Epiphany 1 (1/13/08) “God Likes Us”

The Baptism of the Lord

Most Lutherans are familiar enough with the Small Catechism, Luther’s classic little book which explains the Christian faith for lay people in question and answer form. There is also a Large Catechism, one written primarily for pastors and teachers, organized in the same way, but going into greater depths. As I read and reflected on this gospel text, I pulled out that larger catechism and reminded myself of what Luther had to say about the importance of baptism: “In Baptism,” he wrote, “every Christian has enough to study and to practice all his life.”

I had to remind myself of that because every year when we come upon this text about Jesus’ baptism, I think, “Oh dear, not again.” It is, in some ways, a tough story! It raises so many questions: Why did Jesus need to be baptized? Why by John? What connection, if any, does it have with our baptism? It is comforting to know from Matthew’s gospel that John himself had some questions: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Frankly, I like that question better than Jesus’ answer: “Let it be so for now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” To expand on the repeated question in the Small Catechism, What in the world does that mean?

Well, perhaps that’s a good place to start. For Matthew’s gospel, the concept of “righteousness” means essentially doing what God wants. We heard a few weeks ago that Joseph was a righteous man, that he wanted, when he found that Mary was pregnant, to do what God wanted him to do—never mind his own embarrassment, or his own self-image. Apparently being baptized by John is what God wants Jesus to do. But why?

One answer seems to be that this is part of Jesus’ becoming fully human. “For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the virgin Mary, and was made man.” His being made man meant that he identified completely and totally with us; he held nothing back; he did not stay aloof. He ate with sinners, after all, and lived and died with common, ordinary people.

In the waters of the Jordan, there were sinners. That’s what John’s baptism was about—a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Those people coming to John, wading out into the water, they were sinners. Jesus wasn’t a sinner, of course, but he came to be one of us, to be with us. That is what the Father wanted of him. And so he came down from heaven, not just to earth, but to the river, with the sinners.

Another way to think about it: In his baptism, Jesus was choosing sides. We’re in the midst of an interminable presidential campaign right now. Maybe you remember all the intrigue that surrounded the possible candidacy twelve years ago of General Colin Powell. Everybody, it seems, thought he’d make such a splendid candidate for President—only trouble was, nobody was even sure which party, if any, he belonged to, until at last he made his choice public. Think about Jesus that way. Here’s the Messiah. Oh, everyone would like to have him on their side! The Pharisees, the Sadducees, King Herod, the various Jewish sects and groups—all would love to have Messiah come and validate their position, their perspective. Whose side would he be on?

In his submitting to baptism at the hand of John, Jesus makes it public—he chooses sinners. He’s on their side! Not the side of the powerful and righteous, the religious leaders, the political leaders; no, he chooses sinners. He wades right out into the Jordan river with them. He’s on their side.

If that perhaps begins to answer the question of why Jesus was baptized by John, it nevertheless leaves us with another question, one perhaps more difficult for us, and more important. Why are we baptized? The easy answer, of course, is that we are baptized because Christ commands it; but that just covers up the deeper questions. What does it mean that we are baptized? What does it mean that Christ commands it? What happens in baptism—if anything?

To get at these questions, perhaps it would be helpful to think about what happens to Jesus in this passage. Let’s notice the three things that explicitly happen. First, it says, as he was coming up out of the water, “the heavens were opened to him.” That is a dramatic sight! What does it mean?

To understand it, we need to go back to the story of the Garden of Eden. There Adam and Eve, the man and the woman, lived in what we call Paradise. But what happened? They disobeyed God, they sinned, and as a result they were cast out. You remember the story, I’m sure, and perhaps you’ve seen one of the several paintings of this event that show a gate being slammed shut and an angel standing guard to be sure they don’t sneak back in. From that time on, figuratively speaking, the door of Paradise, the door of heaven, was closed to human beings.

But now, Matthew says, when Jesus was baptized, the heavens were opened to him! What is happening here, you see, is the symbolic reversal of what had happened at the gate of Eden. There, humanity was shut out, cut off from Paradise. Now, in Jesus Christ, the true man, heaven is opened. We are invited in—welcomed into God’s presence.

Then there is the Spirit of God, which descends like a dove and rests on him. This one is not so hard to understand. At his baptism, the Holy Spirit descends upon him. In the Biblical understanding, that has many different meanings. It implies God’s presence with him; it suggests God’s gifts, being given to him. Perhaps there is also a sense here of God’s new creation, recalling the dove in the story of Noah which became the sign that God had renewed the earth and would never again destroy it. But whichever of these symbols you may like, the real point is that God himself, as Holy Spirit, is present in this baptism in a unique and powerful way.

That is made even clearer with the third thing that happens. There is a voice from heaven: “This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Here, with this voice, is the affirmation that Jesus is indeed God’s son. We’re not exactly sure about this voice; the way Matthew tells it, it sounds like everyone there must have heard it, while Mark’s version makes it seem that only Jesus heard the voice, and John’s gospel suggests that John is the one who heard it. So whether the voice was intended to assure Jesus of his Sonship, or whether it was to make it clear to the rest of us, we cannot say for sure. But the point is that there, at Jordan’s stream, God made it clear that Jesus was his beloved Son.

Now I said we were looking at this story in order to understand something about what Baptism means to us. We can make the same three points:

First, in Holy Baptism, God opens heaven to us, he opens the door of his kingdom. In Baptism, Luther says, “God forgives sin, delivers from death and the devil, and gives everlasting salvation to all who believe what he has promised.” And isn’t that heaven? A couple of weeks ago we sang a hymn with the line, “The angel bars the door no more!” Holy Baptism means that, in Jesus Christ, we have again been welcomed into Paradise.

Second, in Holy Baptism, God gives us the gift of his Spirit. Now, that does not mean that every person, the minute he or she is baptized, is suddenly a spiritual giant. The gift of the Spirit is one that will be nurtured and nourished through all the years of our lives, so that we grow more and more into his likeness. But what is important is that Spirit is given, not conditionally, not tentatively, but surely. It is, we might say, God’s promise that he is with us, no matter how far we may stray or how much we may neglect his gift of himself. Still he is with us, and will not leave us.

Thirdly, the voice from heaven. Above all, we might say, in Holy Baptism, God takes us as his children. That does not mean that he didn’t love us before; baptism is not some magical ceremony that guarantees God’s protection. Rather it is a sign given to us, an affirmation that we are his. To us he says, “You are my beloved child.” That, for Luther, was the most powerful aspect of Baptism. When he felt far from God, when he felt oppressed by his sin, he remembered that he was baptized—and that in that baptism, God had promised that he would never forsake him. For Luther, baptism meant that in his heart there could echo those words of grace: “You, Martin, are my beloved son.” And with that assurance, what could any worldly trouble matter?

Edward Schroeder has said it perhaps most simply of all—maybe you’ll think it too simple, but I think it is wonderful. The real meaning of Baptism, he says, is that “God likes us.” Can you imagine? He is the mighty and all-powerful God, creator of heaven and earth—and we are so lowly, so sinful, so faulty, so prone to self-centeredness and getting into trouble—and yet he likes us! In your baptism, you see, that is just what he says: “You are my beloved child. I delight in you!”

I don’t know about you, but there aren’t many days when I live up to those words. But he says them to me just the same. “You,” he says, “I love you. I have chosen you. This is my body, my blood, for you! I want you to be mine, to live under me in my kingdom, to serve me in everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness.” Who, me? “Yes,” he says, “Yes. You.”

“In Baptism every Christian has enough to study and to practice all his life.” This is most certainly true!