10 January 2016
St.
Athanasius Lutheran Church
The Baptism of Our Lord Vienna,
VA
Jesu Juva
“Your Bridegroom Baptized
for You”
Text: Luke 3:15-22;
Romans 6:1-11; Isaiah 43:1-7
Grace, mercy, and peace
to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ.
Amen.
When King Herod wanted a wife, he didn’t go on match.com
or eharmony, he looked at the woman his brother
Philip had married and throught to himself: I want
her. I’m sure, being a king and all, he could have had his pick of a great
many women, who wanted to be the king’s wife and live in a palace and have
great wealth. But he wanted Herodias. No one else would do. And somehow he
pulled it off. Either he convinced his brother that he really didn’t want her;
she wasn’t good enough for him . . . or he convinced her that she really didn’t
want his brother; he was a much better catch. Either way he got his wish. He
broke up their marriage and took her for himself. It was just one of the
notches in his belt of evil deeds.
So when John the Baptist caught wind of this . .
. ah, now here’s someone who needs to repent and be baptized! Here’s someone I
need to go preach to. So he did. But Herod wasn’t having it. He didn’t need
some long-haired, camel-hair-shirted, locust-eating, freaky guy from the sticks
telling him what to do! So Herod probably at first just ignored him. But when
he wouldn’t stop, when he kept drumming his preaching of repentance into
Herod’s ears, Herod finally had enough and threw him into prison. Preach to the
rats, John.
And sometime after that, Herod would have John
beheaded.
Now, you may be wondering . . . what does any of
that have to do with the Baptism of Jesus? For that’s what we’re commemorating
today; that’s our focus today. And that’s a very good question. So if Luke were
here today, I’d ask him: Luke - why did you, why did God have you, put a
reference to that story right into the middle of your description of John’s
baptizing and Jesus being baptized? It really doesn’t need to be there. The
story would work perfectly well without it. In fact, it would flow better
without it. And John’s not in prison yet - he’s still baptizing and baptizing
Jesus. So why? Why tell us that here?
Well, by doing so, Luke gives us a couple of
interesting contrasts: First while he tells us that John is locked up, the
heavens are opened. John is silenced, while the voice of the Father
resounds from heaven. With that contrast he is showing us that the door, so to
speak, is being closed on the Old Testament, and the New, its fulfillment, is
coming onto the scene. The one mightier than John has come, and the Holy Spirit
descends onto the one who will baptize with that Holy Spirit. The torch is
being passed from John to Jesus, from forerunner to Messiah, from a son of man
to the Son of God.
But it’s the second contrast here that even more
significant; the contrast Luke sets up here between Herod and Jesus.
Herod is an unholy bridegroom, taking a wife that isn’t his and that he
shouldn’t have; a wife not of love but of lust. Thinking of and concerned not
for her but only for himself. Jesus has come to be a
bridegroom, too, for His bride the church. But He is a holy bridegroom,
come to be with and love and care for His unholy bride. And so He comes
to the Jordan and takes His place with her. Where she is there He wants to be,
that where He is going, there she can be as well. He becomes a sinner with her,
that she become holy with Him. And so Jesus stands arm
in arm with His bride before John, says His “I will,” and is baptized - not
because He needed it, but thinking of and concerned only for her. For us. For you. He walks down your
slummy aisle to the Jordan, that you might walk up a
glorious aisle with Him, to heaven.
And the family, who were in attendance, is
well-pleased . . . the Holy Spirit descending, the Father calling out, in joy.
So there’s more going on here than meets the eye. Luke is writing this
account some years later, after he knows how it all turns out. And he wants you
to know, too. Not only about Jesus’ baptism, but about your own and what it
means for you as well. That as Jesus came to join you to Himself and take you
as His own, to be one flesh with Him, that what’s yours is His and what happens
to you happens to Him . . . so too the other way around - that what’s His is
yours and what happens to Him happens to you.
And so when you were baptized, there was more
happening there than meets the eye as well. When you were baptized, the Spirit
that descended upon Jesus descended upon you. The voice that marked Jesus as
the Father’s beloved Son with whom He is well-pleased, marked you the same.
Yes, as we just sang: All that the mortal eye beholds is water as we pour it.
But the eye of faith unfolds the pow’r of Jesus’
merit (LSB
#407 v.6).
Jesus’ merit which in baptism unlocks the prison of sin and death that the
satanic Herod through us in, and sets us free in the forgiveness of our sins. To live a new life, a holy life, with a holy Bridegroom.
