Baptism of Our Lord

Good Shepherd

2004 Pass Rd, Biloxi, MS 39531

Draft Is 42:1–9; 1 Cor 1:26–31; Matt 3:13–17; Ps 85; anti: 9   –     1/11/26

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Israel chanted a psalm, Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us! Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. God became silent after one final word from the prophet Malachi: Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. And the people trembled in fear, but also became watchful in hope. They looked for the coming of Elijah, about which I told you during Advent, but they also, at first, feared total destruction. They sang and chanted the psalms to God to remind Him of His promises, and to remember their own sins and need for the Savior. But God continued in silence until John began preaching and baptizing all Israel in repentance.

Thus we read, Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. Jesus did not rush to the Jordan, as had so many, but stayed quiet in His private work in Nazareth while John cried out to the people, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. When John had travelled as far North as he would go, around where the river passed Beth-Abara or Bethany, then at last Jesus lays down His private work and goes to John, God in Man to speak with His soldier, the Creator to join His creation in the water. The Baptism of Jesus becomes the last act of His private life (Edersheim, 195), as He is anointed for the work of the Kingdom of Heaven by the Elijah who was to come. He ceases to be merely Mary and Joseph’s son, and is revealed at last to more than a few as the Messiah, the Christ who was long promised. He is the fulfillment of the promise through Isaiah: I am the Lord; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

But there is more than just Christ receiving the anointing of His office in Baptism. There is also what He does to the waters for us. Thus hear what Cyril of Jerusalem explains for you, “Jesus sanctified baptism when he himself was baptized. If the Son of God was baptized, can anyone who scorns baptism pretend to piety? Not that he was baptized to receive the remission of sins—for he was without sin—but, being sinless, he was nevertheless baptized that he might impart grace and dignity to those who receive the sacrament. For, ‘since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same nature,’ that we, sharing his incarnate life, might also share his divine grace. Thus Jesus was baptized that we, in turn, so made partakers with him, might receive not only salvation but also the dignity. The dragon, according to Job, was in the water, he who received the Jordan in his maw (Job 40:15–23; 7:12). When, therefore, it was necessary to crush the heads of the dragon (Ps 74:13), descending into the water, [Jesus] bound the strong one, that we might receive the ‘power to tread upon serpents and scorpions.’ (Lk 10:18–20) It was no ordinary beast, but a horrible monster. No fishing ship could last under a single scale of his tail; before him stalked destruction, ravaging all in her path (See Job 41:2, 31-33). But life came running up, that that maw of death might be stopped and all we who were saved might say, ‘O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is your victory?’ (1 Cor 15:55; Hos 13:14) Baptism draws death’s sting.” (Catechetical Lectures 3.11)

When Cyril speaks of the dragon, he speaks of the ancient idea that chaos, evil dwelt in the water, and that water was death. The dragon is of course representative of death, the consequences of our sin. Therefore the image we see when Christ enters the water and is baptized is that of God going to death and destroying it. Death is swallowed up in victory, St. Paul says (1 Cor 15:54). And since Christ first swallows up death in the Jordan, and will complete that victory on the cross, Jesus has thus changed the waters of chaos and death into the waters of life for us, so that any who receive baptism in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus says in Matthew 28:19, receive forgiveness, life, and salvation as St. Paul shows us in Galatians 3: for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ (26–27). And if you have put on Christ then you have all that is His: He is life, He earned you forgiveness, He is your salvation. Far from being the realm of chaos, or nothing but an act of public confession on our part, the waters of Baptism are effective for the restoring of life to the one who is spiritually dead.

A quote from Luther which I believe I used last year remains instructive in this matter: “God’s Son lets himself be baptized—though he was without sin—and performs what he was not obligated to do. We in contrast never do anything above and beyond what is necessary, for we are such wicked louts who don’t even do what is our duty. Christ, God’s Son, is holier than baptism itself, and yet he allows himself to be baptized. He institutes and ordains holy baptism, and moreover commands that such baptizing, henceforth continue within Christendom, so that all who desire to be saved might be baptized.

