Baptism

A little girl, about four years old, was sitting up front in worship one Sunday morning. This happened to work well for her, because it gave her a great view of the baptism that was taking place that morning. As the pastor was pouring the water on the baby’s head and saying, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” The little girl asked out loud, “Daddy, now why is the pastor brainwashing that baby?”

Today we commemorate the baptism of Jesus. Once again we find ourselves into a new season in the church year. We quite literally spend half of the year in the Sundays after Pentecost. In the time between Advent and Pentecost it seems like we are changing seasons quite often. This is nothing bad, just something to be aware of. We focus on this, think about it, practice it, because the seasons of the church year help us to tell the story. Keeping the seasons helps us to keep the story active and alive for us, as we are a part of it, and experience it in our own lives.

We do the same kind of thing with the events of our lives and families. We celebrate birthdays. We celebrate anniversaries of marriage or time being employed. The same event year after year, and yet they are important part of who we are.

We see this same kind of thing with the church calendar. Advent was a season of preparation, waiting and expectation. Christmas is a season to celebrate God becoming a human being. We celebrate that the word was made flesh and has dwelt among us. Now we are in the season of Epiphany. In this season we celebrate how the glory of God is manifest in Jesus, and then, ultimately, how Jesus is made known through his people and the witness that they give; that is, through us.

Mark’s gospel begins with these simple words, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” This is the point. There are no angels, or stables, or shepherds, or wise guys; just the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. So the opening words tell us who Jesus is; he is the Christ the Son of God. Then, the opening scene shows this to be true. It’s almost as if Mark is saying, “You don’t have to take my word for it. Check this out.”

So here we see the baptism of Jesus, and in this picture we see how Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ. The scene begins with John the Baptist out in the wilderness performing a baptism of repentance. Repentance is what happens when you change the way that you think and act toward something. It isn’t just that you say that you are sorry for something. It is much greater than that.

John is out performing this and calling the people around him to life lived in relationship with God, and Jesus 

shows up. When he comes up out of the water something amazing happens; the heavens are torn open. Now this is not like something that happens when you open a door or a window. The Greek here is something to the effect of the heavens being ripped apart. This is obviously an act of God. There is no other explanation. And thus, there is no doubt either that Jesus is who Mark says he is.

This same Greek word will be used to describe what happens to the curtain in the temple after Jesus dies on the cross. With his death the curtain is torn in two from top to bottom as a sign that people now have access to God and life lived in relationship with him.

The book of the prophet Isaiah has a prayer in it where God is being asked to come and intervene. “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.” Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down and save us, is what this is getting at, and here, in Mark’s gospel, we see that taking place. Jesus being God in the flesh living among us is not just comforting good news. But he is here with a purpose, and that purpose is to save us from our sins. He is here to restore his creation and bring it back into a right relationship with himself.

So at the baptism of Jesus, the heavens are torn open. Then the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus like a dove. Note that this says that the Spirit descended like a dove. This is not saying that the Holy Spirit is a dove. Here the Spirit is present. John just got done saying how the greater one who comes after him will baptize with the Holy Spirit, and now here is the Spirit present at the baptism of Jesus.

The presence of the Spirit here is no small matter. We saw the power of the Spirit in the Old Testament lesson for today, the first chapter of Genesis. There the Spirit is hovering over the waters and emptiness in the beginning. The power of the Spirit is displayed as out of this nothingness, God creates the heavens and the earth. So too we will see the power at work in re-creating and re-newing the creation through, because of, and for the sake of, Jesus.

And a voice comes from heaven. “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.” So, within the first eleven verses of this opening chapter we see three times an identification of who Jesus is. Mark tells us in verse one. John says the one who baptizes whit the Holy Spirit is greater than he is. And now, here is this voice from heaven.

The baptism of Jesus is an important event because it establishes the identity of Jesus. Here he is, the Christ. Here he is, the Son of God. In the baptism of Jesus, we see his identity reveled. God has come to his creation. God shows up. And he isn’t just making a cameo appearance here in the first century. But he is here to work in a mighty way his salvation.

So then, we can establish a connection between the baptism of Jesus and our own baptism. Just as Jesus’ identity is seen in his baptism, so too our identity is found in our baptism. Just as the Spirit descended upon Jesus at his Baptism, in our baptism we receive the Holy Spirit. Just as the voice of God declares that Jesus is his son, with whom he is well pleased, so in our baptisms God declares of us that we are his own dearly loved sons and daughters.

“You are mine.” Our God tells us. “I have forgiven you, restored you, given you life that is full, abundant, real, and will never ever end.” Paul makes a connection between our baptism and the death and resurrection of Jesus. We have been baptized in the death and resurrection of Jesus. This means that since we have been connected to him in his death that we will also certainly be connected to him in his resurrection. This means that we have, and can be confident in the fact that forgiveness, salvation, and life are indeed ours.

We are able to be confident in this, not because it is dependent on us; or on anything that we are doing. But we are able to be confident in this because it depends on God and what he does and the ways that he works in our lives. After all, whenever God does something, he always does it right. Right? Right.

That our baptism is the source of our identity is pretty significant. In baptism God tells us what we are. We are his own dearly loved sons and daughters. In baptism God tells us whose we are. We are his. He has purchased and redeemed us, and made us his own. He is the one who works in our lives. He is the one who calls, gathers, enlightens, sanctifies us and keeps us in the one true faith. Compared to this, nothing else matters.

Yet it is easy for us to try to find our identity in other ways or in other things. We might look to other people for affirmation and praise and assurance. We might look to our accomplishments as a source of identity. We might look to our grades, or who are friends are, or how much power and influence we have in the various areas of our lives. We can so easily get caught up in a race to the top to see who is smarter, better looking, has the most stuff, and the list can go on and on and on.

And yet, at the end of the day, those things (which are not bad in and of themselves) do not matter and do not last. But what does matter, and what does last is our identity as God’s loved children.

We have this as our identity, because God has chosen to make us so. And so we can live in it confidently. That is pretty amazing. That is pretty spectacular. But then again, it is not all that surprising, because that is just how awesome our God is. He simply loves us that much.

This changes everything. When we understand, and see ourselves, first as God’s own dearly loved children, it changes how we see ourselves, and our lives, and our world. It changes our priorities and what really matters and what we really value and what is most important. We begin to understand that life lived in relationship with God is more than that just going to worship and an occasional Bible study. We begin to understand that life lived in relationship with God is more than my own personal preferences always being met.

We begin to understand that we have this life, and that it impacts every area of our lives. It makes a difference in our jobs, in our homes, at school, when we are with our friends, or families, when we are shopping or driving, or paying our taxes. We don’t just do these things, but we do them as God’s own dearly loved daughters and sons, because that is who you are by your baptism.

When we live our lives in this identity as God’s own dearly loved daughters and sons, when we take that identity with us into every aspect of our lives, we find that not only do we know a peace and a joy and a hope unlike anything we have every known before, but we find that we are simply bearing witness to the awesome and powerful love of our God in Christ Jesus, and how the life that he gives us is truly life. And that is a powerful witness. Amen.