The Baptism of Our
Lord (A)
January 8, 2017
Text: Matt. 3:13-17
As our Lord steps into
the Jordan River to be baptized, like a divine sponge, He soaks up all of our
sin and wretchedness, our disease and death, our pain and sorrow. He
takes it all into Himself, into His flesh, into His soul, to be borne to Calvary.
And in exchange, He gives us His righteousness, His healing, His life, His joy,
His heaven. He leaves it to be found in the water joined to His Word.
By His Baptism in the Jordan River, He has sanctified and instituted all
waters to be a blessed flood and a lavish washing away of sin (Luther’s Flood
Prayer). So you see, here in Baptism a great exchange takes place.
In His Baptism, Jesus takes upon Himself all that belongs to you and makes it
His own. In your Baptism, Jesus gives you all that belongs to Him and
makes it your own. Luther called this the “happy exchange.” Jesus
stands in your place and takes all that is yours, that you may stand in His
place and take all that is His.
This
is what it means that Jesus is your substitute.
He takes your place. He stands
under the Law for you. He fulfills it
for you. Where you have failed, He
succeeds, and you get the credit. Where
you have not feared, loved, or trusted in God above all things, He has, for
you. Where you have misused God’s Name
and failed to call upon His Name in every trouble, to pray, praise, and give
thanks, He has kept God’s Name holy, for you.
Where you have despised God’s Word and preaching, He sat among the
teachers in the Temple, joyfully soaking it all in. For you.
He honored Mary and Joseph where you have despised your parents and
other authorities. He did this for
you. Where you have hated your neighbor,
murdering him in your heart, He gave His life for your neighbor, and for you,
to give you both life. Where you have
been unfaithful, full of lust and greed, envy and covetousness, where your
tongue has come unbridled and done damage to your neighbor’s reputation, He has
been faithful, generous, self-giving, self-sacrificing. And as a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so He opened not His mouth to speak
evil (Is. 53:7). He did this for
you. And what He has done counts for
you. When God looks at you, He does not
see the evil you have done, or the good you have failed to do. He sees the perfect righteousness of
Jesus. He sees the sin atoning death of
Jesus. He sees you covered in the holy,
precious blood of Jesus. Because you are
baptized into that. You are baptized
into Him. And your sin? It has not simply been ignored or swept under
the rug. Jesus took it all from you in
His Baptism in the Jordan. He took it
and He stood in your place, was nailed in your place on the cross, suffered
your hell in your place, was your substitute in death. All of God’s wrath for your sin was poured
out there, on the cross, on Jesus. He
was baptized into your sin, that you may be baptized into His righteousness.
So
now you stand in the place of Christ. That means that all that God gave
Jesus in His human nature at His Baptism, He now gives you in your
Baptism. As the heavens were opened to Jesus in His Baptism, so now
heaven is open to you in your Baptism. You will not die, but live.
You will be in heaven with Jesus when you die, and on the Last Day, Jesus will
raise you in your body from the dead. Baptism marks you for
resurrection.
As
the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the form of a dove in His Baptism, so
you are anointed with the Holy Spirit in your Baptism, who brings you to faith
in Jesus, your Savior. The Holy Spirit comes upon you to dwell with you
and in you. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. He brings you to
His Church and makes you a member thereof. He opens your ears to the Word
of God. He gives you trust in Christ as a gift. He fans into flame
within you a love for God and your neighbor. He moves in you to pray for
yourself and others, to praise God, and to give thanks. He strengthens
you for life in this fallen world. He grants you repentance, that you
daily put to death your fallen flesh. And as the Lord and Giver of Life,
He raises you daily to new life in Christ as God’s own new creation, so that
your love flows forth in good works of service and sacrifice.
And
as the Father declared of Jesus at His Baptism, “This is my beloved Son,
with whom I am well pleased,” (Matt. 3:17; ESV), so He says of you in your
Baptism: “You are my own child, and I am well pleased with you, not because of
anything you have done or left undone, but because of Christ, my Son, who now
covers you in Baptism. I love you. I have claimed you for myself,
purchased you with the blood of Christ. My Name is written upon you,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as one chosen and precious. You are mine.”