“That is the reason why wicked people come into the abyss of hell, because they despise or disdain baptism. Satan has ravished and blinded them, so that their eyes and ears are closed and they don’t see or hear what is happening here. Why aren’t you baptized, or your children? If Christ permitted himself to be baptized, how can you be so haughty, so blind and foolish, as to despise baptism?” (5.217–218) What is Luther speaking of here? He means something similar to verse 8 of our Psalm: Let me hear what God the Lord will speak, for he will speak peace to his people, to his saints; but let them not turn back to folly. It is those who have heard God’s Word and yet would place their own wisdom, reason, or experience above it and deny the very meaning of the Word.

God has spoken and His statement is that Baptism, which corresponds to Noah’s ark, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but Baptism appealing to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Chris (1 Pt 3:21). Baptism is for you and your whole family (Acts 16:33), old and infant, and it is not a mere act that you perform when you are ready to publicly proclaim yourself a Christian as though it were your own thing, as so many think and teach. Those who would deny that Baptism gives forgiveness might go to Matthew 10, where Jesus says, So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven (32–33), and say that is exactly what God commands about Baptism. However, what does God’s Word actually say. In the context of Matthew 10 Jesus has called to 12 disciples and is sending them out in pairs to preach to Israel, this chapter is their instruction in how to be faithful preachers and missionaries, it has nothing to do with Baptism. As with the Lord’s Supper, Confession and Absolution, the roles of men and women in the Church, we ought to go where the Bible speaks of the doctrine and not pick and choose passages which suit our human purposes. For when we rely on human reason and human purpose we will deny God’s Word.

What then of those who would say Baptism is not for infants and children? Well, since Baptism is not our confession of Jesus, as I have already shown, that point should be moot. Nevertheless, what does God’s Word say about children? Jesus says in Matthew 18: Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (3–4). And in 19:14: Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven. Then there is the witness of John himself in Luke 1:41: And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. Likewise throughout Acts, like the passage I referenced earlier, whole families were baptized. God does not deny this gift to children, and more, they are better suited to receive it than we adults are because they have the simplicity of faith. What, after all, does Jesus mean when He says that we must become like a little child? He is speaking of faith. Look at the babies among us. Are any of them proud? No. They look for all their goods in life from their parents. They are little bundles of faith, faith that mom will keep him warm, will clean him, will feed him. Babies and children are the most like what the Christian life must be, that of faith. Faith is the component then that shows us children are included when St. Paul said for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

Therefore, receive the whole Word of God and do not turn back to folly. Look upon the account of our Lord’s Baptism and see what it is that He has given you in these waters. Your Baptism is a precious gift which you ought to remember daily with the sign of the cross. Baptism is how God placed His name upon you, marking on your forehead and your heart that you are His child because of Christ’s death on the cross for your sins. What then if you sin? What then if you leave the church for a time? Must you be baptized again to once more receive the mark as God’s child, to have forgiveness, life, and salvation restored to you once you have lost it? Some churches teach this. They are in error. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:4–7: There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift.

Further, when we look to the passages concerning those who have fallen away—most famously St. Peter—we do not see another Baptism, for the mark of Baptism is God’s handiwork and not man’s. The event of the Baptism remains true forever because Christ has added His name and His Self to those waters even if we as weak men deny it. Rather than the denial of God’s Word about Baptism that those who command rebaptism would led the sinner to, God provides the Office of the Keys for the restoration of the fallen Christian. Jesus gives them to the Apostles in John 20:22–23: And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” When St. Peter had sinned by denying Jesus, Jesus did not dunk him again in the water but heard his confession and forgave him, restoring St. Peter again to God’s fold. Thus when you fall, make the sign of the cross in remembrance of your Baptism, and go confess your sins to your pastor or the one whom you wronged and be forgiven again. Look to the gift of Christ that He has sanctified for you in this water of life, defeating the dragon and opening the way of life to you and all people. Amen.