The Baptism of Our Lord

I. The Icons Tell the Story 00:02

Lord Jesus, we do pray that by your Spirit you would anoint us to walk from this place with your healing, to walk from this place with the word of God on our lips, to walk from this place reaching a world that needs you. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

So today we’re going to go ahead and talk about our Gospel lesson, the baptism of Jesus. I just asked her to throw that image up there. There are so many beautiful icons of the church, and they were all painted to tell the stories that you read in the book. Because I think we all know this: there’s one type of storytelling that you get when you read the words, but there’s a whole other level of storytelling that can happen when you see a picture, visual storytelling. From the earliest time, Christians were trying to depict what was going on in the Bible. And you can imagine, for at least 1,500 years of Christianity, 99% of the people couldn’t read a word of the actual text. They could hear and understand, but they couldn’t read the Bible. And so they would look at these beautiful images, and they would look at these icons, and they would dwell on the meanings in them. And so it developed this hyper-dense meaning, just through the work of the paintings.

And this one’s a more modern one, from a lot of these Ukrainian icon painters that my Uncle Ken, who’s also a priest in our denomination, loves. And so I get all these images that he shares, and they’re so powerful. And I want you to keep the images of what God does in your mind, not just the words. That’s why our church has our own baptism icon of Jesus, so that we can keep before our eyes the image of what God has done for us, not just the words. It shapes you, and it’s important. And so we’ll talk further about another icon down the road.

II. Why Baptism? 02:47

But here’s the question as we start: why baptism? Just going to start there, really basic. From the beginning of time, humans have developed purity rituals. They’ve developed these spiritual ideas that if you wash your physical body with water, your spirit is cleansed. And of course, in all these various religions around the world, you have this imagery. But it culminates, as we look in the Scripture, with more than just a symbol. It culminates in an actual cleansing.

And you can think about it: these early religions, these early people, are trying to figure out, “How do we relate to God?” Because the question was never, “Does God exist?” That’s a modern question. Nobody ever thought that. They looked around, they saw creation, and they’re like, “There must be a God. There must be a Creator. This couldn’t have come from nothing.” And so they said, “How do we relate to our God?” And as all of us sitting here know, we aren’t good enough. Humans from the beginning of time have known that. Everyone knows they’re not good enough to relate to the Creator of the universe, to relate to goodness. Everyone knows that in their heart.

And there are two paths from that. You can take one path, the path that I call the path of delusion, which says, “I can be good enough. I can do it, either by changing my own mind or my own actions.” And in January that’s particularly relevant, because you are probably seeing an infinite number of advertisements about how if you just listen to this video, all the weight you want to lose will be achieved; if you just join this program, you’ll make millions of dollars; if you just listen to my video, you can heal yourself. That’s one path when you realize you’re not good enough: “Well, I will make of myself a god. I’ll give myself the ability to save.” But instead, of course, the other path is: “I need God.” And that’s what these purity rituals were about. They were about finding a way to cleanse yourself so that you could relate to the God of the universe.

III. John's Baptism of Repentance 05:18

And in the Old Testament, we see that all of these purity rituals were the path you would take to get to the presence of God. So if you were going to go into the tabernacle, or later on the temple, you had to wash yourself in these purity rituals, because of course you are not good enough to get to God. That’s the idea: it’s revealing our inadequacy. So you would have this washing ritual to get into the presence of God.

And then John started this baptism of repentance. And he’s kind of a radical figure. He is out in the wilderness. He’s not at the temple, where you’re supposed to do these things. He’s at the Jordan River, the muddy Jordan. I mean, it’s not like a beautiful river, guys. This is just a little muddy area. And he’s out there saying, “No, if you come to me, I will baptize you for repentance,” not the religious leaders. And we didn’t get to read that today, but the religious leaders are not happy about what’s going on with John. But he’s trying to call people back to the heart of these rituals of purification, because, you know what, water is not going to clean you. Not spiritually. And so he’s calling them to a deeper level. He’s calling them to repentance, an actual change of their heart, their mind, their behavior.

And as he’s doing this, he says some really interesting things, because he gains a huge following. I mean, imagine a megachurch pastor. Everybody watches his sermons. Everybody wants to go to his place. He’s got all these people, and they’re coming to him instead of to the religious leaders, to relate to God, to have this ritual. And so they start asking him this very natural question, in Luke chapter 3:15:

15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, Luke 3.15

Now, it says “as the people were in expectation.” I don’t know if you remember, but just a month ago we were in Advent. And Advent is all about expecting the coming of the Christ, the Messiah. That word “Christ” actually just means “anointed” in Greek, Christos. And that was a translation of the Hebrew “Messiah,” which also means “anointed.” So the Anointed One, the Savior, the Christ: their hearts are expecting this.

