Luke 3:15–22

Call to repentance and faith

¹⁵As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, ¹⁶John answered them all, saying, "I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹⁷His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire." ¹⁸So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. ¹⁹But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, ²⁰added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison. ²¹Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, ²²and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

Like an adventure story, man is on a quest. All mankind has one drive, one inner instinct so powerful, that it drives all we do and say. It is the quest for God. Now, you might say, "But some people don't even believe in God, they aren't on a quest for God." We all have the same inner desire for access to God. They just call it by another name. The fact is, all humanity is searching for the same thing. Happiness. We all have the innate feeling that things are broken. That the world is not right. That even we ourselves personally are lacking something, and we seek to fix it.

Our human nature is wired in such a way that we think it is up to us to fix what is wrong. We have the belief that access to happiness and fulfillment, in other words, God, is achieved through our personal efforts or attempts to improve ourselves or the world around us. We all, by nature, worship our own works. We think happiness, or a perfect world, or improved self, are things we can accomplish if we just do enough, try hard enough, or work harder.

The problem is, we are stuck in a broken world. We are stuck in broken bodies, in broken relationships, and broken minds. We know God wants us to be happy, whether we call it God or something else, we know things shouldn't be the way they are. So we try to fix it. We join a cause to fix the world's problems. We are going to wipe our illness, wipe out unhealthy foods, obesity, heart disease, lung cancer. We are going to wipe out world hunger, war, poverty, homelessness, global warming. We are going to protect the environment, the whales, the ecosystem, the trees. It's up to us.

At times is also seems as if the church needs fixing. If we could just find the church without any hypocrites, without sinners, or the friendly church, the coolest church, the most exciting church. So we jump from church to church, but never find what seems like the "true" one.

On a more personal level, we think we would be happier if we were nearer to God, if we could feel his presence in our hearts. He surely doesn't want me to be unhappy, or to suffer, or to be sick, or to experience pain. All these things which we face means we must fix our relationship with him. Get nearer to him. Seek his favor. Please him more. So we work harder at it, try new spiritual exercises, try praying harder, try new worship experiences, make up new rules to keep.

But the bottom line in all these is our natural instinct that tells us we have to do something to fix the way things are, whether it is the world around us, the church, or our own lives, it is up to us to fix it. That is our natural religion. Even if your don't believe there is a God, per se, we are all wired to do it ourselves. In short, we worship our works. We think we can find God (or whatever higher principle there is) in the works of our hands. Fact is, that's exactly what Eve tried to do; she wanted to be like God.

But it never seems to work. We never quite achieve it. There is always more to do. It is a project that never gets done. Have I done enough? Is there something else I must do? Is God pleased with me? These questions keep haunting us.

But the baptism of Jesus gives us an answer. An answer totally different from what we expect. An answer that is just the opposite of what makes sense to us. The baptism of Jesus tells us that it is not up to us to fix it. In fact we can't fix it. All of our efforts to fix the world, the church or ourselves are futile and nothing more than spinning our wheels. In fact, instead of fixing ourselves and the world, we must confess that our attempts, our pride in thinking that we can fix it, our arrogance thinking that we can please God with the works of our hands, are themselves sin. The very sin of Eve who wanted to elevate herself to the level of God. This is all just our way of wanting our eyes to be opened and "be like God." For this we come before you, Lord, and confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean and stand in need of your mercy.

What, exactly, does the baptism of Jesus tell us?

First of all let's take a look at the water. Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan. But what does water do in the Bible? Starting with creation, we are told that God made the heavens are the earth and created all things, in and through the waters. Then in the flood it was water that wiped out sinners, and also water that saved Noah. At the Exodus, it was water that killed the entire Egyptian army, and it was water that saved the Israelites. We see a pattern here; water both kills and brings to life.

Then there is that one obscure, little sacrifice that God commanded in Numbers 19. A minor little detail that most of us probably have never heard of. It doesn't make it into the Sunday School stories. It doesn't seem to make it into Confirmation instruction. It is sort of hidden in the Old Testament and even if we stumble onto it, it seems strange and unintelligible. It is the sacrifice of a red heifer. An animal without defect; without offspring; and red in color. Actually, red heifers are rare. But God says to sacrifice a red heifer as a sacrifice for sin. Then comes an even stranger thing. The ashes of the sacrificed red heifer are placed in an urn and mixed with water. After which a branch of hyssop is dipped into the water and ash mixture and is used to sprinkle the water on an unclean person or house or furniture to make it clean.

