Sermon for the Baptism of Our Lord

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In the name of Jesus, amen. Dear saints, this morning we consider the wisdom and courage of baptism—the baptism that the Lord Jesus has given to all of his people. And if, by the way, you’re visiting and you haven’t been baptized, make sure to check in with me before you leave and we can work on that.

Martin Luther says about baptism this wonderful thing: he says, “We have enough in baptism. God has given us enough in baptism that we can consider it our entire lives.” And I think that it’s not only that. I think that we’ll be able to consider this gift that the Lord Jesus gives to us in Holy Baptism on into eternity in the new heaven and the new earth, wondering at all that the Lord has done and accomplished in us and for us in His gift of Holy Baptism.

Now, the first part of the wisdom of baptism is to know that baptism is not simply an event. In the early service this morning, we had Will’s baptism. Last week, we had Hezekiah’s baptism. And if you were to go and ask those guys, “Hey, are you baptized?” they should not say, “Well, I was baptized this morning or last week.” You shouldn’t say, “Well, I was baptized when I was a baby or whenever,” but rather, “I am baptized.”

Suppose it’s the same if someone asks you if you’re married. Can you imagine that someone asks you, “Hey, are you married?” And you, thinking about the wedding 25 years ago, said, “Well, I was married.” And you get a stiff. It’s not “I was.” You are! That marriage puts you into the state of marriage, into the vocation and calling of marriage, into the gift of marriage. You are married.

The same thing with baptism: you are baptized. It sets you apart, and it changes everything about the way you think about yourself, and the way you think about what you do, and say, and think, and the way you think about God, and the way you think about the past, and the way you think about the future. It changes absolutely everything.

Now, to tap into this wisdom of baptism, I think it’s helpful for us to make a distinction between the baptism of our Lord Jesus and the baptism that Jesus gives to us as people. We have the gospel text set before us from Luke where John is baptizing, and it tells a little bit about Herod putting him in prison and then kind of flashes back to the baptism of Jesus. All the people were coming down to the Jordan River to be baptized by him, and among those people, Jesus comes to the shore there to be baptized by his older cousin John.

Luke doesn’t tell us this, but Matthew does, that John sees Jesus there on the shore of the Jordan River, and he says, “You are coming to be baptized by me? I should be baptized by you.” And Jesus responds, “Permit it to be so, for thus it’s fitting for us to fill all righteousness.” John is there baptizing for the forgiveness of sins. His baptism is a cleansing baptism. It’s a washing of the heart, and it’s a casting away of all the sin and guilt and shame that sinners bring to those waters.

But John looks at Jesus and he says, “You don’t need this. You don’t have any sins to forgive. You don’t have any uncleanness to be washed away. You’re clean already, holy, perfect, and righteous. This doesn’t make sense. I’m baptizing for the forgiveness of sins, but you’ve got no sins.” But Jesus says, “Let’s permit it to be so now. Let’s do this so that we can fill all righteousness.” And so John, okay, baptizes him.

And remember what happens when Jesus is baptized: he comes up out of the water and the Holy Spirit descends from heaven like a dove and rests on Jesus. And so Jesus is set apart for his work. This is how we should understand the baptism of Jesus. Okay? It is his anointing of the Spirit. The Hebrew word for anointing is the word Messiah. The Greek word for anointing is the word Christ. And so when Jesus is baptized, he becomes Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Messiah. He enters into that office of being the Redeemer of the world and the Savior of the world.

And at his baptism, God the Father speaks from heaven, remember, and declares him to be the only begotten. “This is my beloved Son.” Now, this is unique. When you were baptized, you were not set apart to save the world. When you were baptized, you were not declared to be the only begotten Son of the Father. When you were baptized, you did not become a Christ. But there is a connection between the baptism of Jesus and our baptism.

Because what Jesus enters into on that day, he completes on the cross and he brings to us in our baptism. It’s in the little prayer that we have during the rite of baptism: “By your son’s baptism in the Jordan River, you sanctified all waters to be a holy flood.” That’s an amazing phrase—a holy flood and a lavish washing away of sins.

Yes. The best picture I can think of, and I’ve preached this before, so if you want to tune out for just a couple of seconds: you remember how John is in the river and there are two hills on either side of the river, and on this side are all these sheep, and they’re filthy and dirty and smelly and stinky. John is washing them one at a time and putting them clean on the other side of the river. And in the midst of that filthy, dirty crowd of sheep, there’s one gleaming, white, radiant lamb—like the dirt is bouncing off of him, and he smells like roses, and he’s got flashing, gleaming teeth, this perfect lamb.

