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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Isaiah 42:1-7
1 Corinthians 1:26-31
St. Matthew 3:13-17
Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.
Who speaks to you all today saying:
“Let it be so now,
for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”
Thus far from God’s Word, included here for us to hear,
because Jesus doesn’t need to be baptized. Jesus doesn’t need to go to the
cross either, but He does so, for you. He makes His Word and Sacrament to make
the unrighteous, righteous. We pray that God lead us to realize this and
believe that He makes our lives holy, 100%, and all those around us who
believe, as well.
In our Gospel, Jesus goes into the water, but not even Rome,
for all its pomp and circumstance, trusts the Word of God in the Water. For
though the roman Catholic church believes in baptism, it cannot stand how plain
and common water is, so it must become holy water! A super-water able to cast
out demons for movies, quite apart from God and His Word and work. Because you
don’t need Christ or His Crucifixion when throwing holy water at those who
disagree with you.
So here is today’s lesson: When Christ and His work are
united perfectly, there you have Christianity. When you can have one without
the other, there is only satanism. When you can live in God’s Creation and
completely believe that it came from nothing. When you can have “faith” but it
be solely based on your thoughts, emotions, and actions. When you do not need
Christ and Him Crucified to gain any part of God’s love, there is only devilry.
So yes. There is nothing special about water, even though it
was one of the very first things that was created. There is nothing special
about John the Baptist, even though there is none greater than he, born among
women. There is nothing special about doves, or lights, or voices, or any other
thing we have encountered in our Gospel reading, except of course God made them
for His purposes!
The something special that we do run into, which becomes a
problem, is this righteousness. You see, when we begin to use flowery speech
and speak of big, fanciful ideas, it is easy to divorce oneself from reality.
When we speak of sacrifice and patriotism, it doesn’t take much to motivate
entire groups of people to commit horrible acts under one “good word”.
To Rome, divorcing Christ from His work begins at the pope.
Since the pope is now the Vicar of Christ on earth, Christianity, who’s in and
who’s out, belongs solely to him. This gives rise to witch hunts, cultish
Inquisitions, and apostasy. The pope does not need Christ and His Crucifixion
to do his work here.
But Rome is an easy target to pick on. The harder target is
always self-inspection.
What is your “holy water”?
Who is your “pope”?
More importantly, what in all of life do you think you can
accomplish without Christ? And I’m not talking about lip service only. “Jesus
is my Lord”. “I can do all things with Christ”.
I mean which parts of your religion can you do without
Christ? Can you be a decent human being without Jesus? Can you change diapers
without Jesus? Can you hold down a job, raise a family, or tie your shoes
without Jesus?
Repent! In our quest for holiness we have left out the Holy!
Rather, we have placed Him in His proper corner to sit and wait like a good
boy, until we need Him. We come to Church on Sunday to do Sunday things, but we
go about Monday-Saturday doing anything but. Yes, repent of the sin of not
needing Christ and Him Crucified, Monday-Saturday.
Dearly Beloved, one of the great mysteries of Christianity
is God’s union with man: His Incarnation. God becoming flesh is impossible for
reason to understand. God can make a body for Him to use and then discard or He
can possess someone for a time, as the pagans believe, but for an infinite
being to truly and actually take on finite status? Impossible.
Even St. Mary expressed this inexpressible claim in a moment
of sinfulness. Hail Mary, full of grace, Gabriel exclaimed, you’re going to
have God for a baby. Mary was greatly troubled and said, how can this be?
Gabriel replied, with God, nothing will be impossible.
With sin, nothing is impossible either, as in trying to
separate God and His religion. In the case of St. Mary and Jesus, the
impossible is not doing great things for God, but uniting God and man into one
Christ. You can already do great things for God without Jesus, as we have said,
but you cannot be united to Him as close as your flesh and blood.
This is the beginning to understanding our Lord’s Baptism
and our own. At God’s Word, St. Mary conceived and bore God. At God’s Word, the
low, pitiful, ant-like existence of sinners is assumed into the almighty, holy,
and infinite Godhead.
