Luke 3:15–17, 21–22

The Baptism of our Lord (2nd Sunday after Epiphany)

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." 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."

There is a mystery all through the Old Testament. There is someone lurking in the shadows, as it were, throughout the entire history of Israel. Every page of Scripture is shrouded in this mysterious person hiding from our eyes, but whose presence we can sense.

In Psalm 2 the Lord says, “Thou art my Son, today I have begotten thee.” There is a Son whose presence is seen, but about whom we know little. He is active throughout the history of Israel, yet appears only periodically and briefly, then retires back into the shadows.

What do we know about this Son? As we glide through the pages of history and little by little more is told about him, we see that the Son is a servant. He serves Israel and is their servant. Yet at the same time we are told that Israel is His inheritance. The Son is to receive an inheritance from the Father, and that inheritance is Israel and all the nations of earth. The Son is also the heir.

We are told that the Son is righteous. He is pleasing and acceptable to the Father. The Father delights in him. Nonetheless, the Son must suffer. He is a Suffering Servant. He is wounded and bruised. He is lowly and meek. He is humble, despised and rejected by men, the very men he is to serve. Throughout the Old Testament history of Israel, the Son cries to God for deliverance. He cries, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Far from my deliverance are the words of my groaning. O my God, I cry by day but thou dost not answer and by night buy I have no rest.” The Son says of himself, “I am a worm, and not a man. A reproach of men and despised by the people. All who see me sneer at me. Trouble is near but there is none to help.”

Yet this same Son has various names throughout history. He is called the Angel of the Lord. At other times he is called the Word. Still on other occasions he is called the Anointed One and he is also known as the Servant.

He talked with Abraham. Jacob saw him at the top of the ladder, and later Jacob wrestled with Him all night. He spoke to Moses from within the burning bush. He led Israel across the Red Sea, and guided them in the cloud and in a pillar of fire. He brought forth water from a rock. He sent bread and meat to feed them in the desert wilderness. He fought for the armies of Israel. Daniel saw him appearing as a Son of Man. Isaiah saw him sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted. He spoke to Ezekiel out of a whirlwind.

But who is this Son? Does he have a name? What is he like? What does he do? He both watches over Israel as a Lion and suffers for Israel. He protects Israel, gives them life and feeds them and yet he dies, rejected and despised by Israel.

And then, like a bolt of lightening, after Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John, the heavens opened and the voice of the Lord was heard: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

It was an Epiphany, a revelation! This person lurking in the shadows had stepped out into the light. He was revealed at last. His Father presented him to the world. This man Jesus, the son of Mary, the cousin of John, was the Son. Here he was… standing there as a man for all to see. The Son of God, the Holy One, in whom God is well pleased. He was pure and righteous. He was holy and without sin. He had the favor of God. God was pleased with him and delighted in his Son.

Here was the Anointed One, the Word, the Angel of the Lord, the Suffering Servant. On that day He stepped out of the shadows and made his debut. Jesus Christ was indeed The Son of God.

During this Epiphany season we will focus each week on one of the titles Jesus had in the Old Testament. We will see the Anointed One, the Servant, the Angel of the Lord, the Word, and the Son as they are all revealed to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Here was the Son of God, at the waters of baptism. When he approached John at first resisted. John knew that this Jesus was a holy man and that he himself was a sinner. It seemed wrong to John. It was backward. For how could a sinner baptize a holy man? It should be the other way around.

But Jesus insisted. “It must be so in order to fulfill all righteousness,” he said. For the Son of God had come to take our sin upon himself. He had become a man and made himself sin in our place. At his baptism he was sanctifying us by taking our filth and corruption from us and placing it upon himself. Therefore, though he was holy and righteous, yet he was considered a sinner on account of all our sins. He had made himself sin in our place.

For we by nature are sinful and unclean and deserve the temporal and eternal punishment of God. We are filthy bags of rot. We do not by nature love or trust God and in fact we don’t even have the capacity to do so. We couldn’t love and trust God if we wanted to. No matter how hard we try we would fail.