And all that is what Paul was talking about in
his letter to the Romans that we heard today. That in baptism, what happens to
you happens to Jesus, and what happens to Jesus happens to you. You die and so
He dies. He rises and so you rise. Death no longer has dominion over Him, and
so it no longer has dominion over you. And so you have a new life and newness
of life. You’re no longer a slave to sin and your sinful urges, as Herod was.
That guy’s dead! You are now alive in Christ, your Bridegroom, the one who gave
His life for you and in whom you now live.
Now, you may be thinking, that’s sounds too good
to be true! Baptism can’t be that great. Not everyone who is baptized is
faithful and saved. And that’s probably true. But the problem’s not with
baptism, but with us. For in baptism, a promise is made, Bridegroom to bride: I
love you and will love you; you are mine. Our marriages say that too . . .
but sadly, sometimes spouses walk away from that promise made to them. For
whatever reason, they take off the ring that was put on them by their spouse
while he or she was making that promise to them, and go in search of something
else. So, too, sometimes the baptized.
But just as marriage isn’t the problem but the
sinners in the marriage, so baptism isn’t the problem but the sinner. But
here’s where baptism is even better - the one who made that promise to you,
that He loves you and will love you, and that you are His - isn’t a
sinner. His promise is good and reliable and forever. And so every week, every
time, you come back in confession and repentance to your Bridegroom, every time
He is here to forgive and welcome you back. You don’t have to prove it and you
can’t earn it - He gives it. That’s how powerful His love, how powerful His
blood, how powerful His promise to you.
And to those who think that means they can put on
their baptismal ring for one hour each Sunday and then throw it off as they
walk out the door and do whatever they want the rest of the week . . . Paul
already has an answer for you. What shall we say then? Are we to continue
in sin - are we to continue to throw off our rings when we walk out the
door - that grace may abound
- that we may just put them back on again each Sunday? By no means!
Or, to put that as we would say it today: What are you nuts? If you have
such a Bridegroom . . . why wouldn’t you want Him every day? Why wouldn’t you
want to live in His life every day? And forever?
Do you not know? therefore
Paul asks. Maybe we don’t. Maybe we don’t realize what we’re doing. Maybe we
don’t understand the power of sin. Maybe we don’t think about what we’re doing.
Maybe our sin has blinded us. Maybe we’re stupid and stubborn. I know those
last two describe me pretty good.
But as Jesus stepped into the Jordan that day, He
knew. He knew exactly what He was doing. He knew exactly what it meant. He knew
exactly who you were. And He knew that what began here in the Jordan was going
to end at the cross. He knew. And He told John: Do it. I
can’t not do this for them. They are lost,
they are dead, without me. They need life, they need forgiveness, and I’m the
only hope they have.
And with the water still dripping from His hair,
the Father and the Spirit testify and rejoice. The Bridegroom is committed to
His Bride, to set her - to set you - free.
And now, now it’s the blood that dripped from the
cross that is here for you, as Jesus says not to John but to the Church: Do
it. Baptize all nations. Do it! Preach the Word. Do it! Forgive the sins of all
who are penitent. Do it! Do this in remembrance of me. For in all these things,
there’s more than meets the eye. Here is my cross, here is my Body and Blood, here is my forgiveness, for you. I love you and will love
you; you are mine.
And so are fulfilled Isaiah’s words, spoken so
long before Jesus came onto the scene . . .
When
you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and through the rivers, they
shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire
you shall not be burned,
and the flame shall not
consume you.
For
I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your
Savior.
That is the Bridegroom you have, standing in the
water with you. The Bridegroom who is with you always.
The Lord who created you and formed you and says to you: Fear
not, for I have redeemed you; It is finished (John 19:30). I have called you
by name, you are mine.
And the Father and the Spirit rejoice. As we do
now, in having such a Bridegroom, and in His love and care and forgiveness for
us. Even when your life is flooded with troubles, or set
ablaze with trials. As Isaiah said, they will not overwhelm or
consume you. For your Bridegroom is with you in them. Your Bridegroom who did not get going when the going got tough, but
came to you; and came for you.
That’s the Jesus in the Jordan that day. That’s
the Jesus John saw, and baptized for you. That’s the Jesus who is here for you.
And that’s the Jesus, the Bridegroom we will one day see,
when He comes again, not to step into the Jordan, but for us to
step out of our graves. From death to life.
From this world to the next. From
this world of sorrow to the Marriage Feast of the Lamb in His kingdom. The Feast that will have no end.
And the family will be rejoicing then, too. And not just the Father and the Spirit, but the whole family of
faith. John and all the martyrs, all the faithful who
have gone before us, the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.
The promise given in baptism fulfilled, finally, and forever.
In the Name of the
Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.