Baptism of Jesus
First Sunday after the epiphany
Matthew 3:13-17
"Being with Us"
"Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness." Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased."" Matthew 3:13-17, RSV.
Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus who is the Christ. Amen.
The chief executive officer of a manufacturing firm got into the habit of showing up in the production area unannounced. Sometimes he would take off his coat and tie, roll up his sleeves, and help on the assembly line. One of the bolder employees asked him one day, "Why do you do that?"
"I don’t know a better way," the CEO replied, "to catch the pulse of what the workers think and feel. I don’t know better how to see things from their point of view."
When he returned each time to the solitude of his office, he had indeed gained something he would not have had, had he not spent time out with "ordinary" folk.
Jesus’ baptism was a sort of "going down to the production line." He certainly did not have to do it. Some wondered why he did it.
Jesus came to earth as the Son of God so that God would understand the human predicament. Jesus was Baptized because He wanted everyone to know that He was human. God did not know any other way to save the human race than to become like the human race and to that end He came as a Babe born in a manger and today we see His humanity in a very real way as Jesus was baptized.
The main point of this text for me is not how Jesus was baptized, but why.
The why of his baptism is important for it shows us his humanity. It shows us that Jesus does understand the human predicament of sinner and saint. In Baptism we are made saints, or children of God, but at the same time we are living in the sinfulness of this world. This world has not been fully redeemed, so we are at the same time as Luther says saint and sinner.
In our Baptism, we have become the chosen ones of God. He declares we are his. In Jesus’ baptism, God declares to those who were there and to us through his word, the Bible, that Jesus is his son. The son of God who comes to earth to share in our humanity and then through the cross and resurrection to save humanity from sin.
Our baptism begins a journey for us as we live in Christ and trust him for our salvation. It is a trust that is played out in all the circumstances of our lives.
Baptism means obedience. Baptism means trust.
It is like the little boy in the following:
A kindergartner was dropped off in-front of the school door by his father who admonished him, "Now if I’m not right here at the curb, waiting for you in the car, when you get out of kindergarten later on this afternoon, you just sit down on the front step and wait. And don’t move. Don’t go anywhere. Just stay there. Do you understand?"
He understood.
The school day ended. The young fellow did exactly as he had been told. He sat down on the front step of the school building and waited. Three o’clock gave way to 3:30. 4:00 came, and then 5:00.
At sixteen minutes after five his father, driving on an errand, suddenly remembered what he had instructed his young son to do. He almost had a heart attack, realizing the boy could have been kidnapped by this time. He turned the car around and raced to the school building. There his son was sitting, obediently waiting on the step.
"Didn’t you worry that I might not come?" his father asked, his voice shaking.
The youngster answered, "No. You told me not to move. I knew you’d come. And I was right. You did."
Baptism is about obedience, doing what may not make a bit of sense to us, but doing it because it is the faithful thing to do.
Our Baptism begins that journey of trust in the saving power of Jesus through the cross and resurrection. A trust and a belief that can uphold us during the difficult parts of our lives.
It is the trust that is needed in the following story that we must have as we experience our journey with Christ.
"A pastor stood by the grave side of a young mother with her husband and 3 children. The husband looked into the eyes of the pastor and demanded; "Now tell me what you really believe, Pastor, Is this the end of everything. the way God meant it to be?"
The pastor said, "It’s not what t I believe that matters,.. you have the answer in your heart. You know deep in your heart, this is not the end. You haven’t stopped loving your wife. Do you think God has?? You know that life with God is eternal. God gave you that faith. All YOU have to do my friend is believe what your heart already knows."
Believe what your heart already knows. Believe that through Christ our journey on this earth ends but does not stop. It continues with Christ in the next life.
As we were baptized as infants in Christ, it started a journey for us. A journey in and through Christ. A journey that tells us we must remember our baptism daily so we can ask for the forgiveness of Christ, and be renewed to continue on our way. Baptism happens once, but the consequences happen each day to us. Each day we ask for forgiveness and in a sense our sinful self is drown in the waters of our baptism and raised up again in the saving grace of Christ so that we may continue to walk with Him.
Luther says:
’Therefore they greatly err who think that through baptism they have become wholly pure. They go about in their unwisdom and do not slay their sins, they do not admit that it is sin; they persist in it, and so they make their baptism of no effect....To them who do this not, seek forgiveness, God will not forgive their sins because they do not live according to their baptism and covenant, and hinder the work which God and their baptism have begun."
He goes on to say: "If any one has fallen into sin, he should the more remember his baptism and how God has there made a covenant with him to forgive all his sins’ if only he has the will to fight them even until death."
Luther, says further," So we find that through sin baptism is, indeed hindered in its work, in the forgiveness and the slaying of sin; yet only by unbelief in its operation is baptism brought to, naught."
Finally Luther says’"Sin remains in our flesh even until death, and works without ceasing; but so long as we do not consent thereto or remain therein, it is so overruled by our baptism that it does not condemn us and is not harmful to us, but is daily more and more destroyed until your death."
This act of baptism begins for us as we as infants come to the Baptismal font, but it does not stop there. Daily, we are to recall our Baptism and submerse ourselves in the saving act of Christ and then be raised to follow Him.
As we follow Christ daily, we are to be "little Christs’ as Luther says to those around us. We are to reach out a helping hand.
A fulfilling life is not lived for self, but for others as found in the following story.
Searching for happiness often prevents people from finding it.
Maeterlinck’s The Blue Bird tells of a man who went around the world looking for the "Blue Bird of Happiness." He returned home with more despair than he had before because he now only had not found happiness but he had lost the hope of finding it.
As he wallowed in his sorrow, someone knocked on his door. It was a father, obviously poor, asking for help. The poor man’s child was sick and was asking for a pet bird. The father could not buy one. The man who had traveled had a black bird. He immediately offered it to the father. But as he took it from the cage, the bird turned into a blue bird - the symbol of happiness. He had searched around the world to find happiness but found it by helping a poor, sick neighbor child.
Our Baptism as lived out daily means we are to reach out to those around us who need a helping hand. Our faith in the forgivness and resurrection of Christ demands that we live not for self but for others.
A closing story says it well:
When Rosina Hernandez was in college, she once attended a rock concert at which one young man was brutally beaten by another.
No one made an attempt to stop the beating. The next day she was struck dumb to learn that the youth had died as a result of the pounding. Yet neither she nor anyone else had raised a hand to help him.
She could never forget the incident or her responsibility as an inactive bystander.
Some years later, Rosina saw another catastrophe. A car driving in the rain ahead of her suddenly skidded and plunged into Biscayne Bay. The car landed head down in the water with only the tail end showing. In a moment a woman appeared on the surface, shouting for help and saying her husband was stuck inside.
This time Rosina waited for no one. She plunged into the water, tried unsuccessfully to open the car door, then pounded on the back window as other bystanders stood on the causeway and watched. First she screamed at them, begging for help, then cursed them, telling them there was a man dying in the car.
First one man, then another, finally came to help. Together they broke the safety glass and dragged the man out. They were just in time -- a few minutes later it would have been all over.
The woman thanked Rosina for saving her husband, and Rosina was elated, riding an emotional high that lasted for weeks. She had promised herself that she would never again fail to do anything she could to save a human live. She had made good on her promise.
from Bits & Pieces, June 24, 1993, Page 20-21
Amen
