Text: Matt. 3:13-17
16 And 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; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
This weekend begins the season of Epiphany. Christmas is no more. Christ Jesus is, Emmanuel, God with us, and from the visit of the wise men bearing gifts celebrated January 6th the Epiphany season begins.
Today we celebrate the baptism of the Lord. At Christmas a babe is born in a manger, he is named and circumcised, the wise men visit and make Christ known to the world, and now the man Jesus comes to the river to be baptized by John.
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.
Jesus came down to John … and we might ask why?
Why would Jesus come to John?
He certainly didn't need to repent, because He was not born in the natural way and conceived in sin.
He also didn't come down to John like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, who came in unbelief, and in an arrogant and mocking manner … rejecting God’s council against them.
But he came as those who were sinners and who needed repentance, though He had no sin.
John was certainly surprised to see Jesus coming:
14 … saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
John recognizes Jesus for who He is … “the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29)
So the question is why does Jesus come and seek Baptism - as there is no sin and uncleanness in Him which Baptism would remove?
For He here takes your place and my place and stands - in place of all - who are sinners, and since all, especially even the arrogant people who do not acknowledge that they are sinners, Jesus must become a sinner for all – even for those who reject him. He has come and has taken on our sinful flesh and will take to the cross … in His passion, the full weight of the sins of the world which He bears.
P.E. Kretzmann
Baptism is either the work of God or the work of man. It is either something God does and gives to us or it is something we do for God.
So Jesus answers John:
15 … “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Jesus here confirms John’s previous statement in a sense saying “You are right John. It is not I who needs baptism … but I have come for this purpose.” It is God’s purpose in Christ to be marked in your place so that you and all born sinful might be saved.
Here is not Jesus as example. Here we do not see Christ baptized and say,
“Oh, I should be baptized like Jesus too.”
His is a bloody baptism. His is a baptism of death so that you might have a baptism of life. In Christ’s baptism Jesus is marked as God’s beloved son in whom the Father is well pleased. God is pleased because Jesus is the once for all acceptable sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!
In baptism we too are acceptable to the Father, not because we model Christ in our actions but because we receive the gift he has won on our behalf. This changes us from dead in sin to alive in Christ being buried with him in Baptism and raised to newness of life.
The Reverend Phillips Brooks who lived in the 1800s in Massachusetts said:
“No man in this world attains to freedom from any slavery except by entrance into some higher servitude. There is no such thing as an entirely free man.”
Phillips Brooks (1835- 1893)
That is true in one sense. We are always in this life bound to our sin. All that we say and do is filtered through our sinful flesh. We are a slave to sin or as Martin Luther has taught in his book the “Bondage of the Will” … “we are all in Bondage to our sin.”
But Paul brings joy to light in our epistle for today when he says:
6 … 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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.
Baptized into Christ is life from above!
One of the church Fathers – Tertullian, wrote of baptism in this way:
The primary principle of Baptism is that the Spirit of God, who hovered over (the waters) from the beginning, would continue to linger over the waters of the baptized.”
Tertullian – De Baptismo IV (ANF 3:670)
This is made possible for you and me because:
16 … 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; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
In Christ is where the favor and pleasure of God rests!
For just as, after the waters of the flood, by which the old sinful world was killed and taken away — a Baptism, of the world so to speak—a dove was sent forth from the Ark and was the herald which announced to the earth the removal of God’s wrath. After returning with the olive branch, this too became a sign which to this day is a sign of peace.
So too by God’s heavenly gift —we emerge from the waters of Holy Baptism our sins removed and washed away by the dove of the Holy Spirit, and in Christ Jesus God is well pleased with you and me having God’s peace sent out from the heavens, through Christ’s Church, which is a type of ark.
Tertullian – De Baptismo VIII (ANF 3:672)
Epiphany is Christ being made known to the world. We understand the visit of the Wise men and the gifts that they bring to worship our Lord.
But the real gift is not brought to Christ but is given by Christ.
His gift is his very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. By His taking on humanity he was marked with His creation and with you and me. When He was baptized by John he received the weight of sin poured out on him as the chief of sinners, though he remained sinless.
He went to the cross with your sin and the sins of the whole world on him and received the wrath of God’s punishment that we deserve. And because of his atoning work - you and I receive what we don’t deserve - God’s favor on account of Christ.
Those baptized at the font received that same forgiveness.
Marked as one redeemed by Christ the crucified, we are washed clean in the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit and are given New Life and New Birth of water and the Spirit!
We are made God’s Child and have been adopted into His family – children of Abraham - and given the inheritance of heaven and life eternal in Him.
Baptized into Christ is life from above!
Christ has made a way for all to be found in Him through the holy flood that is baptism. The means he gives is faith in His finished work, given to you and me as a gift by God’s Holy Spirit, working in and through Baptism. Daily rejoice in God’s simple way of bringing you to him through water and the word.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen
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