Rev. Jason Zirbel The Baptism of Christ Text: Mark 1:4-12 January 11, 2015

Blessed Baptismal Assurance

“You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.” These are some of the most beautiful words spoken in all of Scripture, and they were spoken by the Father to the Son immediately following His baptism in the Jordan River. But hearing these words should raise a bit of a question in you. Why was God the Father please with His beloved Son? “Duh, pastor! God was pleased because Jesus was baptized.”

This brings up a very important question then. WHY was Jesus baptized? Isn’t baptism for sinners? That’s what God tells us in His Word. “Repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of all your sin. Baptism now saves you.” Was Jesus sick and infected with the deadliness of sin that infects each and every one of us? Was He in need of the life-giving medicine of Holy Baptism? No, and John the Baptist knew that. Matthew tells us in his version of this same event that John actually tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized because he knew who Christ was—the blameless and perfect lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus didn’t need baptizing…and yet He was baptized, and such a baptism fulfilled all righteousness and pleased His heavenly Father. Why?

Folks: Take notice of where Jesus comes from to be baptized—out of the midst of sinners. Jesus steps into the waters of baptism out of the midst of that repentant crowd seeking a baptism of forgiveness of sin stepping out as our perfect substitute; as one of us, though He Himself was without sin. Understand: Jesus was not being washed clean in the waters of Baptism, as if He needed His sins washed away. Rather, He was sanctifying these waters for us; consecrating the waters and setting them aside as His means of bringing all people into His victories over sin, death, and the grave. Picture it like Jesus serving as this wonderful dam or filtration plant. All the filth and death goes into the water and is absorbed by Christ. However, all that flows downstream through Christ and from Christ is now holy, pure, and life-giving.

In Christ’s baptism, God’s plan and promise of salvation for all mankind was being manifested; being revealed in the person of Christ right there in the Jordan River, and we see this in the fact that upon Christ receiving the waters in our place, God opens the heavens and speaks as He sends His Holy Spirit down in the shape of a dove so all could physically hear and see that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, was God’s righteous promise being fulfilled; a plan and promise begun in the waters of baptism; life-giving water that would flow directly into His substitutionary death and resurrection three years later. 2

In this way, we can recognize the sanctified waters of Christ’s baptism as the beginning of God’s physical breaking in to halt man’s status quo of sin and damnation. We can rightly recognize that God’s personal action for our personal salvation begins in the waters of baptism, flowing from His own baptism, through His cross and His resurrection, and into our lives this very day. This is what St. Paul is talking about in the Epistle lesson for today. The victories of Christ’s death and resurrection continue to flow into our lives and are made ours by Christ Himself through the waters of Holy Baptism. Like it or not, we cannot transcend time. We cannot ascend into heaven and secure this eternal victory for ourselves. That’s why in baptism, God brings the victory of the cross to us. Like Paul says, in baptism, Christ’s victories are, in God’s eyes, made our victories. For the faith that clings fast to the promise and Word of God in baptism, there is nothing to fear on this side of eternity; not sickness, not suffering, not even death! Why? Because we are baptized by God into Christ, who overcame and crushed all of these things for us.

This is why this Epistle lesson for today is so often included in our funeral liturgies. This is why we traditionally make use of a funeral pall in our funerals. Believe it or not, the Lutheran funeral is baptismal and speaks to the life that is completely baptized into Christ, from birth to death! That little white cloth that is given to us in our baptisms; the little white cloth that symbolizes Christ’s perfect righteousness and looks like it barely covers even a portion of the infant being baptized, is finally recognized in death as completely covering over and hiding everything under that pall from our view. Notice: From God’s perspective, this is how it’s always been—completely covered in Christ. However, we’re a bit more stubborn. We’re like Doubting Thomas in a sense in that we need something to see and behold; something to wrap our brains and our faith around. In that little baptismal handkerchief, we recognize a life in Christ that is just beginning; a life that will ideally grow and mature in Christ, just like that little handkerchief “grows” into a huge funeral pall at the end of life. Folks: Baptism is an ever- present reality in our lives, from cradle to grave. We ARE baptized—a blessed and ever-present tense. Our lives before God as completely forgiven and redeemed children of God are always recognized by Him as lives that are soaking wet in the realities and promises of our baptism, because in our baptism, we were joined with Christ; in His perfect life which He led for us because we can not, in His perfect and all-atoning death, and in His resurrection to life eternal.

Now before I close, it’s also important to point out that baptismal faith also can’t help but freely share this Good News with others. The season of Epiphany is traditionally a time in the life of the Church that focuses especially on evangelism and the sharing of the Good News of Christ. God has chosen to use the simple means of the faithful confession of each and every baptized person to make known 3 the wonderful news that all mankind is forgiven in the completely substitutionary life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s what true evangelism means. From the Greek word “euangelion,” which means “gospel” or “good news of Christ,” we are called to simply “gospelize” the nations. Through you, God is still manifesting and making Christ known to a world buried in sin and darkness. Notice: God doesn’t call you to give a grand dissertation or offer up your opinion or offer up some mathematical proof to the world regarding His working of salvation in Christ. He doesn’t call you to speak about anything other than what He has already done for you and for the entire world in the work and person of Jesus Christ.

May God grant you the strength, the courage, and the peace that comes with sharing and living in the blessed realities of the life that has been baptized into our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. What have you to fear? You ARE baptized into Christ. You ARE a child of paradise. How can you not want to share the Good News that you, too, are “My beloved child, with whom I am well pleased”? May your blessed baptismal reality grant you the peaceful assurance that surpasses all understanding, now and into eternity, and may this same peaceful assurance be manifested, made known, and “epiphanized” in all that you say and do.

To the glory of Christ!

AMEN