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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
As we heard five weeks ago in the Gospel Reading on the Second Sunday in Advent, in the verses just before today’s Gospel Reading, John the Baptizer was preaching in the wilderness of Judea, calling people to repent, for the Kingdom of God was at hand (Matthew 3:1-12). Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, except for the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to his baptism, whom John apparently refused to baptize, because they did not repent (confer Luke 7:30). Then, as we heard today in the Gospel Reading for the Baptism of Our Lord, as the Divinely‑inspired St. Matthew uniquely reports, when Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, in order to be baptized by him, John was trying to prevent Jesus from being baptized, but John’s reasoning was completely different with Jesus than it was with the Jewish leaders. John knew that he had need to be baptized by Jesus because John was sin‑ful, and John knew that Jesus had no need to be baptized by John because Jesus was sin‑less. In His first recorded words in St. Matthew’s Gospel account, Jesus told John to permit Jesus’s baptism at that time, for so it was fitting for them to fulfill all righteousness. We are not told anywhere else whether or not John ever was baptized, and we might wonder who would have baptized John, for we are told that Jesus Himself did not baptize anyone, although Jesus’s disciples did baptize people (John 3:22, 26; 4:1-2). With the help of the Holy Spirit, this morning we consider “The need to be baptized”: not only John’s and Jesus’s need to be baptized, but also our own need to be baptized.
As we heard, John clearly wanted Jesus to baptize him, so John did not have a problem repenting, as the Jewish leaders had a problem repenting, nor did John have a problem valuing baptism and its gifts, as some people today have a problem valuing baptism and its gifts—the forgiveness of sins, rescue from death and the devil and eternal salvation. While the lack of baptism under normal circumstances might raise a question about someone’s salvation, John’s case is different. From the beginning, Old Testament believers were saved by trusting God to forgive them for the sake of the coming Savior, to whose once‑and‑for‑all sacrifice all other sacrifices pointed. John had such faith, and John also had received the sign of God’s covenant in circumcision (Luke 1:59‑63), as had Jesus (Luke 2:21). Yet, John was the transition point, we might say, between the Old Testament and the New Testament (confer Matthew 11:11-14; Luke 7:28), when the physical circumcision made with hands gave way to the spiritual circumcision made without hands that is Holy Baptism (confer Colossians 2:11-14). As Jesus told John, his permitting Jesus’s baptism at that time was fitting for them to fulfill all righteousness.
On our own, we are far from fulfilling all righteousness—perfectly, all of the time. In their fall into sin, the first man and woman lost their original righteousness, and they passed their resulting corruption down to us as our original sin. Our original sin leads us to all kinds of actual sins of thoughts, words, and deeds. We do not love God or our neighbors as we should—not ever. For example, even we who believe may despise preaching and God’s Word instead of holding His Word sacred and gladly hearing and learning it. We may claim not to despise God’s Word and Sacraments—Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and the Holy Supper—but our infrequent-use or our non‑use of God’s Word and of all of His Sacraments may show that our claim not to despise them is false and that, in fact, we do despise them. Together our original sin and all of our actual sins warrant both our death here now and our torment in hell for eternity, unless, as the Holy Spirit calls and so enables us to do, we turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to stop sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgive us our sinful nature and all our actual sin—our sins of despising His Word and Sacraments, or whatever our actual sin might be. God forgives us for Jesus’s sake.
The righteousness that we lack, God provides us, out of His great love, mercy, and grace for Jesus’s sake. In today’s Gospel Reading, the opening of the heavens for the descent of the Spirit of God like a dove coming to rest on Jesus and God the Father’s voice from heaven declaring Jesus to be His Son with Whom He is well‑pleased make clear that Jesus is, as we heard Isaiah describe in today’s Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 42:1-9; confer Matthew 1:18; 2:15), God’s Chosen Servant, in Whom He delights, upon Whom He has put His Spirit according to His human nature, and Whom He has called in righteousness (confer Matthew 12:17-21). We receive the righteousness of Jesus both from His actively keeping God’s Commandments that we fail to keep (confer Matthew 5:17) and from His passively dying for our failure to keep those commandments. On the cross Jesus died as our substitute, in our place, and then He rose from the dead. His death on the cross can be regarded as a figurative baptism (Mark 10:38; Luke 12:50), but we usually regard Jesus’s literal baptism as where He takes on the sin of the whole world, including our sin, just as we usually regard our baptism as where we take on His righteousness.
Under normal circumstances, then, we have “The need to be baptized”. St. Mark’s Gospel account records Jesus’s saying, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved” (Mark 16:16), and St. John’s Gospel account records Jesus’s saying that unless one is born from above by water and the Spirit he or she cannot see or enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). Similarly, St. John’s Gospel account records Jesus’s saying, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you” (John 6:53). Those who believe want to receive God’s forgiveness in these ways that He gives forgiveness. The Triune God so clearly revealed at Jesus’s baptism is also clearly revealed when we are baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19). We who privately confess the sins that we know and feel in our hearts are individually absolved in that same Triune Name, and then we are admitted to the Holy Supper of Christ’s Body and Blood given and shed for us for the forgiveness of our sins. The pastors through whom God performs such sacramental acts are not sin‑less like Jesus but are sin‑ful like John the Baptizer, and, like John the Baptizer, they act according to their Office (confer Lenski, ad loc Matthew 3:15, p.126), and the pastors are forgiven by faith, as they are able to receive the sacraments by their own or another pastor’s hands.
Each of us should act according to our various callings in life, as St. Paul described in today’s Epistle Reading (Romans 6:1-11), walking in newness of life. As we heard, all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death, crucifying our old self with Him, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Of course, even we who believe still sin—maybe getting sinfully angry over such things as politics while watching the news or the economy while grocery shopping. So, each day we remember our baptism, with daily sorrow over our sin and faith in God to forgive our sin, drowning our sinful nature with its sins and evil desires, and letting our redeemed nature daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity. And, we know that we will certainly be united with Jesus in a resurrection like His and will live eternally with God, in glorified bodies freed from sin and from all of its consequences for our bodies.
“The need to be baptized” that John the Baptizer felt we who are baptized have more than satisfied, thanks to John’s and Jesus’s doing their parts to fulfill all righteousness. Already now with the forgiveness of sins we have God’s peace and joy. As prophesied in the Old Testament Reading, God gave Jesus both as a covenant for the people of Israel and a light for the nations of Gentiles. Today’s Psalm recalls the voice of the Lord over the waters of creation (Psalm 29:1-11; antiphon: v.3), where the Holy Spirit also was hovering (Genesis 1:2-3), and the Psalm refers to the Lord enthroned over the flood, through which God saved Noah and his family and pointed to Holy Baptism that saves us as we receive it in faith (1 Peter 3:20-21). As the Psalm calls us to, we ascribe to the Lord glory and strength, the glory due His Name, and we worship Him in the splendor of holiness, and He gives strength to us and blesses us with peace!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +