The Baptism of Our Lord
First Sunday after the
Epiphany
January 8, 2012
On the first day God said, “Let there be light.” It was before that,
before Day One, that God said, “Let there be water.” Our Old Testament reading
this morning tells us that in the beginning the earth was formless and void “and
darkness was over the face of the deep.” Then it tells us something that was
there before He created the universe; before He made the light, the trees, the
stars, the sun, animals, people. All of those things came on Day One and after.
But there was something that was before: water. After the description of
formlessness and the void and the darkness, it says that “the Spirit of God was
hovering over the face of the waters.”
That is what today is about. It’s about water. Remember when you were a
kid and you came inside the house after playing outside all afternoon and there
was nothing you wanted more than a cold glass of water? We’ve thought about and
have heard about those who were stranded in the desert wanting nothing more
than some water, the one thing to ensure their very survival. Their hopes rose
in triumph at the sight of a pond or a stream in the desert only to come upon a
mirage. If you go without food you’ll make it for longer than you think you
can, but not without water. Without water you won’t survive long.
Before God created light and everything else you see there was water.
It’s as though God’s first act was to say, “Let there be water.” The Holy
Spirit presided over those waters and He does so today. When you’re drinking
that tall glass of water you can think of the life the Holy Spirit delivers to
you through water. When the drops of water rush over you as you shower in the
morning you can consider the new life God the Holy Spirit showers down upon you
through water. When you wash your hands you can remember that in a simple act
of water sudsing up soap rubbed onto your skin cleanses them and that the Holy
Spirit does something very similar for your soul through plain old water.
He was there at the beginning, hovering there over the waters,
presiding over Creation, ready for when God the Father would speak, “Let there
be light.” And the Holy Spirit was there again, presiding over the waters at
the Jordan when the Second Person of the Trinity was Baptized into those waters.
The Holy Spirit was hovering as a dove, in tandem with God the Father, who
again spoke, this time speaking directly to the Word made flesh, “You are My
beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.” The eternal and only-begotten Son had
been there also at the Creation, the very Word God the Father spoke when He
said, “Let there be light.”
Now we see the three again, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, present at
the waters of the Jordan River. The Jordan River is not a mighty river. But
water flows through it, just like waters flowed in the moments before creation,
when the Holy Spirit was hovering over them.
The Triune God was present at Creation, present at the Baptism of
Jesus, and is present whenever a person is Baptized in the Name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is hovering over that water, God
the Father is speaking over that water, God the Son is joined with the person
being Baptized in that water. It’s no coincidence that at the beginning of
creation you have water and the Word of God spoken. It’s not just happenstance
that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were present at Creation. What
happens in Baptism is exactly the same thing. There’s water. There’s the Word
of God that this spoken. There’s the Triune God present. Working. Creating.
Hovering, presiding, speaking, being present.
If you find yourself out in the Judean wilderness where John found
himself you will quickly see that if you can make your way to the Jordan River
you will be in good stead. Where there is water there is life. And so John
combined his work as a preacher and a baptizer with the Word of God. Where
there is water, there is life. Where there is the Word of God there is new
life. John combined the two, water and Word. We do the same, too, commanded by
the Lord, “Go and make disciples of all nations, Baptizing them in the name of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
Does it strike you as odd that Jesus undergoes this thing? John says that
the Messiah will come along and be greater than him, a simple preacher, one in
a line of prophets, a strange looking guy out there baptizing people in a
river. And yet when the Messiah comes He doesn’t Baptize, as Mark tells us John
said He would. No, He is Baptized. John Baptizes Jesus just as He had all those
other people out there in the Judean wilderness. The Messiah comes to be the Messiah,
the Savior, but instead of saving He is Baptized.
Mark doesn’t tell us a whole lot about this instance. Jesus came, He
was Baptized by John, and then the heavens tore open and God the Father spoke
and the Holy Spirit descended as a dove. Not a lot of details, but one detail
that is remarkable, in an event that would take more than the short amount of
time we now have would take to develop, is the simple fact that Jesus was
Baptized. That water that flowed through the Judean wilderness was created by
God, at the speaking of His word in creation. It’s as though He said, “Let
there be water. It’s going to be used some day.” Now today was the day. John
the Baptist was there, doing what God had called him to do. Now Jesus shows up
and God the Father says to Him, “Son, there’s the water, enter it.” Jesus steps
into the river and is Baptized.
