One of Us, One with Him
Matthew 3:13-17
Cascades Fellowship CRC, JX MI
March 9, 2003
1st Sunday of Lent
Today is the first Sunday of Lent. Lent is a season of preparation – a time in which we observe spiritual disciplines to prepare for the joy of Easter. A part of that discipline is reflecting upon the life of Jesus Christ – his ministry, his suffering, his death and resurrection. We contemplate our Lord’s life so that we can draw nearer to him – so that we can know him more fully, love him more deeply. We gaze intently into the face of our Savior throughout this season, noting the sorrow and the pain our sin has caused him to suffer so that our attraction and commitment to him is strengthened.
A great place to begin our “lover’s gaze” is in Matthew 3:13-17 – the baptism of Jesus. I must say that as a young Christian – new in faith, but brimming with excitement, a babbling brook of living water – I used to pass over this text with just a cursory glance. It seemed such a small matter in the greater scheme of things. This Jesus who would heal the paralytic with a word, use mud to heal blind eyes, cleanse lepers, feed five thousand out of one lunch bucket – this Jesus who would do things which amaze and astound – was baptized. Big deal. It hardly seems worth mentioning. In fact in Matthew, the whole episode takes four very short verses to explain – just seven sentences. Mark does it in five sentences; Luke in three. The apostle John doesn’t even record the baptism, just John the Baptist telling his disciples what he saw when he baptized Jesus. The baptism of Jesus garnered so little attention in the gospels that I simply acknowledged that it happened and hungrily read on. After all, a real juicy part – the temptation of Christ – came next. Now that’s reading for a thrill seeker!
But what my early Christian zeal overlooked and what I am tempted to do even today – when my faith is much more like river, deep and wide, calm on the surface but churning beneath with the presence and prompting of the Holy Spirit – is that while no gospel writer treated the baptism of Jesus exhaustively, each gospel writer felt it crucial to include. Amazingly, it is one of the events in the life of Christ that made it into each Gospel. Now maybe that doesn’t seem like a big deal until you begin looking into how many events make it into all four Gospels. Surprisingly, prior to the Triumphal Entry you count events held in common for all four Gospels on one hand.
So in the minds of the Gospel writers – minds under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, remember – this event in the life of Christ was pivotal. Why? Let me offer you two reasons in answer.
The first is what Christ proclaims in his baptism. One of the troubling things about reading of Christ’s baptism is the associations we make with baptism. In baptism we see evidence of sin cleansed, of purification – a removal of the dirt and grime that we are caked in from slogging through the mire of unrighteousness. John called his baptism a baptism of repentance and suddenly Jesus pops up and says, “Baptize me.” Did Jesus need to repent?
The short answer is no – but let’s flesh it out a little bit. In the first part of chapter 3 Matthew tells us (and Jesus later confirms this) that John came to prepare the way for the Messiah. John was the forerunner who would be like the prophet Elijah, who came calling the people to repentance and to lives in keeping with that repentance. In other words lives of obedience, lived to bring pleasure to the gracious and loving God that forgives their sin and redeems them from the pit.
So John is out in the desert proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is at hand and the people better get ready. He is offering a baptism of repentance – what is this baptism about? It is about identification. In receiving John’s baptism a person was proclaiming that they not only repented of their former lifestyle – the desires and unrighteousness that kept them separated from God – but also proclaimed that they were aligning themselves with the coming Kingdom. By taking the baptism, a person said that they wanted to be part of the new thing God was about to do. This is why John criticized the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matthew 3:7-10 so roundly for coming out to be baptized. He knew they had no intention of abdicating their prominent place in society in favor of the one that was coming. He knew that they had no intention of changing their lifestyle – there would be no fruit in keeping with repentance coming from them. They would continue to rely on their biological connection to Abraham.