And it shows in our sinful life. It shows in our words and the things we say to and about others. It shows in our attitudes, our pride, our selfishness, our greed. It shows in lives centered in ourselves. Our sinful nature shows in the sinful thoughts we have about other people. The anger, the short-tempers, and our infinite ability to set ourselves above others and think we are superior.

These are but symptoms of our depravity and corrupt, sinful hearts. We are by nature separated from God and excluded from his kingdom. As Jesus said, “It is impossible for anyone to enter into the kingdom of God.” The only way to enter is to be born again, because by our first birth we are excluded, outsiders, lost and separated from God.

Why should God let us into his heaven? The answer is; He shouldn’t! We are all under the condemnation of sin; we are objects of God’s wrath.

But that is precisely the meaning of the Son of God. That Suffering Servant, the Angel of the Lord; the Anointed One. It is because of our sin that he went into the Jordan to be baptized that day. It was on account of our sin. He did so to take our sin upon himself. As if the waters of baptism carried our filth and rot and in his baptism he was covered with our sin; taking our filth out of the water so as to purify it. His baptism purified the baptismal waters so that when we are baptized they purify us of our sin.

In the baptism of Jesus there is a great exchange. He takes our sin upon himself and in our baptism he sanctifies us with his holiness. The baptism of Jesus is mankind’s baptism, for Jesus came to represent mankind:… sinful, filthy humanity. And when Jesus was baptized, mankind was baptized. Jesus took our sin unto himself and gave us his holiness.

So today, as we are baptized we are baptized into Jesus. Our sins are washed away and placed on Jesus. An exchange takes place. The filth of our sin is placed on Jesus and his cleanness is placed on us.

In our baptism, we are then born again, this time not as filthy, corrupt sinners, excluded from God’s kingdom, but as new, holy, clean saints. We are by this birth of baptism included in the kingdom of God. We are absorbed into the Son of God and become one with him in his death and resurrection. We share in all that the Son is. We are absorbed into him and hidden in him. We become sons of God in Him. We become his body and he is our head. Joined to Christ and hidden in him by baptism, these words spoken by the Father, “This is my Son who is pleasing to me,” are spoken about us.

We are then admitted into the kingdom of God. Now if God were to ask, “Why should I let you into my heaven?” we can answer, you shouldn’t, but as you let your own Son in, I shall enter in him. Because he has taken my sin and suffered condemnation and died on the cross for my sin and has redeemed me from your wrath and punishment. There is no reason to let me in, but your Son is pleasing to you and is your heir. Since in my baptism I am joined to him, when he comes in He brings us in.

Therefore we shall enter into God’s kingdom, wrapped in Jesus Christ, covered with his righteousness and cleansed by his blood, washed in the waters of baptism which he sanctified with his own suffering and death.

“For now it is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” We are joined to him, buried in him, hidden in him, we are the body of Christ and he is our head.

This is Epiphany, the debut of the Son of God. It is the presentation of Jesus Christ as that Son to all the world.

And the Epiphany continues today. It continues whenever we proclaim Christ and make him known to our friends and neighbors. It happens when we tell a friend about the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. It happens when we invite a friend to church to hear the message of Christ’s redemption. It happens every day around the world as pastors, missionaries, teachers, evangelists and every day normal people, like you and me, tell about Jesus. It happens when Mike and Ann Wade share the love of Christ with people in Argentina through their agricultural work, showing people how to produce better crops and increase their harvest as they work in the harvest of the Lord.

Epiphany happens when we live as children of God, putting away the filth of sin and selfishness from our lives and thoughts and putting on Christ to live in obedience and follow in his footsteps. It happens when we let the love of Christ shine through our lives onto others around us.

Epiphany is the revelation of the Son of God. This is what happened when Jesus was baptized. He was revealed as the righteous Son of God. Epiphany is the revelation that in Christ we are sons of God and heirs of eternal life.

Amen.