We have left the Christmas season behind us, and we are now in a new season of the church year–the season of Epiphany. Still, it is not too late, I think, to quote a stanza of one of our favorite Christmas hymns, "O Little Town of Bethlehem." This Christmas hymn is, I think, my personal favorite. One of the stanzas of this hymn, you recall, has us sing:
How silently, how silently / The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts / The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may hear His coming; / But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive Him still / The dear Christ enters in. (Lutheran Service Book, 361:3)
As we recall the circumstances of Jesus’s birth, we can see how truly this hymn stanza describes it; the birth of Jesus was hardly noticed by the world bustling around Him. And yet, we know, this was the beginning of the most significant event in human history. God’s Son, and our Savior, had arrived to begin His work that would accomplish our salvation. Today, in our Gospel Reading, we find another such event–Jesus’s baptism–which was also hardly noticed by all but a very few. And yet, how significant is this event also! Today let’s think about this significant event when Jesus was "Baptized." And then let’s think about what will turn out to be the most significant event in our own lives in this world, when we were "Baptized."
The Reading first tells us how John’s baptizing was part of his ministry that also included some fiery preaching. John had been sent by God to prepare people for the imminent arrival of the Savior God had promised. In dramatic terms John called upon his hearers to repent, to turn away from and to be washed clean of sin. The Messiah God had promised over so many generations was now about to appear. His coming would bring salvation or judgment, depending upon how individuals received Him. Those who received the coming Savior with repentance and faith would receive forgiveness and grace. But those who rejected Him and who proudly relied upon their own self-righteousness would receive eternal punishment. Comparing this to a farmer harvesting his crops, John declared: "His winnowing fork is in His hand, to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire" (verse 17).
John’s preaching met both kinds of response. Some received John’s preaching with humble faith and were baptized for the forgiveness of their sins. But others stood proudly by, refusing to acknowledge their need for repentance and cleansing from sin. One such sinner with whom John’s preaching hit too close to home, Herod the tetrarch, threw the preacher in prison–from where John never emerged alive.
But then there was One whose coming surprised and confused John. The very Savior John spoke about came to be baptized by John. To see what happened then we need to turn to another Gospel account, that of St. Matthew: "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?’" (3:13-14). In other words, John said to Jesus, "Whoa, Jesus! We’ve got things turned around here. I’m the sinner, not You. You baptize me." "But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented" (3:15).
Perhaps, as we think about it, we might also be somewhat confused about why Jesus came to be baptized by John, who came "proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Luke 3:3). But the Bible tells us that Jesus was "One who in every respect was tempted as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15). Then why did Jesus insist on being baptized with a baptism that was for sinners? Why, because Jesus came to bear the burden of our sins for us, all the way to the cross, where He bore the penalty for sin, the wrathful judgment of God. St. Peter reminds us that "Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God" (1 Peter 3:18). St. Paul declares, "For our sake He [God the Father] made Him [Jesus, God the Son] to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus came to stand in for us sinners before the throne of God’s righteous judgment against sin so we might go free from the penalty of sin–eternal separation from God’s love and favor. Jesus came to be the world’s sinner under God’s anger against sin so that we, instead of being slathered with the slime of sin, might be pure and clean before God, with every stain of sin removed and might then enjoy forever the love and blessing of God. At His baptism Jesus took on the work for which He came into this world, and God the Father and God the Holy Spirit indicated at Jesus’ baptism that He was doing just what He had been sent to do.
What a significant moment this was, then, when Jesus was baptized! And yet how few of those around truly recognized its importance! Even John the Baptizer himself, as Matthew has told us, had not yet realized its significance until Jesus Himself told him.
And since Jesus’ baptism was so significant, even though its significance was not recognized by others, our own baptism is the most significant even in our own lives. What Jesus’ baptism began now touches each of us individually. The eternal salvation Jesus came to bring about reaches each of us in the gospel through Holy Baptism. Holy Baptism is the instrument the Holy Spirit uses to connect each of us, personally and individually, with the death and resurrection of our Savior. St. Paul declares: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Christ into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:3-4). And Paul writes again that For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). And still again: "He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life" (Titus 3:5-7).
When you were baptized God delivered to you personally everything that Jesus Your Savior achieved by His holy life, His sacrificial death, and His glorious resurrection. And yet, how silently the gift is still given! How little we realize or appreciate what is happening at that moment. How dimly we see the intersection of heaven and earth taking place right then and right there. What an exchange is taking place, as sin is exchanged for righteousness, as darkness gives place to light, as life begins forever, being only transferred one day from this world to the world to come! If only we could see it for what it is, if only we could appreciate it as we might, we would stand in awe at every baptism we witness.
For at baptism life opens up and need never be closed. In baptism we are raised, raised with Christ, and now we live, live with Christ. Our old sinful nature, aided by the unfaithful world around us and abetted by the devil, seeks to drag us down again, down into the darkness, down into death and back onto the road to hell. But, renewed by the Spirit through the Word of God, we turn once again, returning in spirit to Holy Baptism, where our life began, and, with God’s gracious help we move onward once more toward the light that shines before us from the Gospel, from the gracious face of Christ, until we reach our goal. For, since Jesus was once "Baptized" into our death, we are now and forever "Baptized" into His life.
Amen to that!