Baptism our Lord
Matthew 3:13-17
January 7, 2018
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
Yesterday, January 6, was the annual celebration of Epiphany when the Church remembers the Magi who travelled afar led by a star. The next we hear of Jesus in the Gospel is when he was 12 years old, the account of which is the Bible reading in our bulletin. Then we jump to when He was 30 and goes to John to be baptized in the Jordan River. All are part of the season of Epiphany. At Christmas we celebrate a historical event, the birth of Jesus, God become man. The idea of Epiphany is the Christ who was born in Bethlehem is recognized by the world. At Christmas, God appears as man. During Epiphany, man recognizes Him as God.
And so today, we begin our observance of the Epiphany season with one of, if not the, clearest revelation of Jesus’ divinity: His baptism. At His baptism, heaven opened up, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him as a dove, and the voice of the Father declared, “this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” In His Baptism, the true God reveal Himself in Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ baptism points towards our own, but we must not confuse the two either. Your baptism is not Jesus’ baptism. He is not baptized into His own name, but by John in a baptism of repentance. His baptism is to fulfill all righteousness. To fulfill the righteousness that you cannot. Jesus receives a baptism for those who need to repent, even though he has done nothing wrong. Jesus goes into the water of His baptism and it is His entrance into a way that leads directly to the cross. He is baptized because as Jesus said, “the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus’ baptism leads to death and the grave. But it also leads out of the grave on the third day. Jesus’ baptism led to His resurrection, and from there it has led to your baptism. Jesus entered into the water in order to die for you. And in the water of your baptism, you have shared in Jesus’ saving death.
You see, John’s baptism gave the forgiveness of sins, but it was in anticipation of Jesus’ saving work and the Baptism that Christ would institute before His ascension into heaven, which is received until the end of the age. And yet, Jesus’ baptism is yours. That is, the benefits of His baptism are given to you. Not in a baptism like His, not in a baptism by John for repentance. But a baptism into His name, into the Triune name, into His death and into His resurrected life. Nothing is more certain than the name which He places on us, the name by which He reveals Himself to us.
Your baptism was not just an idea or thought or an empty ritual. Baptism is God’s work, and what He does is sure and certain. Baptized into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we have God’s own pledge and promise that we are delivered from sin, from death, and from the devil. In the Te Deum, a song we normally sing at Matins, but will also sing during Communion today, we confess that God opens the kingdom of heaven to all believers. When heaven opened up at Jesus’ baptism, it wasn’t to let God out. Rather, it was to let us in. By virtue of your baptism, God opens heaven to you. God does not belong to you. You belong to Him. Maybe that does not seem like a very important distinction but it is. In Baptism, God takes a sinner and gives Him Jesus. He then takes the newly baptized and declares the same as He does for Jesus, “you are My beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.”
It not only imparts a spiritual reality but it also gives a holy character and an identity that shapes the baptized believer into the life and revelation of Jesus Christ. This is how St. Paul can write in Galatians, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Galatians 3:27). In a world that so confused over its own identity, our baptismal connection to Christ, our identity as a child of God, equips us to live a new life, a life that belongs to God, a life of repentance and faith in Christ. You do not get to decide what is relevant or not, what is the Gospel or what it is not, where God meets His people and what God gives to His people. God defines it all. He does so not with some random purpose but for us men and for our salvation. You do not get to pick and choose the God who saves you or how He saves you or what you like or do not like, what you can believe in and what is too far out for you to believe. The God we have, the God who has it, is none other than the one revealed by the Father and the Spirit as the Son.
Jesus as the Son of God is revealed in His baptism, and He uses His church to reveal this to the world. The Lord has called you in your baptism to be a light to reveal Him to the nations and the glory of His people. Now, as much as ever, the Church needs to proclaim the revelation and the work of Jesus Christ though His Word and Holy Baptism. We need to teach the truth of God’s Word. We need to live the life of Christ who lives within us, as St. Paul says, again to the Galatians, “And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”