It is into this scene that Jesus comes forward to be baptized. John is thinking the same thing we are at this point – why does Jesus need to repent? Now, don’t jump the gun and think that John recognizes Jesus as the Messiah at this point. John would later tell his disciples that it was not until he saw the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus that he understood who he was dealing with. But John is acquainted with Jesus – they are cousins. He knows the character of this man and by his objection to baptizing Jesus, he admits that Jesus has lived out more faithfully the obedience his baptism calls for more faithfully than John himself. But Jesus says to John, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”
What righteousness does Christ refer to? The writer of Hebrews gives an eloquent answer to this question in Hebrews 2:10-18.
In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers. He says, “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the presence of the congregation I will sing your praises.” And again, “I will put my trust in him.” And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.” Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
The righteousness that Jesus referred to is the righteousness of God displayed in the salvation won through his death. By taking baptism, Jesus proclaims his identification with the very sinners he was sent to redeem. Just as they came forward to express their alignment with the coming kingdom, Jesus comes forward to express his alignment with them. His baptism proclaims that in him the kingdom is here and in that kingdom he is one with fallen humanity – that he is one with us.
Now stop and think about this for a moment. Why would that be important? Because only if Jesus is truly human can he stand in our place as an atonement for sin. Paul in Romans 5 calls Christ the Second Adam – the second head of humanity. In Christ, a new humanity is born, one that has the resources to carry out the purpose for which God created man. Just as in Adam all died, in Christ many are made alive. In accepting baptism, Jesus initiates the new humanity and proclaims himself to be among them.
So what Jesus proclaims in accepting baptism is first and foremost that he has identified with us in our fallen sinful state. His baptism marks him as being one of us. And because he has identified with us fully – yet without sin, he is an acceptable sacrifice – able to secure our salvation through his death. That in itself should give us great comfort. Since he is one of us, we can approach him certain of his love for us. We can call on him with certainty, knowing that he understands our plight and desires to help us. The knowledge that he so closely identified himself with us should revolutionize our prayer life.
I do not make it a habit to walk around without any clothes. In fact, I am downright prudish. I don’t rip shirt off at the first sign of hot weather. This was true of me even when I was a lean, hunk of man – in other words it has nothing to do with body image. It has everything a sense of propriety. For me to be caught without a shirt – accept in activities like swimming where it is the proper attire – is embarrassing, a source of shame. So I do not make it a habit – even in my own home – to walk around without any clothes.
But you know something? I have no problem being without a shirt in front of my wife. I am perfectly comfortable in my own skin around Rachel. You know why? Because she stood before God and identified herself with me, warts and all. She knew me pretty well before we married and she still agreed to align herself with me. She took my ring as a sign of that identification. She took my name – and all its baggage – as evidence of her commitment to cast her lot with mine. I have great confidence that whether I have a shirt on or not, when Rach looks at me, she sees someone she loves and who is attractive to her. I am confident she sees someone who tickles her fancy.
In baptism, Jesus identifies himself with us – warts and all. He knew us well before he submitted himself to baptism and still he agreed to align himself with us. He took the sign of baptism as evidence of his commitment to cast his lot with ours. Therefore we can have great confidence – even with all our baggage – that when Jesus looks at us he sees someone he loves. Jesus’ baptism tells us that he is one of us and therefore we can approach him with confidence.
The second reason for the baptism of Jesus is to provide us with a means by which we can identify with him. Through receiving baptism, Jesus indicated the way by which we are given entrance into the New Covenant he will inaugurate in his own blood. The new humanity springing from the Second Adam is identified by baptism.
Colossians 2:11 says that in Christ we are spiritually circumcised – putting off the sinful nature – through baptism. By taking the sign of baptism we identify ourselves with the new humanity – those born again in the Spirit. We proclaim that we have aligned ourselves with Christ, with his sufferings, death and resurrection – as Paul points out in the following verse.
What is so fascinating is what is imaged in baptism. Paul, in Romans 6:3-4, says that in going under the waters of baptism, we reenact the death and burial of Jesus and that in coming out of the water, we rehearse his resurrection. Actually, the language is stronger than that. He says that in going under, we actually die with Christ. In coming out we are actually raised with him in resurrection life.
