The Baptism of our Lord (obs.) – January 12, 2025Psalm 89; Isaiah 25:1; 26:11a; 28:5a, 2b, 10a; 41:18a, a;
52:13b; 12:3-5; Ephesians 1:13b-18St. Matthew 3:13-17
In the Name of the Father, and of the +
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the season following the Epiphany of
our Lord, the Church pays special attention to the miracles of our Lord. This
is recognizing the connection between Christmas and Epiphany. At Christmas, we
celebrate that God has become man. At Epiphany, we celebrate that this man is
God. He is one man with two natures – True God and True Man.
It might be a little strange to think
of the Baptism of our Lord as one of His miracles, but it is. And I’m not
talking just about the revelation of the three Persons of the Holy Trinity,
though these are the clearest words of Scripture on that point. The Son rises
from the waters. The Holy Spirit descends from heaven as a dove and alights
upon the Son, anointing Him, setting Him apart for His work of salvation. The
Father opens the heavens and says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.”[1]
Our Lord’s baptism is a miracle because
by it, He is sanctifying all waters to be used for your baptism. His baptism is
not for the remission of His own sins, He doesn’t have any. His baptism is a
baptism into your sins, that they would be placed on Him. This also has the
effect of making your baptism powerful. In your baptism, your sins are taken
away. In Jesus’ baptism, your sins are placed upon Him. If you imagine your
sins as dirt and muck clinging to a washcloth, all that dirt and muck is washed
away in your baptism. Christ, the perfect and clean washcloth, is baptized into
that dirty water to soak up all the muck and take it upon Himself. You arise
from the waters pure and clean. He arises bearing your sins. The miracle of
your baptism is the miracle of our Lord’s Baptism.
So then, what is Holy Baptism? It “is not simple water only, but it is the water comprehended in God’s command and connected with God’s word.”[2] Though the image of a dirty washrag being made clean is helpful, Holy Baptism is not just a bath. It is not the removal of dirt from the body. It is a sacrament, that is, God’s word combined with a physical element (in this case water) and used according to God’s command. That command comes at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel, “Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.”[3] Holy Baptism is therefore the rite of initiation into the Body of Christ. It is the means by which Christ brings sinners into the Church, into His Body.
But what does it do? Or, what benefit
is there to Holy Baptism? “It works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death
and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the
words and promises of God declare.”[4]
Holy Baptism forgives the sins of the baptized. It takes the sinner, born a
citizen of the kingdom of satan, and grants him citizenship in the Kingdom of
Heaven. It takes a son of this world and makes him a son of God, marking him as
an heir of eternal life, giving him a share in the inheritance of all that
Christ has done.
This is a great treasure and should be
prized by all who would bear the name of Christ. When satan rears his ugly head
and tempts you to despair, it is good to remember the suffering and death of
Christ on your behalf. But satan is an expert in temptation. He will tempt you
to question if what Christ has done is good enough for you, or if you are good
enough for Christ. For that reason, look to your baptism. There can be no
question that you are baptized. You have had the waters of forgiveness poured
out upon you. You have been baptized into Christ and no amount of suffering can
take that away. You have been baptized into the suffering, death, and
resurrection of Christ. Of this you can be absolutely certain.
And if you have been baptized into
Christ, then He is good enough for you. No matter what wicked things satan
might whisper, it can never overcome the voice of the Father, “You are my
beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.” If you are baptized into Christ and
the Father has said these words of Him, then He has said them of you as well.
He says them at every Holy Baptism, even if our mortal ears are too weak to
hear the sound.
How can water, plain water drawn from
the tap, do such great things, deliver you from death and the devil and forgive
your sins? “It is not the water indeed that does them, but the word of God
which is in and with the water, and faith, which trusts such word of God in the
water.”[5]
Holy Baptism is not our work. It is not my work, even if I am the one saying
the words and pouring the water. Holy Baptism is the work of God who, through
His word, is tying Himself to the water. Through the Word of God, this water
becomes “a gracious water of life and a washing of regeneration in the Holy
Ghost.”
Now, even this miraculous work of God must be received. It is received by faith. At the same time that Holy Baptism bestows this faith, it is faith which receives the benefit of this glorious sacrament. This means that the baptized must continually be nurtured by the Word of God. The forgiveness of sins and deliverance from death and the devil cannot be taken away from faith but faith itself can be abandoned. The mighty ship of Holy Baptism is unsinkable, but we have the ability to jump ship if we prefer the things of this world to the Word of God. While Holy Baptism is a miraculous working of God, it is not a once-and-done, get out of hell free card. Using baptism according to the command of God necessarily includes a lifetime of learning. “Go ye and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.”
The gift of Holy Baptism is for you,
your children, and your grandchildren but it also necessary that you, your
children, and your grandchildren continue to hear the Word of God, receive the
forgiveness of sins, learn and grow in and into the things of God. Holy Baptism
grants the baptized of any age everything necessary for salvation, but the
slothful ignoring of your baptism is to despise your baptism. Satan is a crafty
deceiver and will spend every day of your life tempting you away from the Word
of God which has been joined to you in Holy Baptism. Don’t give him the upper
hand by refusing to hear and receive that Word.
And when I say hear, I don’t mean
sitting in the pew and letting the sound reverberate against your eardrums
without entering your heart. The teaching connected to Holy Baptism is
something that must continually work on your heart, mind, and soul. If at the
end of the year, you are unchanged by the Word of God, from the youngest of you
to the oldest, then you have prevented the Word of God from working on you. You
have prevented the very faith into which you were baptized from acting upon
your soul. Now is the time to return to your baptism. Now is the time to repent
of your sloth and indifference to the Word of God and return to your baptism as
a little child, hearing the things of God and receiving from Him the
forgiveness of your sins.
And as the Baptized, such repentance
will always result in the forgiveness of sins. That is why we are here. No one
within these walls is without sin. We do not come here to receive forgiveness
as a license to do whatever we want. We do not come to receive forgiveness as
though it was something we are owed. We come to receive forgiveness as
repentant sinners who know the cost of our sin. We see our sin and want to be
free from it. We see that our sin has again stained the waters of Holy Baptism
and that the Son of God, motivated by His great love for us, has taken that sin
upon Himself and died for it. Hating sin and seeing the sacrifice of Christ, we
gather in remembrance of His great mercy, humbly begging for that which is not
our own – eternal life and salvation.
In this humility, we find confidence
that what we ask for has been given to us. Though none of us deserves it,
Christ our Lord sanctified the waters of the Jordan and all water to be a life-
giving flood. He descended into the waters of Holy Baptism that we might rise
to a new life. Holy Baptism “signifies that the Old Adam in us should, by daily
contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sins and evil lusts and,
again, a new man daily come forth and arise, who shall live before God in
righteousness and purity forever.”[6]
The life of the Baptized is a
combination of humility and confidence. We humbly recognize that we do not
deserve a moment of God’s time, let alone His grace and mercy. We also are
confident that He has had mercy on us and graciously poured out His blood on
the cross that we might die to sin and rise to new life. In Holy Baptism, you
have received the Holy Body and Precious Blood of Jesus, wrapped around you in
a glorious robe of white. Humbly approach His throne of grace, confident that
you are counted among the righteous—not by your own virtues, but by the Blood
of Jesus, as a baptized child of God.
In + Jesus’
name. Amen.
