A couple weeks ago I spoke about how there is a long period
of time during Jesus’s earthly life where we do not know much about him. From
the age of about 2 until about 30 the Gospels only record one incident, when he
was about 12. He went to Jerusalem with his family and accidently got left
behind. Today we are considering the Baptism of our Lord. This is the next
thing we hear about after Jesus’s childhood. Mark’s Gospel begins with Jesus
and his baptism. John’s Gospel begins with John the Baptist testifying about
Jesus’s baptism. Matthew and Luke both deal with Jesus’s nativity in the first
couple chapters, then they speak about Jesus’s baptism. Jesus’s childhood is
not unimportant, but all four of the Gospels begin more thoroughly to relate
the events of Jesus’s life after his baptism in the Jordan River.
Asking the question, “why?” when the Bible doesn’t
explicitly give you the answer, can be treacherous. The Bible doesn’t tell us
explicitly why Jesus’s baptism is so important and why, in a sense, his baptism
is the beginning of the Gospel. But I think this is a worthwhile thing to think
about in order to better understand the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ. So that
is what we are going to look at today.
Let’s begin by talking about the word “Christ.” We so often
hear and so often speak about “Jesus Christ” that it is almost like Jesus is
his first name and Christ is his last name. But that is not why we speak of “Jesus
Christ.” Christ is from a Greek word that means “anointed.” Anointed means to
have a liquid poured on top. The New Testament is written in the Greek language.
The word “Christ” got carried over into English without translating it. If you
wanted to translate it you could say, “Jesus the anointed,” rather than, “Jesus
Christ.” The New Testament is written in Greek, the Old Testament is written in
the Hebrew language. The word for “anointed” in Hebrew is “Messiah.” I’m sure
you’ve heard that word a time or two, although we do not use it nearly so often
as the Greek “Christ.” But it means the same thing as Christ: “Jesus the
anointed.”
Aside from the way that we baptize people who desire to be
Christians, we do not anoint very much in our times. This puts us at a bit of a
disadvantage, because we don’t see the connections that Old Testament people
would immediately associate with being anointed. The way that people were put
into office in the Old Testament was by anointing. You could almost say, by
being baptized. The kings of Israel and Judah were anointed with oil when they
were given the right and responsibility to rule. The priests, who served in the
tabernacle and temple before the presence of God, were anointed. The way that
we put people into office today is a bit different. We might have them put
their hand on a Bible and make solemn pledges to defend the constitution and so
on. Something of this solemnity and dignity and importance is tied up with
Jesus being anointed, or baptized, in the Jordan River. It is not just a matter
of having water poured on his head.
But of course Jesus was not anointed just with water; he was
anointed with the Holy Spirit. Matthew says that when Jesus came out of the
water he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and landing on him. John
records John the Baptist’s testimony that he also saw the Holy Spirit descend
upon Jesus. That was how John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the Christ. And
so Jesus is not anointed just with water or with oil—like the kings and priests
were. The third person of the Trinity descends upon him. The first person of
the Trinity speaks from heaven. He says, “This is my Son, whom I love. I am
well pleased with him.”
And so at the baptism of Jesus we have a tremendous
revelation—we see something that we otherwise wouldn’t see so well. The Trinity
is there—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And for what occasion? That this man
Jesus should be anointed—that he should be put in office. And what is his
office? He is the Savior of sinners.
Jesus has been the Christ from the moment of his conception
in the womb of the Virgin Mary, but he is publicly revealed to be the Christ at
his baptism. Now that he is publicly in the office of Christ, he immediately
gets to work as our Savior. The first thing that happens after Jesus is
baptized is that he is kicked out into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. There
he is tempted by the devil. We hear about this temptation on the first Sunday
in Lent. Although he is tempted in all ways, just like we are, he does not fall.
He succeeds where we fail so that his perfect life could be credited to us.
After Jesus returns from the wilderness he beings to give
sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, mobility to the lame, life to the
dead, and good news to the poor. This is not mere do-goodism, like a civil
service organization might do. This is the beginning of the reversal of the
fall into sin. Jesus is not just putting band-aids on stuff, which is the best
that we can ever do with all our technology and power. He’s getting down to the
root and source of all our troubles.
Jesus is able to do things previously unheard of. There are
many unusual miracles of healing in the Old Testament, but no one was able to
give sight to those born blind. Nobody had been able to give hearing to those
born deaf. These are things that Jesus did.
He also preached good news to the poor. I think we are
predisposed to think that compared to miracles of healing and even
resurrection, this one is not so significant. That is not true. The greatest is
left for last. The good news that Jesus preached to poor sinners is that there
is reconciliation between God and sinners. When Adam and Eve fell into sin, the
worst thing that happened to them was that they were no longer able to look God
in the eye. They were frightened of him, instead of how it was previously. They
used to love to be together with God—they loved being together with him much
more than we love being with the people that we love—our family and friends.
But sin did such a number on them that they preferred not to think about God at
all. They preferred to just eek out their existence, and so it is with us to
this day.