Do you know why their hearts were expecting this? Because their lives were not easy. They knew they needed a savior. In this time they were oppressed by the Romans, and the Israelite people had not been out of oppression by one nation or another for hundreds of years. Nobody remembered the last time they were free. They were slaves in all but name. Everything they owned could be taken from them by these oppressive regimes. And they knew they needed salvation. But even deeper than that, they were slaves to sin. Because they thought God was here to get rid of the Romans and save us. Instead, Jesus came that he might set us free from the greater slavery that is sin. So all of this is background for what’s going on here. And they’re like, “Maybe John is the guy. Maybe this is what we’ve been waiting for. Look at the words of power. And, you know, our lives are being changed, because we’re repenting and we’re turning to God.”

IV. The Holy Spirit and Fire 08:34

And so what does John say, in Luke 3:16?

16 John 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. Luke 3.16

Now, first you have to highlight John’s humility. Could you imagine? Your people, your tribe, are coming to you. They’re experiencing the change that comes when you turn towards God. He’s seeing these people begin the road to the kingdom of God. He’s seeing sinners turn away from their addictions. He’s seeing things happen. And they say, “Well, are you the one we’re supposed to follow?” “Well, maybe. It seems to be pretty good. I mean, look at all these people who like what I say, who listen to what I say.” And so you start to get this idea. But instead, John maintains his humility. He never loses focus on Jesus. He never loses his focus and starts thinking about how good he is. He says, “No, no, no. You guys don’t understand. There’s somebody way better than me coming. I can’t even tie his shoelaces. He is that much better than me.”

And then particularly he says, “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Now, it’s interesting, that word “Holy Spirit.” Pneuma is the word for Spirit, which is also the word for wind or breath. So “he will baptize you with wind and fire.” Maybe that rings a bell, because of course, when is this fulfilled? It’s fulfilled in the first place in Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came with the sound of a rushing wind and with flames of fire. We have an icon of it in the back, speaking of images. That’s when the early church received the baptism that was promised, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

And so when you look at this, and you think about spirit and fire, and wind and fire, there’s a symbol of a purity ritual, but there’s a promise of something more. There’s a promise of the reality of God’s presence. In fact, in the purity ritual, you would be clean so that you could enter the presence of God. In Jesus’ baptism, with Holy Spirit, fire, water, in that baptism you were clean so that God can bring his presence into you. How awesome is that? They were like, “I just want to be able to go into the temple and not feel bad.” And he’s like, “No, I’m going to dwell with you.” In fact, we have a song about that, don’t we? It’s like, “Pleased with man, with man to dwell, Jesus, our Emmanuel.” What does Emmanuel mean? God with us. That’s the whole idea. We thought we had to get to God, and God said, “No, I’m coming to you.” And that is the gospel. That’s the good news. And so that’s the promise of the baptism.

V. The Winnowing Fork 10:40

Now, John actually goes on. In our liturgical readings we follow the church calendar, and it skipped a couple of verses, but I just want to highlight this one. He says he’ll baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire, but then he says, in verse 17:

17 His 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.” Luke 3.17

I should have a picture of what winnowing looks like, actually. You know what, I forgot to put it in the slides. This is my fault; I’m remembering now. Okay, so a winnowing fork: what they would do is they would put it in the hay, they would throw the hay in the air, and that which had no substance, the chaff, the light stuff, would just be blown away by the wind, the meaningless stuff. And the real stuff you needed, the wheat, to make bread, would fall back to the threshing floor. So that’s what he means. He’s got a winnowing fan.

And so of course he must be saying that Jesus is going to come, he’s going to look at the world, and he’s going to, you know, symbolically throw everything in the air, and the good people will end up on the threshing floor, and the bad people will be blown away and burned in an unquenchable fire. That’s not what he means. Not what he means at all. In fact, if you look at what he’s saying here, think of what he just said: you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with what? Fire. We get the fire. What’s he doing? He’s throwing you in the air, and the stuff in you that has no substance, the sin, the stuff that would hold you back, is being blown away by the Holy Spirit wind and burned up in the Holy Spirit fire. It’s not about those evil people over there. It’s about all the things God wants to do in you to make a home in you, to leave behind that which matters, that which has substance, that which has fruit. And so when he talks about the winnowing fork, it’s not about them. It’s about us. And God is doing this. And even if you look at this imagery… I just love this idea of the fire that burns away everything in us that is not of him.

