Sunday, January 8, 2023

The Baptism of Our Lord

The Baptism of Our Lord (A)

January 8, 2023

Text: Matt. 3:13-17

            The Baptist is confused by Baptism.  John objects to Jesus’ coming to him to be baptized.  John knows that he should be baptized by Jesus.  But it is Jesus Himself who fills Baptism with meaning and substance.  Apart from the Lord Jesus stepping down into the water, soaking up what is in it, and filling it with Himself, the water is plain water, and no Baptism.  But with Jesus in the water, “it is a Baptism, that is, a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says in Titus, chapter three: ‘He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.  This is a trustworthy saying.’ (Titus 3:5-8)” (NIV)[1]

            So, “Let it be so now,” John, “for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matt. 3:15; ESV).  Jesus is the Righteous One.  He has no sin of His own, and on that count, John is right to protest.  But Jesus has not come to be baptized for His own benefit.  There is no old Adam to drown, no sin to be forgiven.  He comes, not to be righteous for Himself, but to be righteous for us.  Thus, when He steps into the water, He fills Baptism with all righteousness.  By His Baptism in the Jordan, He sanctifies and institutes all waters to be a blessed flood, and a lavish washing away of sin.[2] 

            But He doesn’t just leave the goods there for us in the water.  He soaks up what is already in it.  Our sin.  Our uncleanness.  Our death.  St. Paul says, “For our sake [God] made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21).  In other words, Baptism is the point at which the Great Exchange takes place between Jesus and His Christians.  Baptized into us, He takes our sin and all that is ours, that He may bear it before God and suffer God’s righteous wrath over it in our place.  And baptized into Him, we receive Him, and all that is His, His righteousness, His holiness, God’s love and favor, the Holy Spirit, eternal life, and the royal inheritance.  That we may bear Him before God, and stand in His place, as beloved sons. 

            When Jesus goes down into the water, it is a death.  And in our Baptism into Him, we die with Him.  Old Adam in us is drowned and dies with all sins and evil desires.  We are crucified with Christ.  We get our death over with at the font.  And then, Jesus comes up out of the water.  Literally, He rises, ascends out of the water.  This is a resurrection.  It is all a foreshadowing of His Baptism in blood on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead on the Third Day.  And in our Baptism into Him, we are raised with Him to new life.  Already now.  By faith, the new man daily emerges and arises to live before God in righteousness and purity.  It is as St. Paul says 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).  We are raised with Christ.  Even as we look forward to the resurrection of our bodies on the Last Day, we have been raised already now, in a hidden way, in Christ, our risen Lord.

            And so, it is with us in our Baptism, as it is with Christ in His.  Heaven is open to us as the Baptized.  We have one foot in it already.  We have access to the royal throne.  We petition the King… we pray.  And the holy angels, the courtiers, attend to us.

            The Holy Spirit descends on us in Baptism.  Now, He doesn’t come as a visible dove, as He did for Jesus.  At our Lord’s Baptism in the Jordan, the Spirit came in visible manifestation for Jesus’ sake, and for ours, that we may know, first of all, that this is Jesus’ anointing as the Christ, the Messiah, which means “Anointed One.”  He is anointed with the Holy Spirit for His Office as our Prophet, Priest, and King.  He is anointed to preach, as the Word made flesh.  He is anointed to make the Sacrifice of Atonement as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.  He is anointed to rule, to win for Himself a Kingdom by His saving work, and then take His seat at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. 

            And the Spirit comes upon Jesus in the visible form of a dove, that we may know that, when He descends to us in Baptism, He brings us God’s peace, reconciliation with God, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.  The dove is the symbol of peace.  Noah knows that God’s wrath is at an end, and the flood is receding, when the dove returns to him with a freshly plucked olive leaf, and again, when she returns to him no more, because she has found a place to rest.  Just so, the Spirit rests on us.  We do not possess Him, in the sense that we grasp Him and contain Him, any more than Noah tried to grasp and possess the dove.  But He makes His home with us.  He dwells with us.  He abides with us.  Always to grant us God’s peace and life. 

            And then, the Father speaks.  A voice from heaven says of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17).  We understand how that applies to Jesus, who is literally God the Son, eternally begotten of the Father.  And we know why the Father is pleased with Him.  Because He is perfectly obedient.  He is perfectly righteous.  He perfectly fulfills the Father’s will. 

            But in our Baptism, because we receive all that belongs to Jesus, and because we are covered with Jesus and His righteousness, the Father says this of us!  At the font, He says, “This is my beloved Son,” God’s own Child, I gladly say it, “and with this one I am well-pleased.”  And that is justification language.  You are righteous before God the Father in heaven on account of righteousness of Jesus Christ His Son, which He left for you there in the water.  He has taken away all your sins.  Remember, He soaked them up at His Baptism in the muddy, grimy Jordan.  And you are wholly righteous, not with a righteousness of your own, but that of Jesus Christ, which you soaked up at your Baptism in the water of the font.  When God looks at you, He doesn’t see your sin.  He sees Jesus.  He sees the perfect obedience of Jesus.  He sees the perfect righteousness of Jesus.  He sees the perfect fulfilling of His will as it has been done by Jesus.  Of course, He knows you are a sinner.  We didn’t fool Him by getting baptized.  But this is to say, something real takes place in Baptism.  It is a real exchange.  It is a real washing away of sins, justification, salvation, and new birth in the Holy Spirit.  (I once had a woman, many years ago, ask me to leave her home because I had the audacity to suggest to her that Jesus is really present in the water of Baptism, and really does His saving work there!  She did not understand that thus it is necessary for Jesus to be in the water, in order to fulfill all righteousness.)  We believe what God says of Baptism in Holy Scripture.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved,” Jesus says (Mark 16:16).  Baptism… now saves you,” Peter preaches (1 Peter 3:21).  (H)e saved us,” Paul says, “by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior” (Titus 3:5-6).  Baptism unites you to the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, again, as St. Paul says, buried with Him by Baptism into death, that as Christ has been raised, so you may now walk in newness of life (Rom. 6:4).   

            And make no mistake.  Do not be deceived.  This is all God’s work.  Baptism isn’t your work.  If it was, it couldn’t save you, as the Bible so clearly says it does.  You aren’t saved by your obedience, as though this is simply some outward ordinance to be observed..  You are saved by Jesus’ obedience.  You are saved by what God does for you.  By what Jesus does for you.  It is God who does the baptizing.  The Spirit carries you to the font.  The pastor is simply the hands and voice God uses to do the baptizing Himself.  And there is Jesus in the water.

            So often, you are confused by Baptism, aren’t you?  After all, how can water do such great things?  But it is certainly not just water that does them.  It is Jesus in the water that does these things.  And faith, given by the Holy Spirit descending on you in the water, receives it. 

            Baptism is a whole New Creation.  The Father speaks: “Let there be a Christian.”  The Son, God’s incarnate Word, is the Agent of His creation.  He is in the water, and fills the water, to make it so.  He fills Baptism with all righteousness.  And there is the Spirit, hovering, brooding, and coming to rest on you in the water.  And God looks at what He has made, and in, and for the sake of His Son, He declares it “very good” (Gen. 1:31).  He is well-pleased.  So much so, that He even signs His Name on us, the fullest and most intimate expression of His Name, the Triune Name into which he has given us to be baptized (Matt. 28:19).  God puts His Name on us!  And we believe in that Name.  We call upon that Name.  We are all wrapped up in that Name.  And it is this: the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.                

 



[1] Catechism quotes from Luther’s Small Catechism (St. Louis: Concordia, 1986). 

[2] Luther’s Flood Prayer, cf. LSB 269.


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