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In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear saints, today we rejoice in Jesus’ baptism and in our own. There is enough in the gift of Holy Baptism for us to meditate on for our entire lives. So says Dr. Luther in the large catechism, and it’s right. I think, in fact, there’s probably enough for us to meditate on just in the baptism of our Lord Jesus for the rest of our lives. This is one of those stories or accounts from the scriptures that we just want to lock into our memory so that we can think about it and remember it and think about the mystery of what it is.
So it happened, it was probably the year 30 AD. Jesus himself was almost, the text in Luke says, about 30 years old. And John the Baptist, his cousin, who was also 30 or maybe 31, six months older, was prophetically preaching down at the Jordan River. Remember how the text describes John? He was dressed in camel skin, and he was blasting away at the people, preaching the law. You brood of vipers, who warned you to turn from the wrath who is to come? And the text says that all of Jerusalem, all of Judea, was going down to the Jordan River to be baptized by him.
It’s a marvel to think of these huge crowds leaving Jerusalem and going through the wilderness of Judea, going down to the Jordan Rift Valley, coming to the river there, listening to John preach these fiery sermons, and then for the forgiveness of sins, going there in the water with John and having their sins washed away. It’s a beautiful, it’s a beautiful picture, a beautiful for the people who were who were learning of their sins and learning of the Lord’s mercy.
There was before the baptism of John something like this, at least in the Old Testament, through Moses the Lord had appointed a washing, a ritual cleansing, so the priests would go and they would wash themselves before they entered into their duty. And maybe there was a way in the time before the New Testament that if someone wanted to become Jewish they could go through something like this, a kind of washing. But John was doing something different. His was a baptism of repentance, a baptism of salvation.
In fact, his baptism was so offensive that the Pharisees sent people down saying, how can you baptize if you’re not the Christ? How can you do such a bold thing? But there John was doing that bold thing in the wilderness. And in the midst of all of it, come to the shore of the Jordan, is our Lord Jesus. And he comes and submits himself to John and the gift of holy baptism.
Now, John sees Jesus and he recognizes him. It’s his cousin, after all, but he knows more. He knows that Jesus is God in the flesh, the Messiah, the Christ. He recognizes who Jesus is. And he says, and this is an amazing thing, John says to Jesus, are you coming to be baptized by me? You should baptize me. You should switch places here. But Jesus says, and we’ll come back to this in a little bit, Jesus says, let it be so now. This is right for us to fill up righteousness.
And so John baptizes Jesus, and as Jesus comes up out of the water of the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit descends on him in the form of a dove. It should remind us of Noah and the promise God made to the world then, not to destroy us in a flood. It’s a life-giving flood. The Holy Spirit descends on Jesus in the form of a dove, and the voice of God the Father booms from heaven. This is my beloved Son, in whom I’m well pleased.
It’s only three times in the Gospels that we hear the voice of God the Father. Here and at the Mount of Transfiguration and in Holy Week. So we pay careful attention to these words. And every time the Lord speaks, he almost says the same thing. This is my beloved Son. Look at him. There’s Jesus. And so this voice proclaims Jesus to be the one set apart for God’s work of salvation and redemption.
And then Jesus is driven immediately by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness. For 40 days, he’s fasting. He doesn’t eat anything or drink anything, and the devil tempts him in every possible way. So we have the account of the baptism of our Lord.
Now, we want to hone in on two things. The first is, what does the baptism of Jesus mean for Jesus? And then the second, what does it mean for us? Those are connected. So first, what does the baptism mean for Jesus? The word Christ is the Greek word that means anointed one. It’s the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which also simply means the anointed one. And this relates back to the practice, especially in the Old Testament. I mean, it was in other places, but especially in the Old Testament, of setting someone apart by pouring oil on them.
So the high priest was set apart by having oil poured on their head, especially by the prophet. That’s what’s behind this kind of crazy Psalm that we read. Psalm 133, how beautiful and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity. It’s like the beard, it’s like the oil dripping off the beard of Aaron. And you hear that and you think, how is that? Beautiful. That sounds kind of gross. This oily beard of Aaron. But the reason it’s beautiful is because that oil that’s dripping off his beard is the anointing oil that set him apart as high priest to serve the Lord and to serve the Lord’s people by His word in the temple and by offering all the sacrifices.
There’s also true of the king. The king was set, remember those stories of like Samuel who anointed Saul and then Samuel who anointed David and he did it in secret and then he did it in public and David is now proclaimed to be the king. He was set apart by the anointing of oil so that the high priest was a messiah, an anointed one, and the king was a Messiah, an anointed one. But if you would, all of those in the Old Testament were kind of lowercase m Messiah. They were lowercase c Christ. They were christened, but they were all pointing towards the Messiah to come, to the Christ who was on the way.
And it’s at his baptism that Jesus is put into the office the Messiah. He’s put into the office of Christ. Before that he’s Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus son of Mary, but now after his baptism he’s Jesus the anointed one. Anointed with the oil of gladness above all of his fellows, Psalm 45. He’s the one who bears the Holy Spirit in its in his sevenfold fullness. So Jesus comes up out of the waters of baptism as Jesus the Messiah, Jesus Christ, set apart for this office to save.
