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.
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