You see, in baptism we identify so closely with Jesus Christ – we cast our lot so completely with his – that our life has become united to his. As he died, we died. As he rose, we rose and live now in him. Like Paul, we can say with confidence that we have been crucified with Christ and the life that we now live is not our own, but it belongs to Jesus Christ. In our baptism we say in uncompromising terms that our only comfort in life and in death is that we belong body and soul to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ.
So baptism becomes the sign and seal of the New Covenant. Christ authenticates baptism as such by himself taking the sign. It identifies us as being one with him.
This week, I got myself in a little trouble. I over-committed my time. I promised to be too many places and spend time with too many people. Worse than that, I committed my wife and home to spend time as well. In my zeal to reach out, to minister, to be a faithful pastor and friend, I over-stepped my bounds. The end result is that I offended my wife, I robbed her of my presence. Which, of course, means that I robbed my daughter of my presence – thank God she is young enough not to remember this later.
But my wife is old enough. And she was hurt by the insensitivity of my actions. If I had just talked to her about it, explained my schedule – in other words if I had honored her as I had covenanted to do before God – a whole lot of hurt and frustration could have been avoided. If I had taken just a moment to look at the ring on my finger which signifies my identification with her, that I am one with her…. More importantly, if I had taken a moment to reflect and remember that she has identified herself with me so completely – warts and all – I might have been moved to be more diligent in protecting the boundaries of our life together.
Beloved in Christ, in baptism we signify that we are one with Jesus Christ. It is the means by which we acknowledge and participate in the covenant God has made with us through the blood of Christ. Just he identified fully with us by submitting to baptism, we show that we are united to him through our baptism. His baptism authenticates this sign and seal of our relationship.
And as surely as we have cast our lot with him through our baptism, we must also diligently strive to honor the covenant he has graciously included in. We must guard the boundaries of our heart to let nothing draw us away from him. In the time of temptation or trial, we must flee to him who loves us and protects. We must spend the time necessary to nurture our relationship with him. Sometimes that is going to require hard choices from us. Sometimes it will mean choosing to forego a desire or pleasure for the sake of gathering with God’s people for encouragement and instruction. It may mean giving up time normally taken for additional rest or food so that we can have time alone with God in prayer and study. It is so easy today to over-commit out time and to slight our time with God because -–well he's God and he is gracious. We can always do a “double-devotional” next time to make it up.
Let me submit to you that time lost can never be made up. Sure, you can read twice what you normally read and pray a little longer – but that does not restore the time lost. It only assuages the guilt of neglecting God. I know this because I too have struggled with this.
People of God, we must be intentional about living out – what the Westminster Catechism calls improving – our baptism. Just as Jesus demonstrated his love for us and the priority he evidenced by becoming one of us, we must show where our priority and love lies by spending the time which evidences that we are one with him – as we declare in baptism. We must strive to grow in our faith, to keep from sin, and where we fail to commit ourselves anew to living the life of holiness, motivated by the realization that Jesus identified with us – became one of us – so that he could offer his life in the place of ours. If we remember our baptism – remember all that it means – we will find the motivation we need to live in obedience to him.
Today is the first Sunday of Lent – the season for preparing ourselves to celebrate the reality of the resurrection. In Lent, we come alongside Christ as he journeys through the Gospel story – listening to his teaching, joining in his suffering. We identify with him in humiliation so that we can join with him in rejoicing in his Easter exaltation. And there is no better place to start our journey than the baptism of Jesus – the place where he proclaims his identification with us and provides us a way to identify with him.
As we continue our journey toward Easter morning, spend some reflecting upon your baptism – what it means, how you should respond. Contemplate the life of Jesus Christ in your quiet hours – seek time with him to build on the relationship begun in baptism. Approach him with confidence, he’s one of us. Block out time exclusively for him, you are one with him. His baptism and ours is the sign of the covenant in which we have been united. Spend some time gazing lovingly into his eyes.