Well,
that makes all the difference in the struggles of this earthly life, and even
in the face of death. Because the worst that can happen to you is that
you die. But see, Christ has made His death your own in Baptism.
And that means that you got your death over with already at the font.
Sure, you’ll have to physically expire one day, physically die, experience the
separation of your soul from your body, which is the theological definition of
physical death. But though you die, you live. Because you’ve
already been given new life in Baptism, Christ’s life. How do you know
you’ll go to heaven when you die? Which is just another way of asking,
why do you believe you’ll go on living after you take your last breath?
Because you’re baptized into Christ! And that means His death is your
death. You died on the cross, with Christ. And if you died with
Christ in that way, what does St. Paul say as a result in our Epistle? “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” (Rom. 6:4). That means that you already have
eternal life. You have it right now. It’s just hidden. Your
life is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). It will be hidden to us
when you physically die. But not to you. You will see. You
will live. In Christ, the risen Lord. And what is true spiritually
already now, will be true physically then, on the Last Day.
“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” (Rom. 6:5).
Now,
imagine that you are on your deathbed. It is not a pleasant
thought. In addition to whatever physical ailment you may be suffering,
there is a certain sadness at the thought that you are leaving your loved ones
behind. So also, all the pleasures of this earthly life are at an
end. You may be anticipating a certain relief from your suffering.
But you were created to hold tenaciously to God’s gift of life. And so,
even though you know and believe you have a merciful God who has forgiven all
your sins and given you eternal life in Christ, you also have a certain
apprehension about how it all will happen, what you will experience, what you
will see, what it will be like to stand before the judgment throne of your
Maker, and what exactly the rest of eternity holds for you. Now imagine
that I as your pastor come and visit you on your deathbed, and I pull out the
Holy Scriptures, and imagine that I could prove to you from the Holy Scriptures
that, even though you will have to experience death, in one hour, the Lord
Jesus will call you back to life, free from pain and sickness, free from sin,
your body made into a perfect resurrection body. Well, that wouldn’t be
so bad, now, would it?
Unfortunately,
I can’t promise you that you will come back to life after only one hour.
But except for that one little detail, all the rest of the promises are
absolutely true. Whatever the amount of time, the Lord Jesus will call
you back to life in your body, a perfect, resurrection body, free from sin and
pain and sickness, to live forever with Him. “For the Lord himself
will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel,
and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise
first” (1 Thess. 4:16). “So is it with the resurrection of the
dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in
dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power”
(1 Cor. 15:42-43). Christ “will transform our lowly body to be like his
glorious body” (Phil. 3:21). “(A)nd so we will always be with the
Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). How do you know? Because Scripture says
it here. Because your own ears have heard the living voice of Christ say
so in preaching. Because you have died with Christ in your Baptism, and
so have been raised to new life in Him, and how can that new life have any
other result than your own resurrection from the dead? Because you have
held and tasted the risen and living body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Supper,
which forgives all your sins and nourishes you for eternal life.
You
see? In Baptism, all that is Christ’s is yours. And all that is
yours, all that is evil and dying and dead, has been taken by Christ in His
Baptism and borne in His flesh to Calvary. He is risen, and you are His,
for you are baptized into Him. That makes the difference in absolutely
everything. When despair used to grip Luther in the midst of the
Reformation, he would recall the Gospel reality, “But I am baptized,” and so he
would be comforted. So you sing: “Sin, disturb my soul no longer: I am baptized
into Christ!… Satan, hear this proclamation: I am baptized into Christ!…
Death, you cannot end my gladness: I am baptized into Christ!... Though my
flesh awaits its raising, Still my soul continues praising: I am baptized into
Christ; I’m a child of paradise” (LSB 594). And it’s true. It’s all
true. Christ was baptized into you. You are baptized into
Christ. And nothing can separate you from the love of God for you in
Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:39). In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+),
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