Now in that way, the baptism of Jesus is different than our baptism. I mean, our baptism puts us into an office. It puts us into a vocation of the child of God. It puts us, it sets us apart to be the children of God, to be the blessed of God, to be the saved of God. But Jesus’ baptism sets him apart as the Messiah and the Christ.
And the best way that I can picture it, and this has to do with this mystery of what Jesus says to John the Baptist, let it be so now, this is right for us to fill up righteousness, is this parable of the dirty sheep, which I’ve told you before, but maybe you forgot. Hopefully, you forgot. It’s the best I’ve got. Until I come up with a better picture, you have to hear it every time we talk about the baptism of Jesus. But you need your imagination for it.
So remember, it goes like this. You have to imagine a hill, maybe two hills with a river flowing between. And on one of the hills, it’s just covered with a flock of filthy, disgusting, dirty, mangy, stinky sheep. They’re covered in mud and tar and blood. And they all are matted with thorns, and they’re all limping along, and they’re all sick and sneezing. They’ve all got terrible breath. I mean, they’re just miserable. I mean, you’re hardly even recognizable as sheep. They’re just filthy, disgusting.
And they’re there on the edge of the river, and John, one at a time, takes these sheep and dips them in the water, and lifts them out, and they come up out of the water, and they’re perfectly clean. Everything is washed away. They’re gleaming white. They smell like pine saw. They’re fluffy and happy. And John puts them down on the other side of the river and they bounce away in joy. And one by one, John is just washing these sheep, washing these sheep, creating this flock of clean sheep. Until at last, right down to the edge of the river, in the midst of all of the filthy mangy sheep, comes one sheep that’s so clean and spotless and perfect that he almost glows with radiance and glory.
And this one is so clean that the filth from all the other sheep is bouncing off of him. And this one comes down to the edge of the Jordan River. And John says, you don’t need this. There’s nothing to wash. There’s nothing to take away. You don’t need to be baptized by me. You should wash me. You’re so clean. You should wash me. But Jesus says, let it be so now, for thus it’s fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
Okay, so John takes the Lord and dips him in the water, and here’s what happens. As he goes under the water, all of this oil slick of filth and mud and muck of nastiness and sin that’s floating in the river being washed off all those other sheep. All of that goes onto him. He absorbs it all. And now John takes this one and puts it down on the other side of the river. He looks worse than any of the other sheep on the dirty side of the river and the nasty, filthy side. Because he has it all on him.
Every single bit, every single piece of dirt, every single speck of tar and mud, it’s all on him. And John from his pulpit in the river points at this one and says, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So that our Lord Jesus, in his baptism, he goes into this office and begins the work of carrying our sins and carrying our sorrows. Bearing our affliction and suffering in our place enduring the wrath of God for sinners.
It’s an amazing thing because in this way we can start to see the connection between Jesus baptism and ours. It’s a different thing he wasn’t baptized for the forgiveness of his sins he was baptized so that he could do the work of winning the forgiveness of our sins.
So even as Luther writes the right for holy baptism to be used in the Lutheran church, he writes this prayer that says that through your baptism, through the baptism of your son in the Jordan River, you cleansed and purified all water, making it a lavish flood and a washing away of sin. So that Jesus takes up in this work of being the Messiah, He takes on Himself all of your sins, all of your broken, all the commandments that you’ve broken, all of your guilt, all of your shame, all of your mistakes, all of your anger and bitterness and lust and greed and rebellion and discontent. Unbelief all of it he takes all of it on himself and he carries it all to the cross so that what starts in the Jordan River ends in Jerusalem. What starts with John the Baptist ends with Pontius Pilate.
What starts with the Holy Spirit descending ends with the blood being poured out. What begins in the baptism of Jesus is concluded as he cries out it’s finished and it’s all for you so that in your baptism the Lord Jesus takes all of that, all that he won, all that he did, all that he accomplishes, and he puts it right on you so that you have it.
The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, eternal life, rescue from sin, death and the devil, life, salvation, the forgiveness of all of your sins, a good, clean conscience, the pledge towards God, the confidence of eternal life, the fearlessness of death, the boldness to stand before Him and pray, Abba, Father. Because in the baptism, He forgives you. In baptism, He adopts you. In baptism, He calls you His own. In baptism, He sets you apart. In baptism, the blood of Jesus is brought right to you.
No wonder we have enough to think about in baptism for the rest of our lives. So we rejoice in baptism. We rejoice specifically in the baptism of our Lord Jesus, in His work of filling up all righteousness, because that righteousness that belongs to Him, He gives to you.
And that means that, dear saints, and this is just almost unbelievable, but it means that the same words that God the Father spoke from heaven when Jesus was baptized, you are my beloved Son, in whom I’m well pleased, are also spoken to you by your baptism. God the Father looks down from heaven, and he says to you, to each one of you, you are my beloved child. I am pleased with you.
Maybe we marvel. How could, if God knew what we did and thought and said and were, how could He possibly be pleased with us? But this is the promise, the promise of the gospel, the promise of your baptism. God is pleased with you.
May the Holy Spirit grant us joy, confidence and peace in this great promise. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Amen. The peace of God which passes all our comprehension. Guard your hearts and your minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.