And John says, “You don’t need to be washed.” And the lamb says, “Let’s do it to fill up all righteousness.” And so John takes this Jesus, this lamb, and dips him in the water. And what happens is all the filth and mud and slick and nastiness that’s floating around in the water goes onto him. And the water’s clean now. And he sets this one on the side and says, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”

And this is what Jesus does in his baptism. He starts this work of being the sin bearer, of carrying your sins and your sorrows, and that work he completes on the cross when he cries out, “It’s finished,” and commends himself into the hands of God. And then he institutes this baptism so that his righteousness, his perfection, his forgiveness, his love, his eternal life, his mercy and pardon, his presence, and everything else—all of his gifts and spirit—can be given to you.

So when Jesus is baptized, he becomes the Christ. When you are baptized, you become Christian. Jesus is baptized to be the Redeemer. When you are baptized, you are the redeemed. When Jesus is baptized, he’s set apart to forgive the sins of the world. When you’re baptized, your sins are forgiven. And when Jesus is baptized, he’s declared to be the only begotten son of the Father. But when you are baptized, you are now adopted and taken up into this family of God. You are called the child of God.

“Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God, and such we are.” And we know it by our baptism. Amen.

So that all the gifts that the Lord Jesus has accomplished in his baptism, and in his life, and his suffering, and his death, and his resurrection, and his ascension, and his continuing to shepherd the church—all of these gifts are now brought to you in this gift of holy baptism.

And so that you can know it, this is the wisdom: that you would know that you belong to God. Sometimes I imagine you don’t feel like you belong to God. I do. I do. Sometimes you don’t feel forgiven. Sometimes you don’t feel like a child of God. Sometimes you don’t feel like God even knows who you are. Sometimes you feel like you’re far from God and his kingdom and his will and his word and all of these things.

And here comes your baptism: “I am baptized,” to give you this wisdom that you need to know most of all, and that is that God loves you, that He has accepted you, that He has adopted you, that He has taken you up into His life and His heart, and his joy and his peace and his kingdom. You belong to him.

And this wisdom of baptism is also the courage of baptism. Because in baptism, the Lord has taken away all of the wrath that you deserve, all of the anger that you’ve deserved, all of the punishment and affliction that you’ve deserved. He’s taken it on himself, and he has now opened up for you his heart and his approval.

I don’t know how this appears to you. And maybe for you too, that sometimes—well, sometimes people are mad at you, sometimes people are upset with you, sometimes you have enemies in this life, sometimes you have frustrations and difficulties. And in the midst of all of that, here is the courage that your baptism brings to you, and it is this: that God is not mad at you. Can that just sink in for a little bit?

Even if the whole world hated you, God does not. Even if the whole world is against you, God is not. Even if everybody has rejected you and thrown you out, God has not. You are accepted in the beloved. And not only in this life, but all the way into eternal life.

Paul says, this is our epistle text, Romans 6, which Luther teaches us what baptism signifies. He quotes this text and says, “Look, in baptism you were buried with Christ. You died with him so that you might also live with him.” This is a pretty amazing thing to think about.

I think most of the time we think, “Well, I’ve got to die someday in the future.” But if you have been baptized, you have already died. It wasn’t that bad. You were already buried, and you are already risen from the dead. “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried with him, therefore, by baptism into death, so that even as Jesus has risen from the dead, we too should walk in newness of life.”

And if you’ve already died, then what is there to be afraid of? What is there to intimidate you? What is there that can take away your courage and your boldness and your joy? What can intimidate you? You belong to Jesus. He belongs to you. You have died and have risen from the dead already.

The Lord himself, the creator of the universe, the one who created you says, “I am your redeemer.” And he’s brought you past death and judgment into his good pleasure, into his kindness, into his love. You are baptized. It means you are a child of God. You are a child of God. It means your sins are forgiven. It means that God delights in you. It means that you’ll live forever. It means that Satan has no power over you. It means that heaven is open and that this life will grow into life eternal, and we’ll see the Lord face to face.

Dear saints, this, dear baptized saints, is the wisdom and this is the courage of God’s gift of holy baptism. May he grant us this wisdom, grant us this life, grant us this peace, grant us this hope, and grant us this courage in the name of Jesus. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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