VI. Redeemed From Fire by Fire 13:39

And T. S. Eliot captures this in my favorite poem of all time, “Little Gidding.” Now, it’s my favorite because it’s like the only poem I know. But it’s awesome as well. It’s not like I’ve read a thousand poems and I picked this one. But it’s so good, I don’t even need to look for another great poem. In “Little Gidding” (it’s the last of the Four Quartets) he has this stanza, and he says, “The dove descending.” We’ve got this picture over here for you to think about: the dove descending.

The dove descending breaks the air With flame of incandescent terror Of which the tongues (of fire, like at Pentecost) declare The one discharge from sin and error. The only hope, or else despair Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre— To be redeemed from fire by fire.

I love this idea. You don’t actually get to avoid the flames. You either end up in hell, burning, because you chose to run away and you made of yourself all chaff (because that’s what happens when you choose to make yourself a god, when you choose to do it on your own strength; when you choose anything other than him, you become nothing, you become chaff, you become that which is for being burned), or you can choose to be saved by the fire of the Holy Spirit that will purify you and make you like him. Furthermore, he says:

Who then devised the torment? Love. Love is the unfamiliar Name Behind the hands that wove The intolerable shirt of flame Which human power cannot remove. We only live, only suspire Consumed by either fire or fire.

This beautiful idea: “Oh, it’s so painful.” And T. S. Eliot knows pain, if you’ve read his works. He knows despair. But he goes, “Who devised this reality, where pain and fire and these challenges…?” He goes, “Love. Love did it,” so that you could live, so that you could suspire, which means breathe. We’re breathing the breath of life, because the Holy Spirit comes in us, and he makes us that which is alive, those who are alive, who can join him in eternity. So all of this is happening in this imagery of the winnowing fork and the Holy Spirit and fire coming.

VII. To Fulfill All Righteousness 16:01

And verse 18, it says:

18 So with many other exhortations John preached good news to the people. Luke 3.18

I love that he doesn’t stop there. He has to continually exhort them, because we’re all human. They’re not sitting there like, “Ooh, that’s a really good point, John. I’m going to change everything.” No. They need constant encouragement, like we do. Every week we come back here, and somebody stands up here and encourages us. The worship band leads us in the praise of our Lord. The readings, everything, is for shaping us, and ultimately, of course, the Eucharist, for changing us. And so all of this is happening. He’s continuing to exhort them.

And we’re going to switch, actually, to Matthew’s telling of the next couple of verses, because Luke kind of summarized, and I like the way Matthew tells the exact same story. It says, in verse 13 of Matthew 3:

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Matt 3.13–14

Once again, John’s humility is just amazing.

15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. Matt 3.15

So that’s a good question. We know why we get baptized; I think we’ve laid that out pretty clearly. Why would Jesus need to be baptized? Let’s throw up this image here, and let’s think about this. This is another Ukrainian icon painter, icon writer, and you can see this is the picture of baptism. But I love a couple of things about this. Number one, I love the fact that Jesus is in a position of death, because we’re told that in our baptism we enter with Jesus into his death and are raised to newness of life (Rom 6.4). That’s what Paul describes baptism as. That’s the symbol: when you’re baptized, you die, and you become a new creation in Christ. That’s what Jesus was saying to the teacher who asked what to do to be saved, and he says, “You must be born again” (John 3.3). The teacher’s like, “I have to enter my mother’s womb?” And he’s like, “No, you must be made new.” You must be made new. You have to be completely recreated.

In fact, that’s the other image that’s going on in here. You can kind of see that the waters have this kind of primordial chaos. They kind of look almost like the globe, and that’s intentional. It’s almost like if you spread out the world. It’s like he’s entering in, and he’s taking out of the waters, which symbolize death and chaos, and he’s making something new. He’s creating the world again in his baptism. He is constantly doing that which God always does: making all things new. All things. And when you look at that, and you think about the symbol of what Jesus is doing, you also have to recognize Jesus’ humility. Because God, who made everything good, didn’t have to start over. He made it all good. But for our sake he came, that we might participate in the goodness again, to save us, to invite us into his new creation.

And Jesus identifies with us. He enters the water of repentance. He didn’t need to repent, but he wasn’t going to lead us from above. He was going to lead us in the waters, so that when you’re baptized, you actually are with Christ. That’s the sacrament: Christ made present with you in your baptism. The water is the outward sign of the inward grace of the presence of Christ that recreates you into a new creation. So everyone here today who’s been baptized into Christ, you are new. You don’t have to fight to be a good Christian. You’ve been made a good Christian. He will change you, insofar as you participate with him, but you are already changed.

