mirror my malady

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A sermon on Jesus' inexplicable baptism

Today is the Baptism of Our Lord. It marks the completion of the season that began in Advent. If Lent is 40 days leading to Easter, Advent and Christmas are roughly the same thing leading up to today, the Baptism of Our Lord. Nevertheless, or perhaps because of this, we are unsure of what to do with this day.

The strange thing, though, is the biblical witness is unequivocal. Jesus was baptized by John. This is something all four Gospels report. And I know that may seem obvious. But when you set each Gospel side by side, you realize it’s an anomaly when something turns up in all four Gospels, not just two or three of them. 

However, when you compare how Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John report Jesus’ baptism, you begin to suspect they, too, are a little uneasy with Jesus’ baptism. In today’s Gospel, for instance, you get the distinct impression Luke is trying to rush you along. Luke, who has a penchant for storytelling, recounts Jesus’ baptism in just one measly little sentence! It’s as if Luke wants to pass over this incident as quickly as possible! Luke himself doesn’t seem to know what to say about Jesus’ baptism!

…So, what do you think? Does anything seem out of place about Jesus’ baptism? Or is nothing out of the ordinary about Jesus’ baptism? Am I just making much ado about nothing?

Let’s take a flash poll. Don’t overthink it. Just go with your initial impulse. Is there or isn’t there something odd about Jesus’ baptism?

Let’s begin with those who think something is off with Jesus’ baptism. *Raise your hand if something is the matter with Jesus’ baptism…

Ok. Thank you. And how about those who have no problem with Jesus’ baptism? *Raise your hand if you don’t find anything objectionable about Jesus’ baptism…

Well, cards on the table: I think there is an issue with Jesus’ baptism. But before I make my case, I’d like to hear from you. What do you think is the fly in the white wine of Jesus’ baptism? Take some time to think about it if you need to. But what I’d like to do is *form small groups and hash it out with each other.

What is it about Jesus’ baptism that’s off? Go ahead and chat it up with each other. Just know we’re only going to take a couple of minutes. So, try to come up with something relatively quickly.

You know the drill, too. Look around. Invite others to be in your group. You don’t have to form groups of two. You can have four or five. Honestly, I’d say you’d want at least three in your group.

Ok. Let’s see what you come up with. What is it about Jesus’ baptism that’s off? Go chat, and then be ready to report back. Go!

Let’s bring it in. Thank you for playing along. As always, you’re good sports. And remember the responses you came up with, too. We’re going to come back to them. Before that, though, I want to say that I hope you found this little exercise invigorating. 

I hope pondering this question got you fired up because this is the kind of thinking you should be doing! Martin Luther said we’re all theologians by virtue of life! Theology is not something reserved for so-called professionals. No, theology is something any of us can practice! It’s just a matter of if we do it faithfully, well, and intentionally. 

I chose that last adverb, intentionally, on purpose, or intentionally. The truth is, we all do theology all the time! Most of the time, though, we don’t realize it. And what’s more, often, our theology isn’t shaped by the Bible or even the church, for that matter. 

No, unfortunately, much of our theology is shaped by commercials and pop psychology. The trouble, though, is those forces will only present you with an idealized and self-fulling life. But while there’s a time and place for all that, self-help is really no help at all when you’re helpless! If you’re your own biggest problem, as we all are at one time or another, wellness will only leave you worse off!

Blessedly, the Bible is not the least bit interested in some fictional version of life. On the contrary, the Bible is all about the God who is so bent on this fallen ol’ world that God goes all the way down with the sinking ship of history on the cross at Calvary! Self-improvement knows nothing of the Savior who died while the crowd jeered that he should save himself! But that’s the Savior who earns his title! By refusing to save himself, Jesus delivers you and me!

…At that, though, we’ve come a ways from our original proposition. Haven’t we? We still have the matter of Jesus’ baptism. What, if anything, is off about Jesus’ baptism? Does anyone want to share?

Ok. Now, here’s the part where I have to take a risk. At the time of writing this, I don’t know what you just said! That means, despite whatever you’ve said, I already had to make a guess! Nevertheless, I feel confident. 

I bet the answer will be that it’s hard to see the reason why Jesus would be baptized. There doesn’t seem to be any need for it! Does there? Jesus is sinless! And he’s God-in-the-flesh, too! 

Jesus doesn’t need his sins forgiven. He doesn’t have any! And he doesn’t need to be adopted into God’s family, either! He’s already the only-begotten Son of God! So the question is, what in the world is Jesus doing getting baptized!

…Well, how’d I do? Did I anticipate your objections? I bet I did. Didn’t I? It’s a safe bet. Countless theologians before you have had the exact same problem with Jesus’ baptism, too! In fact, when Matthew recounts Jesus’ baptism, he tells us that John the Baptist himself raised a similar point!

So, if that’s what you said, pat yourself on the back! You stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the greats! But you know what? I’m not so sure that’s the real issue we have with Jesus’ baptism. No, I think that’s just the presenting problem. I can’t help but suspect our real dilemma runs deeper.

After thinking about it, I wonder if the real problem we have with Jesus’ baptism is that he’s not behaving godly enough for us. And if you don’t believe me, just look at John Wayne, Nicole Kidman, or the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We want heroes, not saviors. And we want our heroes, well, heroic. Don’t we? 

We don’t want to be saved. No, we want to live in some idealized version of the world where that’s not necessary. It’s not salvation we want. It’s just a little help so we can do it ourselves. 