Adam and Eve’s loss of confidence in the loving kindness of
God was a much, much greater loss than the other curses that they now had to
endure because of their sin. It was worse than the thorns and thistles that
Adam now had to contend with. It was worse than the difficulty and danger of
childbirth and the dissatisfaction with her station that Eve had to endure.
Preaching the good news to the poor is greater than miracles
of healing, and that’s easy to see if only we have the right perspective. When
Christ comes in power and great glory to judge the living and the dead, which
would you rather have? Would you rather have working eyes and ears, or would
you rather have a heart that is bursting with love and longing and joy—like a
bride who waits for her husband? What good will it do you to have two hands or
two feet or two eyes only to be cast into hell? No, the preaching of the Gospel
is by no means the least of the works that the Christ does in his office of
Savior. The giving of a good conscience through the forgiveness of sins is at
the very heart of God’s mercy and blessing toward us, and it is prerequisite to
fully enjoy any other blessing he might give us.
The work of Jesus as the Christ, the Savior of sinners,
culminates in the mystery of the cross. The cross is where the Son of God works
reconciliation between sinners and God so that through him we might have this
good conscience toward God. Later on, in the book of Luke, Jesus speaks about
his upcoming death as a baptism. He says that he has a baptism with which he
has to be baptized, and he is not at peace until it is completed. And so we see
that Jesus’s baptism anticipates and is the beginning of all the work that
Jesus does as the Christ, as the Savior.
In our reading we have very beautiful words spoken by the
Father. He says, “This is my Son, whom I love. I am well pleased with him.”
Sometimes people falsely think that God the Father is kind of the bad, mean
guy, who insists upon justice, and Jesus is the nice one who does not hold our
sin against us. This is totally false. The Father is pleased with his Son,
Jesus, because Jesus is going to work our salvation. It was his eternal love
that set in motion our salvation even from eternity. The Father is pleased with
the Son even when the Son is abused by the devil, unpopular with the people,
mocked and spit upon by the soldiers, and when he is gasping for breath on the
cross. Through tear filled eyes the Father loves and is proud of his Son
because he loves you. He wants you together with him in perfect harmony and
fellowship. That is why he is pleased with his Son as his Son carries out the
heavy labor of being the Savior of the world.
And so we see that Jesus’s baptism is the beginning of his
heroic work. It has vast significance. There is much more that we could talk
about. Luther says we could contemplate this baptism for the rest of our lives.
But I want to get to one more thing. I also want to speak about your baptism.
After Jesus was resurrected and before he ascended into
heaven, he told his disciples, “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing
them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” This
is not some human plaything—cooked up by the apostles. Baptism is God’s thing.
It is not a mere coincidence that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were
manifested at Jesus’s baptism, and are now present also in your baptism. As
we’ve seen today, it was not the case with Jesus’s baptism that he was just
splashed with some water and that was that. So also, your baptism was not just
plain water and that was that. Your baptism was the beginning of your life as
God’s own child. It was the beginning of your eternal life as a blessed
creature, so long as you continue in faith until you die. For Jesus says, “Whoever
believes and is baptized shall be saved. Whoever does not believe will be
condemned.”
Baptism is an extraordinary gift. It is not recognized as
such. People foolishly regard it as a rite of passage for a baby—an opportunity
to take pictures—and nothing more. An amazing number of Christian churches seem
to fight against it with all their might—they say that it is nothing, that it
does nothing. It is just water. It is just an empty symbol. To be frank, this
is just plain devilish. Baptism is God saying to the one who is baptized: “I am
yours and you are mind. Where I am you may remain. The foe shall not divide
us.” And then you have all these evil spirits who are saying, “That’s not true.
That couldn’t possibly be true. Baptism is just plain water.” There is nothing
more that the devil wants than for you to believe that Jesus is nothing. His
cross is nothing. His forgiveness won’t work. This baptism, the way that this
work of Jesus is communicated to you, is nothing. It’s just an old custom and
ordinance. These are all miserable lies, tricks from the devil himself, trying
to prevent you from blessedness, and drag you down into hell with him. If he’s
able to get away with these lies in a church, then it is all the better for
him, for it catches poor Christians unawares.
If you want to know the truth about your baptism and its
power, then I suggest that you study our opening hymn today, “God’s Own Child I
Gladly Say It,” as well as Luther’s baptismal hymn, the chief hymn, sung just
before the sermon, “To Jordan Came the Christ, our Lord.” If you don’t have a
hymnal at home, then take one of ours. Just bring it back with you next Sunday.
These hymnals are not here for decoration, nor are we to sing them mindlessly
while we sit in the pew and never think of them again. The hymnal is here for
us to study and to learn from.
These baptismal hymns are very practical. These hymns
prepare you to die. They prepare you to meet your Maker. They do not do this by
telling you to do this or that, but by teaching you about the salvation God
worked and give to you in your baptism. This is not high falutin’ theology, but
the most imminently practical knowledge we can possibly learn. You are all
going to die, unless Christ comes back first, why on earth would you not be
thoroughly informed of the way that you are prepared to overcome death—by the
baptism that we so easily forget about even though we are Christians and come
to church week after week? Do yourself a favor, and consider these hymns.
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