“Jesus goes up out of the water”, says St. Gregory of
Nazianzus, “…for with Himself He carries up the world... and sees heaven
opened, which Adam had shut against himself and all his posterity, as the gates
of Paradise by the flaming sword. And the Spirit bears witness to His Godhead,
for He descends upon one that is like Him.
So also does the voice from heaven, for Jesus came from
heaven, witness to His Godhead.
And the Spirit comes like a dove, for He honors the body of
Jesus, for this also was God through its union with God, so the Spirit is also
seen in a bodily form. Moreover, the dove has from distant ages desired to
proclaim the end of the [Flood].
But if you are to judge the Godhead by bulk and weight, and
the Spirit seems to you a small thing because He came in the form of a dove, O
man of contemptible littleness of thought concerning the greatest of things,
you must also to be consistent despise the kingdom of heaven, because it is
compared to a mustard seed. And you must exalt the adversary above the majesty
of Jesus, because he is called a great mountain (Zech 4:7) and leviathan (Isa
27:1), king of that which lives in the water, whereas Christ is called the
lamb, and the pearl, and the drop of rain that comes from heaven, and similar
names.” (Gregory of Nazianzus, Treasury of Daily Prayer, p 1093-94)
Yes, the drop of rain that comes from heaven, shakes the
heavens and the earth by daring to suffer and die to reconcile sinners to God.
The mustard seed that drops to the earth and dies, only to rise up, producing
fruit a hundred times over, puts Himself in the water. This means that it is
the will of God to unite you, all of you, to Himself.
“How mighty is the grace of water, in the sight of God and
His Christ, for the confirmation of Baptism!”, says St. Tertullian. “Never is
Christ without water: He Who is Himself baptized in water (Matt 3:13-17);
inaugurates in water the first display of His power when invited to the wedding
in Cana (John 2:1-11); in His preaching He invites the thirsty to His own
eternal water (John 7:37-38; John 4:6ff.); He approves, among the works of
charity, the cup of water offered to a poor child (Matthew 10:42); He gathered
His strength at a well (John 4:6); walks over the water (Matthew 14:25ff.);
calms the waves (Mark 4:39); and serves His disciples with washing by water
(John 13:5).
Even His Passion bears witness to the power of Baptism's
waters, for while He was being handed over to the cross, water intervened and
was a witness against Pilate's hands (Matthew 27:24). And when He is wounded,
after His death, water bursts forth from His side that had been pierced with
the soldier's lance (John 19:34)!” (Tertullian, Treasury of Daily Prayer, p
1090)
Amazing! We will sing of these mercies of the Lord forever
and with our mouth make known His faithfulness to all generations, with water.
For with the water and the Word, there is a complete and perfect witness to the
entire world of Who God is and what He is doing. We need just step aside and
let God do His work of salvation in His Baptism.
And, such wonderful gifts found in baptism don’t stop there.
For the Blood of Jesus covers all of life, Sunday through Sunday. All of your
life is hidden in Christ and just because it is not as flashy as Sunday
Service, or not as mythical to subjugate demons, doesn’t mean that it is worth
less or not worthy of God’s attention and affection.
Unity is unity and in baptism, you are united to Christ, His
death and resurrection, by His Blood. At His Word and by His Faith, you are
made His, body and soul, body and blood. The Blood of Christ makes the entire being
of the Christian, holy; a worthy living sacrifice to the Lord God
almighty.
This, then is the meaning of that righteousness, as Jesus
has used it today. In the righteousness that the Word of God has placed in
Baptism, the whole person baptized, is redeemed. Every dark nook and cranny.
Nothing is left out. All is turned out, exposed, and paid for so that Christ’s
life is the one you live now, not your own.
All this is done only out of fatherly divine goodness and
mercy, without any merit or worthiness in you. Which is a good thing, for then
it would be your work and you can do your work without Jesus. But since God has
ordained that He institute and run His Word and Church, He gets the first and
last say in it, that is: “Baptism now saves you” (1 Pet 3:21)
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