finger at a group of religious leaders, Pharisees, and says, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth the fruits of repentance.”
Then comes the day that marks the high point in John’s ministry, the day of fulfillment. Jesus walks down to the river and presents Himself for baptism. The two men were acquainted with each other. As we know from earlier readings, they were blood-relatives; the New Testament identifies Elizabeth, the mother of John, as a kinswoman of Mary, the mother of Jesus. John knew the character of Jesus who had grown up “in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52). And now when Jesus asks him for baptism, John has something more than the sense of reverence that one feels in the presence of a person of spiritual power. He had begun to feel, although he was still uncertain and hesitant, that Jesus was none other than the One who was to come, the One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit.
Awed and shaken to the depths of his being, John asks, “You come to me for baptism, it is I who need to be baptized by you!” (vs. 14). For John, there’s something inappropriate in the idea that He who could well be the Messiah Himself, the sinless one, that Jesus should be baptized with the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. But Jesus responds, and this is important, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (vs. 15). John then consents and Jesus is baptized.
It’s in what followed immediately after the baptism that we, with John, receive the answer both, to the question of whether this Jesus is the Messiah, and to the question why it is fitting that the Messiah, the holy and righteous one, should receive along with sinful people the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The heavens were opened, the Spirit of God descended upon Jesus, and “Lo, a voice from heaven, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (vs. 17).
It’s important to understand that this affirmation by the Spirit and the words by which God’s seal of approval is placed upon Jesus as the Messiah are clearly the fulfillment of the prophetic word in verse 1 of our Old Testament reading, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him” (Isaiah 42:1). Jesus was not appointed by God to be the kind of Messiah that the people expected, a glorious national hero who would lead them to war against Rome. Rather, He was to be the kind of Messiah described in the book of Isaiah. There we learn that the Messiah is the Suffering Servant of God, the holy and righteous One who identifies Himself with the sins of the many, bears their sins as His own so that we may share in His righteousness.
The baptism of Jesus was a baptism into obedience to the Father’s will and love for the lost. It was His consecration to suffering and to death. The road to Calvary began at the Jordan. Through His baptism, He stepped onto the path that would lead to the cross. His baptism was not complete until He had fulfilled His mission as Savior of sinners and could say from the cross, “It is accomplished” (John 19:30). That’s what He meant when He said, “I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how I am agonized until it is accomplished” (Luke 12:50). The Greek word teteles-thE, it is accomplished, is the very same word Jesus used when He announced from the cross the fulfillment of His missional-purpose.
In this light there is no longer anything puzzling about Jesus being baptized with John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. We see the depth of meaning in His words to John, “thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” The Messianic Kingdom was to be established on the foundation laid by the redeeming death of the Messiah. As the prophetic word had expressed it centuries before, “he, the righteous one, my servant, makes many righteous by bearing their iniquities” (Isaiah 53:11). To this task Jesus was baptized. It was in being baptized that He received the assurance of being well pleasing to God. This was the consecration that brought an opened heaven, a revelation of God’s plan of salvation, and the presence of the Holy Spirit. Here, then, is the key for understanding the meaning of our own baptism into Christ Jesus.
For Jesus, the baptismal event affirmed that He was consecrated to be the Messiah. For us, baptism means that we are consecrated to be the Messianic people. The baptism of Jesus meant that the righteous One took upon Himself the sins of the many and became one with them. Our baptism means that we, the many, become one with Him and in Him. When the church of Christ, at His command, baptizes people, in reality it is Christ Himself who baptizes. Baptism is never merely a human act, either of the one who administers it or the one who receives it. It is indeed a divine act, the act of Him who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. “By one Spirit,” says Paul, “we are all baptized into one body” (1 Corinthians 12:13). We are grafted as branches into the true vine, Christ our Lord (Romans 11:17).
In our Epistle reading, St. Paul describes Christian baptism as baptism “into Christ” (Romans 6:3). And just as the baptism of Jesus pointed forward to His death, so Christian baptism is a baptism of participation in His death. “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, have been baptized into his death.” But it doesn’t end there, for Paul adds, “if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (Romans 6:3-5). Baptism is the starting point for our life “in Christ.” What happened to Him also happens to us. His death is our death. His resurrection is our resurrection. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). What needs to be stressed, over and over again, is that baptism is the work of God in and on our lives, not a work of ours. This is the constant emphasis in the New Testament.
“He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). When we were baptized, it was something done to us and for us, not something that we ourselves do. It’s for this reason that the church, from its very beginning, has baptized even infants, who can do nothing. The New Testament church couldn’t forget the Lord’s command, “Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:16).
Our Lord also said, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16). Now some will ask, is not faith necessary if baptism is to mean anything? Of course it is. But let us not forget this: our faith is also a gift of God and is always a response to what God does, and baptism represents what God does. It isn’t an adult’s baptism or a child’s baptism, a believer’s baptism, or an unbeliever’s baptism, it’s God’s baptism. We may respond in faith to God’s word and then receive God’s gift of baptism. Or our experience may follow the sequence in the baptismal command, first baptizing them and then teaching them God’s word (Matthew 28:19-20), so that they may receive in faith what God has already done. The important thing isn’t whether we were baptized as children or as adults, but to realize that baptism encompasses our whole life from beginning to end.
Just as the baptism of Jesus included all that was to follow and was fulfilled only in His death and resurrection, so our baptism anticipates our entire life right up to the hour of death. Our whole life, not just the moment of baptism whether it was early or late, is included in what God did with us, and for us, in our baptism. What was done to us, and for us, was that we were united with Christ, we became His, are no longer our own. Through Christ our life was taken up into God’s life. The one business of our life now is to realize and respond to what God did and gave. In baptism, as Paul says, we died to sin and can therefore no longer live in sin (Romans 6:2). Baptism is effective in us as we daily remember our baptism and die to sin and daily rise with Christ into a new life.
This is the essential significance of our baptism, as Luther points out in the Small Catechism. He asks, “What does such baptizing with water signify?” He answers, “It signifies that the old Adam in us should, by daily sorrow and repentance, be drowned and die, with all sins and evil lusts; and again, a new man daily come forth and arise, who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”
Often, I hear quoted an answer given by a Norwegian pastor to the one who asked, “If the old Adam has been drowned in baptism, why do we have to keep on drowning him day after day?” The answer was, “The old rascal knows how to swim.” The new life is a daily return to the grace of baptism for power to wage a victorious battle against the old sinful nature which stubbornly seeks to regain the upper hand.
Today our Lord says to us, as He once said to His first disciples, “With the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized” (Mark 10:39). May our prayer each day be that our lives be united ever more closely with His saving life. As this takes place, the heavens will open to us as well, and as gently and peacefully as the lighting of a dove the Spirit of God will settle upon us. And we too will hear in our hearts the voice that says, “My child, my beloved, with you I am pleased.”
Amen