The First Sunday after the Epiphany – The Baptism of Our Lord

January 9-10, 2010

“Bound By Water and the Word”

Luke 3:15-22

Grace, love, joy and peace be unto you from God our heavenly Father, through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

This time in the Church year following Christmas, the season of Epiphany, is all about God manifesting His salvation to us and to the world. We know, and are sometimes disappointed by the fact that the four Gospels are silent regarding any events in the life of Jesus between the age of 12, when Mary and Joseph find Him in His Father’s house, and the age of 30, when He appears on the scene to be baptized in the Jordan River. There are some rather fanciful stories in the so-called apocryphal books out there, books which are not of divine revelation; stories such as the young Jesus making birds out of clay and then giving them the ability to fly, or Jesus miraculously lengthening the leg of a chair that His carpenter father, Joseph, had accidentally cut too short. But in the Bible, we find nothing in that span of years, and as disappointing as it may be, it makes sense. The Gospels are not strictly biographies of Jesus, but better understood as extended introductions to the Passion of Christ. Ultimately, all four Gospels bring us to the culminating events of Jesus’ death and resurrection, the main point of the story; some just get us there faster than others. Mark gets us to the Passion story as quickly as possible, Matthew and Luke add more details along the way, with Luke giving special attention to noting historical people and places, and John; well, John sort of meanders around very philosophically, but still gets us to the heart of the story in his own way.

In our Gospel lesson today, though, God picks up His goal of revealing, manifesting to us the saving work of His beloved Son. And notice, Jesus does not introduce Himself; He doesn’t come on the scene and say, “Here I am.” John the Baptist was called to prepare the way; to prepare for the coming of the Servant King. And in the baptism Jesus receives from John, God marks Him as the fulfillment of all salvation history. In His baptism, Jesus is anointed to complete the great exchange of our sin for His righteousness, for the salvation of the world.

Now, the details of Jesus’ baptism are fairly clear, but the meaning of it may not be. Here, in this event, all three persons of the Holy Trinity together set into motion the final fulfillment of our redemption. There is God the Son, in the person of Jesus, God the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove, and God the Father speaking from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” This really marks the beginning, the inauguration, of Jesus’ saving mission and ministry. His appearance and His mission will be confounding to many; even the greatest of the prophets, John the Baptist, is confused about needing to baptize Jesus. But Jesus knows exactly what He is doing. He is submitting to the Word and the will of His gracious Father. He is, in essence, praying, “Let it be so. Thy will be done,” the prayer He will echo in the Garden of Gethsemane. No confusion, no wavering on the part of Jesus; just resolute determination to carry out His work as the Savior of the world.

I’d like you to turn in the hymnal to hymn #438, “A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth.” You might wonder why we’re looking at a Lenten hymn during Epiphany, but this is what it’s all about; this is where all of this is taking us. Let’s read together the first stanza of this hymn: “A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth, The guilt of sinners bearing; And, laden with the sins of earth, None else the burden sharing; Goes patient on, grows weak and faint, To slaughter led without complaint, That spotless life to offer, He bears the stripes, the wounds, the lies, The mockery, and yet replies, ‘All this I gladly suffer.’”

See, the Baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan River is a foreshadowing, a window into His impending sacrificial death as the Messiah, the Suffering Servant of God. Here, the worldly views about Jesus fall apart, and are revealed in their shallowness and emptiness. He was not merely a nice guy who did some extraordinary things; He was not just a great philosopher, or merely the ultimate example for us to follow; He was not a “life coach” for us; He was not a political and religious radical looking to overturn worldly power structures and lead an earthly revolution. Jesus is baptized here into the great ocean of our misery, our wretchedness, our sin.

The reality of our spiritual condition is one of helplessness, as fallen children of God. The rebellious history of the people of Israel, turning away from God, worshiping idols, caught up in striving for earthly power and prestige and only looking out for themselves, – that history is our history. “What does the Lord require of you?” we are asked through the prophet Micah, “To act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with your God.” How easily the people of Israel failed in that calling; how easily we fail in that calling. And so the cry of fallen humanity goes up, “Who will save us from our own sinful nature?” And God answers that cry, as we read in the second stanza of the hymn: “This Lamb is Christ, the soul’s great friend, The Lamb of God, our Savior, Whom God the Father chose to send, To gain for us His favor. ‘Go forth, My Son,’ the Father said, ‘And free My children from their dread, Of guilt and condemnation. The wrath and stripes are hard to bear, But by Your passion they will share, The fruit of Your salvation.’”

In His baptism, Jesus takes on the mission of the great exchange. As He descends into the waters of the Jordan, He binds to Himself our poor, miserable condition. The waters that were for everyone else a cleansing flood, a washing away of sins, were for Jesus a washing on of the sins of the world, that He might exchange His righteousness and holiness for our unrighteousness, breaking down the dividing wall of hostility between God and humanity that was caused by our fall into sin. We built that wall; we caused the division, but God in His love, mercy, and grace, tears it down and reconciles Himself to His fallen creation through Jesus Christ.

So stanza three of the hymn: “‘Yes, Father, yes, most willingly, I’ll bear what You command Me. My will conforms to Your decree, I’ll do what You have asked Me.’ O wondrous Love, what have You done! The Father offers up His Son, Desiring our salvation. O Love, how strong You are to save! You lay the One into the grave, Who built the earth’s foundation.”

Ultimately, the baptism of Jesus leads directly to the cross, and the forgiveness, life and salvation He won for us by His own death. And the cross, in turn, leads to the resurrection, as Jesus rose from the dead to open the gates of heaven to all believers. Those gifts of His grace are given to us through His Word and Sacraments. It’s the grace first given to you when the water combined with the Word in Holy Baptism. In your Baptism, you were marked with the cross and the name of Jesus Christ, and in that Sacrament you were buried with Him into death, and raised to walk in newness of life, as St. Paul writes in our Epistle lesson. So in this life, the only real direction that those marked with the name of Christ can go is back – back to your Baptism. Do you know your baptismal birthday? Do you celebrate it? Do you recall what God has done for you through your Baptism every time you hear the Invocation at the beginning of worship; when you hear those words, “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” that were first spoken over you in Baptism? And do you know that through Baptism, God has given you the ability to pray for His will to be done in your life?

Stanza four: “Lord, when Your glory I shall see, And taste Your kingdom’s pleasure, Your blood my royal robe shall be, My joy beyond all measure! When I appear before Your throne, You righteousness shall be my crown; With these I need not hide me. And there, in garments richly wrought, As Your own bride shall we be brought, To stand in joy beside You.”

Faith in God’s grace can look at the sinful condition of our lives, and believe that what was spoken over Jesus at His baptism in the Jordan has been spoken over you as well: “You are my beloved child; with you I am well pleased.” In the strength of His grace, bound by water and the Word, we can pray for His will, and accept His will in our lives. And in that grace, we live in His peace, beginning and ending each day as it all began at the baptismal font: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep both your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.