Luke 3:15–22

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 with 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."

"You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." It would mean a lot to any son to hear these words from his father. It would make any daughter proud to hear her father say "You are my beloved daughter; with you I am well pleased." There on the banks of the river Jordan, Jesus heard his Father say these words. But it was more than mere affirmation; more than just an expression of his love. This was a revelation to the whole world that this man Jesus was indeed the only begotten Son of God; "very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man."

Today is the first Sunday in Epiphany. The Baptism of Jesus is the traditional gospel lesson for this Sunday. The gospel for the Last Sunday in Epiphany is the Transfiguration of Jesus. Also at the Transfiguration God spoke and said, "This is my Son; my chosen one." So, the season of Epiphany is bookended by God speaking from heaven and declaring that Jesus is his Son. Epiphany is the revelation of God's Son to the world. Beginning with the visit of the magi to Bethlehem when the miraculous star revealed Jesus to the gentile world; and God brings his "...offspring from the east, and from the west and will gather you. When he says to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

Throughout Epiphany our gospel readings are about when Jesus changed water into wine, when Jesus declared that he was the servant of Isaiah 61 which he read in the synagogue. Then when a demon shouted out that he was the Son of God and when Peter declared him Lord when there was a great catch of fish. This is Epiphany: the revelation that Jesus is the Son of God.

But why did God's Son enter into his creation and become one of us? That's actually a rather remarkable thing the God after he had created the world, became part of his own creation. It goes against our whole idea of God being some distant ruler sitting on a throne and directing the affairs of the world and requiring our obedience. But this God came down off his throne and became one of us and lived among us. Why?

At his baptism Jesus gives us a clue to that also. Recorded by Matthew in his gospel, when Jesus came to John the Baptist to be baptized, John at first refused, saying that he should be baptized by Jesus instead. However, Jesus responded, "thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Jesus came to fulfill righteousness. What is righteousness? According to St. Paul, righteousness is being in the right relationship with God! Jesus was therefore righteous, because God had declared him his Son with whom he was well pleased. Jesus came to fulfill righteousness, that is, to put us into the right relationship with God.

You see, at creation, when God created Adam and Eve, mankind was in the right relationship with God. God was our Father by virtue of our creation. But mankind broke that relationship. Man rejected God as his Father. Man wanted to be independent; he wanted to be autonomous. In other words, he wanted to be his own god. And by breaking our relationship with God, we also broke our relationship with other people, with all creation and even with ourselves. We don't want to worship God or hear his word and receive his sacraments. Mankind by nature does not love God and tries to escape from obedience to God. We want to be our own gods.

And because of this separation between man and God, we become selfish and proud. We are jealous, self-centered, and avoid God. We don't want to hear, learn and study his Word. We don't want to pray to him or depend on him. We want to do things our own way apart from his law. We have become immoral and adulterous. We have become slaves to sin and death which is the result of sin.

Our separation from God not only destroys our relationship with others, it destroys us. It is self destructive. Out sinful behavior harms ourselves more than anyone else. By nature we are sinful and separated from God so we engage in self-destructive behavior that breaks apart our marriages and families. We sin against our own bodies by immorality and adultery. These are all the results, the outward manifestations, the symptoms that our relationship with God is broken; that our human nature is corrupt and sinful. We have rejected sonship with God and have become unrighteous. We have become slaves to sin and brought death and punishment upon ourselves. We have the burden of guilt on us. We have done it to ourselves, we have earned it, we deserve it. And worst of all, there is no way we can escape the power of sin and death over our lives. There is nothing we can do to erase our guilt.

So God himself became one of us in order to complete righteousness and fulfill it. That is why Jesus was standing there on the banks of the River Jordan that day, to fulfill righteousness in order to restore us to a relationship with God; to fulfill righteousness means to restore us to the proper relationship with God and make us his sons.

There, in his baptism, he sanctified the waters of baptism for all times. In his baptism he came under the authority of his own law to obey it in our place. There he absorbed all of your sins into his own body and made himself guilty of all your sin. There he placed his righteousness in the water and purified the water so that in your baptism your sins are washed away and you are cleansed.

Jesus fulfilled righteousness. And that fulfillment began in his baptism. He fulfilled righteousness by his life of obedience to his Father. "With whom I am well pleased." He pleased his Father in every way. He fulfilled the law. He loved his Father with all his heart. He loved his neighbor as himself. He fulfilled the law of love by humbling himself to become our servant. He served us by fighting against sin and Satan. He served us by resisting Satan in the desert temptations. He served us by casting out demons; by healing the sick; cleansing the lepers; changing water into wine; feeding the thousands; opening the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf; and by raising the dead.

Jesus fulfilled righteousness by wiping out the sin of the world. He did not come to condemn us for our sin, but to lift the burden of guilt off of us. He took our guilt off us and placed it on himself. And then he hung our guilt on the cross and put it to death. He frees us from sin and guilt. He releases us. He takes our burdens and carries them himself. Your sins are forgiven and you are free from guilt!

He fulfilled righteousness by suffering and dying. He fulfilled righteousness by shedding his blood, because without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. He fulfilled righteousness by hanging on a cross. He fulfilled righteousness when his Father, who loved him and was pleased with him, forsook him and abandoned him on account of our sins. He fulfilled righteousness by paying the price for our sins and suffering the punishment we deserve.

So righteousness is fulfilled. It is completed. Jesus is the beloved Son of God. He atoned for your sin. Paul says in our Epistle reading today that in baptism we are united to Christ in his death and resurrection. In your baptism, being united to him in his death, he takes your sin and gives you his righteousness in exchange. You have died to sin just as he died on the cross to pay for your sin. What it means that he fulfilled righteousness is that he has put you into relationship with God. You are in a right relationship with God because Jesus fulfilled righteousness.

And as Jesus is the righteous Son of God, he has made you sons and daughters of God. In your baptism he exchanged your sin for his righteousness, making you "beloved sons and daughters of God with whom God is well pleased." You are by nature sinners, slaves to sin and death, and there is no way you can free yourself from sin's power over you. By yourself, your are destroyers of relationships with others and destroyers of your own selves. But on account of Jesus righteous life and his death on the cross you are now sons and daughters of God; declared to be righteous and holy before God's eyes. So that now sin has lost its power over you. You have been set free, liberated from the power of sin. You have been set free from death. You are no longer instruments of death and self destruction, you are now instruments of life and reconciliation.

You have died with Christ. Sin has no power over you. You were buried with him in your baptism, death can no longer touch you. And you are raised with Christ to walk in newness of life. You have been set free from sin. So consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Put off your sinful and self-destructive behavior. Put off enmity with your neighbor and immorality. You are sons of God!

As in the Old Testament reading, God has gathered you in baptism from the north and south, the east and west into his kingdom and made you part of the body of Christ. You are the sons and daughters of God whom he has redeemed. "when you pass through the waters, he will be with you; and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you....because you are precious in his eyes and honored and he loves you. Fear not, for God is with you." You are righteous; you are in the right relation with God. You are sons and daughters of God.

Amen.