January 12 – Sermon
Everlasting God, You have always been and will always be. You remain amazingly present, available, and steadfast while so much in our lives is adrift, fleeting, and senseless. We trust in Your abiding presence in every moment of our lives. Thanks be to You O Christ. Amen.
The people of Jesus day were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ . . . which created a lot of excitement. What was happening at the Jordan, well . . . nothing like that had never been seen before! People were going out there in droves. From Jerusalem and Judea, from far and wide. Young and old, rich and poor. Because of this one named John. He preached. He called to repentance. He baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Could this be the Christ?
“No. No I’m not,” John said. Disappointment set in. Like when you opened that gift on Christmas morning you thought was the gift you really wanted more than any other . . . but it wasn’t. Oh. Thanks, you say. Trying, but failing, to hide your disappointment.
No, I’m not the Christ, John says. But the one you want, the one mightier than I, is coming. Someone so much greater than me that I am not even worthy to crawl to Him on my hands and knees and untie the strap of His sandal.
Perhaps that was hard for the people to accept or imagine. Someone greater than John? Just look at His following. Look at all the people who went to him to be baptized. Even the leaders in Jerusalem were taking notice of him. John went viral! Can you imagine all the hits he’d have had on social media? John was fearless, even calling out King Herod! John wasn’t just being modest, he was honest. Which made him even greater in their eyes!
He IS a sinner so wicked that he is not worthy to even approach the Christ, to ask or beg for anything. and that’s our situation, too.
So the Christ, Jesus, approached him. Jesus went to him. And the one whose sandal John was not even worthy to untie, asking John – to baptize Him. The sinless one baptized by a sinful one! John thought it should have been the other way around.
- But not God. The God who doesn’t demand we come to Him but who comes to us.
- The God who doesn’t demand that we clean ourselves up but comes to clean us. He is a God who doesn’t do things as we do them, or how we think they should be done. Because of that, many think God foolish, or no God at all. When He doesn’t live up to our expectations, he isn’t the kind of God we think a God should be. He is a God who wears sandals! He is the God who is baptized! And He didn’t need to be. Jesus the Son of God and so perfect in every way–why was He baptized?
- There’s only one reason: for U.
- That’s why He was born: for U.
- That’s why He lived: for U.
- That’s why He was crucified: for U.
- and why He was baptized: for U.
He didn’t have to do any of those things. But we needed Him to come to us, to be one of us, and to come all the way down to the lowliest of all sinners. We who are not worthy to approach Him. So He comes to us. and stepping into the Jordan, it’s as if He says: I’ll be the sinner, and you be the son. I’ll take your place and you take mine. That’s why He’s baptized. That’s why we’re baptized.
Today we see the King of creation, in the Jordan river. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Coming into His creation, into His realm, to save it. To save you. To give you the gift of a Savior.
So God, the King, stepped into the water with sinners. His Word became a life-giving, grace filled new birth in the Holy Spirit. God’s Word which says: I baptize you. You are mine! My beloved I forgive you all your sins. And it is so. Just as it happened at creation when God spoke… it was so. For His powerful, living, and active Word always does what it says.
So when that powerful, living, and active Word was poured on you – it doesn’t matter how – you received the gift of the Holy Spirit and the forgiveness of your sins. The exchange is complete. Jesus, the Son, baptized into your life, and you, a sinner, baptized in His.
The apostle Paul explained to the Romans in the epistle reading for today: Don’t you know, he says, that when you were baptized, you were baptized into the life and death of Jesus, into the death and resurrection of Jesus. So Baptism is your first death and your second birth. Your new birth to a life no longer enslaved by sin and no longer under the dominion of death – but a life set free and eternal! All because of the one who gave His life as a ransom for you.
Jesus sent His apostles out to give that gift: Go baptize all nations (Matthew 28:19)! Set them free from their sins, their failures, their regrets, all that is burdening them. Baptize them into Me and Me into them! For the forgiveness of their sins. For a new life.
That’s the gift John was trying to give King Herod! Preaching to him to bring him to repentance. John was trying to unlock the prison of sin Herod was in and give him life when Herod took his life. Sadly, that happens. Some do not want the gift of God. Or they want it on their own terms.
There’s only one who holds the key to life.
So repent of all your sins. Take and eat the Body and Blood – of the one who stood in the Jordan for you that day. The one who was present the day you were baptized and the one who has prepared a place for you! Amen