Obscure as this sacrifice might seem, it actually explains the baptism of Jesus. This heifer was perfect, without spot or defect. It was red, the color of sin and blood. As a sacrifice for sin, it carried the sins of the people on it. And for the sin it was burnt, the fiery wrath of God reduced it to ashes in payment for sin. The fires of hell and God's anger are seen in the burning of the sacrifice. Then the sacrifice, purified by fire from the sin of the people, is mixed in water, purifying the water so when the water is sprinkled on the people with the hyssop branch, they are cleansed of their impurities and made holy unto God. The baptism of Jesus tells us that for all our sinful attempts to please God with our works; for all our arrogant inclination to try to make ourselves or the world around us better, God has forgiven us in Christ Jesus.

Standing on the banks of the Jordan river, Jesus, the sacrificial Lamb of God goes down into the water. There he absorbs into his flesh the sin of all mankind, our sinful pride and arrogance. For why is a holy and perfect man, free from sin, baptized? He is baptized for the sins of the world. It is your sin that he bore in his body. It is your sin that was drowned in the water. And by Jesus going down into the water, is like the ashes of the red heifer being mixed in water to purify the water so that in your baptism you are purified by the water mixed with the word of God.

Now that is the mystery. Water, that both kills and brings to life. Water that washes and purifies, now, the water, mixed with the flesh of the sacrifice for sin, is purified in order to cleanse all who are baptized with water in the name of Jesus.

So, how do we fix what is broken in our world, our church, our lives, our hearts? We don't. Jesus did. It is done. It was done by Jesus; Jesus, who was baptized in water to take our sins. Jesus who was baptized with fire on the cross, to pay for our sin. Jesus who gives us his Holy Spirit in baptism to slay our old man of sin, to free us from the power of sin, to give birth to a new man of holiness so that we are renewed; raised to life to live our lives for God. Jesus did it for us so we don't have to keep doing it over and over. Because of Jesus' baptism and death and resurrection, God is satisfied already; God is pleased already. You don't have to find God, he has found you already in Jesus. You don't have to work to fix the world, Jesus is already working on it. You don't have to fix the church, Jesus builds his church himself. You can't do anything to fix yourself. It is done in Christ! Don't look for God in the works of your hands, but in the work of Jesus, in his baptism, in his death, in his resurrection. Grab hold of God and forgiveness by faith in the works of Jesus.

When Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened. That is an interesting word in the Bible—opened. Whenever God opens something in the Bible it is a good thing. Mark tells us that heaven was torn open, ripped apart, when Jesus was baptized. Isaiah prays that God would open the heavens and come down. Jesus opened the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf. God opened the womb of Sarah and she bore a son. God opens his hand and satisfies every living thing. God opens rivers and fountains to make the wilderness a pool of water. He opens our understanding and gives us faith in Christ. Jesus tells us to knock at the door in prayer and it will be opened. On Good Friday the tombs of the saints were opened and the dead were raised. The angel opened the doors of the prison and Peter was freed. And at the baptism of Jesus, the heavens were opened and the Spirit of God came down and rested on him.

By his baptism, Jesus opens the doors of heaven. By his death he opened the gates of heaven. By his resurrection the doors of heaven were opened to us. And through the word and sacraments God gives the keys to his ministers to open the gates of heaven to all who repent and believe. Jesus opened the doors of heaven to you.

And the voice of God spoke: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. This is what God tells you in your baptism: you are my beloved son or daughter, I am well pleased with you. You don't have to work to please God. You don't have to labor and toil to fix yourself. Jesus did it and in him God is pleased with you. In Christ you are the beloved son of God. In baptism you were buried with him into death and are raised from the dead to walk in the newness of life. You have been united with him in his death and resurrection at your baptism. As he died to sin, now consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, walk no more in debauchery, in selfishness, in bitterness or anger. Put away these things because Jesus has freed you from the power of sin so you can walk in righteousness and love.

He who created you, he who formed you, has also redeemed you. He has placed his name on you in baptism, "Christian." When you pass through the waters, God is with you, as he was with the Israelites when they crossed the red sea. When you pass through the fire, he is with you, as he was with Shadrack, Mishek, and Abednigo in the fiery furnace. Why? Because through faith in Jesus you are precious in his eyes. You are honored. He has given his Son in exchange for you and brings you into his church where he feeds you and preserves you until the day he comes and gathers all his sons and daughters from the ends of the earth into his eternal kingdom whose doors stand wide open to you. Amen.