As such, we don’t want our heroes to be ordinary. No, we want them larger than life. And we want them to inspire us to lead larger-than-life lives ourselves! We don’t want to be saved. We want to live idealized lives, and if not in the past, at least in the future.

However. However, that doesn’t come within a country-mile of the resurrection! Does it? No, that’s just the same old self-improvement project all over again, only gussied up a little. Sure, it may be salvation adjacent. But it doesn’t go all the way. It stops short. 

Instead of really reckoning with Sin, Death, and the Devil, our self-help schemes try to create a world where that’s not necessary! And while that may sound good, in reality, it’s really not much good at all. If you’re already as dead as a doornail in your trespasses and sins, as Scripture says, help isn’t any help at all! Truth be told, often, it just makes matters worse! Improvement, when you’re already incapacitated, amounts to nothing more than whipping a dead horse!

…Jesus’ baptism, on the other hand, presents us with a savior who shows up in all the wrong sort of places! Not only is there nothing monumental about his baptism, Jesus also has absolutely no business getting baptized, either! He doesn’t need to be baptized. And that’s the point! 

Jesus wasn’t baptized because he needed it. No, he was baptized because we need it! In his baptism, Jesus forgoes all godliness to save the ungodly. In his baptism, Jesus charges something as boring as baptism itself with all of himself! 

This means religion, or at least Christianity, is not some program to get your moral, ritual, or intellectual act together! No, on the contrary, it’s the promise that Christ is intimately present in all your unholy messes! Christ’s baptism is not a blueprint for how to become more godly. No, it’s the act whereby Jesus leaves all that is holy to give you all of himself! In Christ, the way to God is one-way, and one-way only, from God to us!

As Luther was fond of saying, Jesus is not another Moses! Jesus doesn’t step on the scene to tell you how to get to God. No, he is God! And in his baptism, Jesus delivers God to you in ordinary water and an incredible promise that lingers in the air for just a moment and then simply vanishes! 

Notwithstanding that certificate you’ve probably misplaced, all you have from your baptism is a promise once made, some pictures, and a few shaky memories of the day. But that’s how God wants it! As St. Paul said, we walk by faith, not by sight! Baptism is not the beginning of something. No, it’s the end of it all!

In baptism, God dies your death and raises you up to new life in Christ! Whatever ambition you have for your life, it’s already come to nothing! In baptism, you already died! There’s nothing more to do! Your life has already come to nothing! As St. Paul said elsewhere, from now on, your life is hidden with Christ in God!

…At that, perhaps you protest. And I bet you do. Don’t you? “What am I supposed to do with that,” you ask. What’s the point, you wonder?

Do you notice, though, how that’s the exact same grievance we have with Jesus’ baptism, too! Isn’t it?!? Jesus’ baptism doesn’t have a point! But, as we already said, that’s the point! 

Jesus’ baptism isn’t a necessity! God could have left us in our rightly deserved condemnation! And neither is it an improvement program! After all, it’s our attempts at enhancing Eden, of all places, that made a wreck of it all! Isn’t it?

Our objections are just a manifestation of our discomfort with a God who really saves us! Our discomfort reveals just how completely we’ve swallowed the pill that faith is nothing more than one more self-improvement project. But I have to ask, if that’s all Christianity is, why in the world would Jesus have to die? If all we needed was help, Jesus could have just left us a manual for successful living. Couldn’t he? 

That’s not what he did, though! Is it? No, Christ became human! He lived our life! And he died our death, too! And in his baptism, he brought it all under his power!

Never once did Christ say, “Look what you made me do.” And neither did he say, “Here’s how you should do it.” No, he said, “Father, forgive them.” He said, “It is finished!” And he meant it, too! 

In baptism, it’s all done, good, bad, and indifferent! Baptism is not a glory story. No, it’s the humble work of God in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. And it’s anything but insignificant! In Jesus’ baptism, there’s nowhere in life that’s out of reach for God!

…Now, you can actually begin to live your life! No longer is existence just a series of problems to solve! No, now your life is what it’s been all along, nothing less than a miracle utterly brimming with promise all the way from death to life, in that order, too! And you know what else? On account of your baptism, it’s all yours, too!

That’s not all, though! You don’t have to find God anymore, either! You’ve already been found! And anyway, as the psalmist says, you couldn’t get away from God even if you wanted to!

In your baptism, all of your life is drenched in God! And this is true irrespective of how life is going for you, too! Honestly, the less you feel it, the more the promise rings true. As the old saying goes, if you’re having trouble seeing God in your life, the problem probably is just that you’re looking too high.

In his baptism, Jesus has come down to you! And in your baptism, he’s filled your valleys with himself and all his love! In baptism, that highway John the Baptist prophesied has come to pass at long last! In Christ, the valleys are filled, the mountains and hills made low, the crooked made straight, and the rough ways made smooth. And in this glorious vision, you, yes, you, you have seen the salvation of God!

I suppose the only question is, what are you waiting for?!? You’re living after the end! It’s all house-money now! Go, get out there, and have some fun with it all just for the fun of it! 

It’s all unnecessary, and it’s all a wonderful mystery, too! History has no greater recourse than God’s good pleasure! And in your baptism, you’re positively swimming in it! And now, nothing can change that!

We’ll kick off the fun with a party song! Our Hymn of the Day is hymn number 304, Christ, When for Us You Were Baptized. Hymn number 304, Christ, When for Us You Were Baptized. Let’s sing!