The simple thing that occurred was that the water was applied to Jesus
and John spoke words. Jesus was Baptized. But then, so was the creation itself.
God spoke, and it was. Let there be light, and there was light. God brought
water into this world not only to be the essential thing that keeps us alive
but also to be that thing which gives us new life. The waters of Baptism are
cleansing and healing waters. They are refreshing to the soul. Wherever the
Triune God is present, you have life. At Creation we saw it. When water is
present and the Word of God is attached to it, you have the Triune God at work
in His re-creating work, giving new life in that water.
If you want to talk about new life, about being a Christian, about
serving God, about living as a disciple of Christ, you’re going to have to talk
about water. There’s no new life, no serving God, no being a Christian without
Baptism. Paul in the Epistle reading may as well be saying in his exhortation
for you not to live in sin, “Let there be water.” Because when it comes to
being a son or daughter of God, you must look to that place where you became a
son or daughter of God. At your Baptism. He says, “Do you not know that all of
us who have been Baptized into Christ Jesus were Baptized into His death? We
were buried therefore with Him by Baptism into death, in order that, just as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk
in newness of life.”
Where there is water, there is life. Where there is water connected
with the Word of God there is death. Death, that is, of the Old Nature, the
Sinful Flesh. When you are Baptized into Christ you are Baptized into His
death. When Jesus was Baptized He didn’t die, that came later at the cross. But
when you are Baptized, watch out! You are brought into the very death of Christ
on that cross. You are brought down, into death, in order that your sin and
guilt may be done away with. That is the power of the water when it is
connected with the Word of God.
So let there be water! Let the waters of Baptism rush freely in your
life, as you are daily repenting and resting in the cleansing you have received
in those waters. That’s the way it is with water, it’s always flowing. If it
doesn’t flow, it gets stagnant. Instead of giving life it destroys life. The
waters of Baptism only need to be applied to you once, but the Word that is
connected with them continue to pour through your ears and into your heart and your
soul. Hear those words often that God the Father spoke to His Son, “You are My
beloved Son, with You I am well pleased.” You hear them when you wake up each
morning with the sign of the cross, in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. You hear them here, in God’s House, where God declares
you to be His son, His daughter.
When you look up here at the altar and the cross you see at the foot of
the chancel the Baptismal font. Let it be a reminder to you of the waters that
flow countless times in Christian churches throughout the world and history.
Let the waters that flowed at your own Baptism be a river of life flowing in
you. You walk in newness of life. Not because you have drunk a cold glass of
crystal clear and expensive mineral water from the High Sierras, but because
you have drunk deeply of the well of the Waters of Life over which the Holy
Spirit presides. Remember your Baptism often. You walk, as Paul says, in
newness of life because in those waters you drowned. You died there, but you
died with Christ. Let there be water, because in that water of Baptism it’s not
about who you are or what you need to do, it’s about who Christ is and what He
has done for you.
Never diminish your Baptism. It is the work of God. Do not fall into
the trap of so many Christians who think it merely as a symbol of new life. It
is the very work of God of re-creation, in the same vein as His work of
creation. That’s why Peter says in his second book that there are so many
people who “deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago,
and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the Word of God.”
Where there is water, there is life. And where there is water connected with
the Word of God there is new and eternal life. Your Baptism is about this, who
Christ is and what He has done for you.
And what is that? Well, for one thing, He was Baptized. He was Baptized,
a remarkable thing. Nothing that He needed to do. Nothing He was in need of
repenting of. But there He was, in those waters, being Baptized just as you
have been. Something He didn’t need He underwent, and He did it for you. When
three years later He hung on the cross having taken upon Himself every sin that
needs repenting of, a sword was thrust into His side. It’s as though God the
Father spoke out of the heavens and said, “Let there be water,” because there
it was again, flowing from the side of the Son on the cross. And it’s as though
the Holy Spirit was there again, presiding over that very water that flowed
from the side of the Son and poured it directly into the font where you were
Baptized.
Because that’s what happened at your Baptism. You were Baptized with
Christ. You were Baptized into His death. You were so so that even as He was
raised from the dead you too might walk in newness of life. God said it, it is
so. Amen.
SDG
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