Sermon: Baptism of our Lord - 2019

13 January 2019

Text: Matt 3:13-17

In the name of + Jesus.  Amen.

Jesus was baptized.  This is an amazing thing.  For what is the point of baptism?  Mark’s Gospel teaches us that “whoever believes and is baptized will be saved.”  St. Peter’s first epistle teaches us that “Baptism… now saves you.” 

Saved from what?  What are we being saved from?  We are being rescued from death: the kind of death that leads to hell, to eternal separation from God as the righteous punishment for our sins.  So we Christians run to the baptismal font, even bringing our little ones, because this is where we are saved from the fires of hell and from never becoming whom God created us to be.  

As one of our hymns addresses Satan: “Now that to the font I’ve traveled, All your might has come unraveled, And, against your tyranny, God my Lord unites with me.”  And so for us, Holy Baptism defangs the devil, overturns his oppression, and brings us into communion with God.

So what is Jesus doing here?  Why did He travel to the font of the Jordan River?  What does Jesus have to do with Satan and his tyranny?  Isn’t our Lord already united in full communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit?

St. John the Baptist was equally baffled: “I need to be baptized by you,” he protests, “and do you come to me?”  It has been revealed to John that this Jesus, John’s cousin according to the flesh, is the Messiah, the one John spoke of: “He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.  He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  John expects the Christ to come baptizing, not being baptized.  But of course, our Lord has come not to be served, but to serve.  There are many surprises that Jesus has in store for the world.  This is not the only time people are shocked by our Lord.

Overriding John’s protestations, our Lord says: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  

Jesus has come to rescue us by doing for us what we ourselves cannot do: “fulfill all righteousness.”  Jesus fulfills all of the Law for us, as our champion, as the New Adam.  And unlike the Old Adam, Jesus will not give in to Satan’s temptation nor submit to his tyranny.  And just as Adam ushered in original sin that is transmitted to us through the flesh into which we are born, our Lord Jesus Christ, the New and Greater Adam, removes this original sin and replaces it with His original righteousness, placing this righteousness upon us in our restored flesh into which we are born again, by water and the Spirit.

And to demonstrate this fulfilling of righteousness, Jesus submits to a baptism that we need: the baptism of repentance.  But remember, dear friends, John prophesied that the Messiah was coming to give us a New and Greater Baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.

John consents to this strange reversal of baptizer and baptizee.  He trusts that the Lord knows what He is doing.  Jesus humbles Himself to submit to the things that He doesn’t need, but these are things that we need, dear brothers and sisters.  We need Christ’s righteousness, Christ’s forgiveness, Christ’s atonement.  And the baptism by fire will not come upon us, but upon Him at the cross.  Our Lord will be the Lamb, presented as a burnt offering, the consuming of His flesh and blood as a sweet aroma rising to the Father.  His sacrifice upon the cross is known in Greek as a holocaust, an all-consuming offering by fire.  And His crucifixion purifies all of us who believe and are baptized, burning away our imperfections by His sacrifice.  And, dear friends, we participate in this once-for-all sacrifice by consuming His flesh and blood in the Holy Eucharist.  For this is a baptism of blood.  And just as blood and water flowed from our Lord’s pierced heart on the cross, the blood of Christ flows into us at Holy Communion, and water is poured out upon us at Holy Baptism.  

For “it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  

The Lord fulfills all righteousness for us in His conception, His birth, His circumcision, His teaching in the temple, His baptism, His ministry of preaching and healing and casting out demons, His forgiveness, His Supper, His crucifixion, His resurrection, His ascension, and His coming again.  It is indeed fitting that He fulfills all righteousness on our behalf, for this is the Father’s will.  And we know this pleases the Father, for what do we hear immediately as Jesus “went up from the water?”  What does the Father say as the heavens are opened and the Holy Spirit descends upon Him?  We hear the Father say: “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.”

It pleases the Father that Jesus fulfills all righteousness, and that John obeys the Lord’s instructions even though it runs against his own inclinations.  It pleases the Father that Jesus humbles Himself, even to the point of death on the cross.  It pleases the Father that we are baptized, and we are adopted as sons of God, even as our Lord Jesus commissions the church to “make disciples” by the Lord’s ministers “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  This is indeed fitting unto the fulfillment of righteousness. 

The Father is pleased with the Son and with all of us as His adopted sons through the righteousness-fulfilling work and ministry of God the Son.  And the Son fulfills all righteousness in His obedience to the Father in laying down His life for us, taking our sins and exchanging them for His righteousness.  And the Holy Spirit descends and comes to rest upon all who are baptized: upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and upon all of us, who by the work of Jesus, are then called, gathered, enlightened, and sanctified by the descent of the Spirit unto the baptized.

Dear friends, the baptism of our Savior points to our own salvation through baptism.  We can take comfort that all righteousness is fulfilled not in our works, but in His works, including His work in bringing us to the font, and sanctifying Holy Baptism by His own baptism.  

And just as John is pleasantly surprised by the coming of Jesus, let us also be filled with joy, dear friends, as Christ has come to fulfill all righteousness and to give us eternal life as a free gift by means of water and the Word. 

“Let it be so now.”  Amen.

In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.