And so I like looking at these images and thinking about the depth of what this is. And it opens up your idea that not only is God burning your sin away, he is making you new. So if you think about this idea of just burning sin away, you can think, “Well, do I have all the scars, all the brokenness, that I came into it with?” You brought your brokenness; he gave you his nature. Your nature was broken, all of us. We know that; it’s not hard to prove. Just pay attention. But he gave you newness of life. All of these ways are talking about the mystery of the entrance into his kingdom. “Repent and enter the kingdom of God.” How? Through baptism. That’s how God established it.

And you know how the disciples had Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit came on them and all that? Well, when do we get the fire and the wind? You get it in the baptism. It all happens in that. That’s part of why the priest or the celebrant anoints her head with oil, because you have been anointed by the Holy Spirit. So you know how they called Christ the Messiah, the Anointed One? He was anointed in his baptism as the dove descended. How are you anointed? With him, in your baptism. He led the way. He’s a trailblazer. He took us there.

VIII. The Heavens Were Opened 20:22

Okay, so what happens in his baptism? Now, all of this is leading up to the moment in verse 16. It says:

16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; Matt 3.16

“The heavens were opened to him.” The separation between heaven, the dwelling of God, and man is completely obliterated in the person of Jesus. He is the bridge. He’s the door. He’s the way. He is the thing that connects God to you. He is the person (it’s not a thing), the person that connects God to you. And in this moment we’re being told that the heavens were opened to him, so that the heavens are open to you. It’s not just because Jesus is the Son of God, and he’s so special, and God loves him so much. No. Everything he did was that you could participate in that fellowship with God and have the presence with you.

And then the Spirit of God descends like a dove, and I love that: “coming to rest on him.” We are just so wound up all the time. I don’t know about you. Maybe I’m just confessing. I’m so wound up all the time. I want to do things. I want to accomplish things. And it’s like, no: the Holy Spirit, God himself, doing one of the most important things that ever happened, the baptism of Christ, rests on Jesus. I love that. There’s something about the idea that the presence of God is not striving within you, trying to figure out how to make your life turn out okay because you keep messing it up. It’s like, no, he’s resting in you. He’s confident that the work he’s begun in you he will bring to completion (Phil 1.6). So rest. That just jumped out to me when I was reading that.

IX. This Is My Beloved Son 22:28

And then it says:

17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Matt 3.17

That’s the culmination of all. You can see in our image, and in the other images they also have this: the presence of God is depicted as the voice and the glory coming from heaven. That’s God the Father. Then you have the presence of God in the dove, the Holy Spirit. Then you have the presence of God in the incarnate Jesus Christ. One of the most beautiful pictures of the Trinity is always right here in this icon for you to contemplate. They’re all in unity. And it’s the relationship, and the way that God bestows the approval and the mission and everything on Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, and Jesus humbly walks it out. That’s the picture of who God is.

And you think about all this, and what did I say earlier? He did not do anything that wasn’t an invitation to us to join him. So in your baptism, what happens? The Holy Spirit descends upon you as you join Jesus. And then what is declared as you come out of baptism? “This is my beloved son. This is my beloved daughter, with whom I’m well pleased.” You don’t have to do anything else. He did it, and he is pleased with you.

If I was just talking about how I get a little wound up, it’s because I don’t rest in the fact that God is pleased in me. I feel I need to earn it: “How could he love me? I mess up all the time. Or I did that, or the other.” No. He already loves you. He already chose you. You can operate from a place of rest. You don’t have to work yourself up to get the thing. You just know, “Look, I’m loved by my Father. What am I worried about?” God, who created the entire world, who wove everything together, the summum bonum, the good of all: I mean, he did everything for you, and he loves you, and you’re right where you need to be, and he will bring you from glory to glory. That’s the journey we’re on.

Now, as Paul shows us, it’s a war we’re fighting. You’ve got to put on the armor of God (Ephes 6.11), because living from a place of rest in God and in your identity in him is actually a battle. It’s a battle for your heart, and it takes place in your mind. And your mouth is one of your greatest weapons. The problem is, it’s a two-edged sword. And so you can be fighting on the other guy’s team, with your complaining, with your anger, with your cutting down of other people, with gossip, slandering, all of the things. You could be a great warrior for the other side. Or you can fight to live from your identity as a son and daughter of God. The words you say will shape the things that you think, and vice versa. That relationship is so tightly bound.

All of that said, this is the promise: “This is my beloved son or daughter, with whom I’m well pleased.” That was declared in your baptism, and you can live from that forevermore, for eternity. We get to live in that identity, because you have been welcomed into the family of God. That’s what Father Powell was talking about when he was bringing up the Romans passage about how we get to cry “Abba, Father” (Rom 8.15). That is purchased for you. You have that right, to know God as your Father, who loves and cares for you.

X. That Which He Has Not Assumed 25:40

Saint Gregory the Theologian… You know, as soon as I say that, some people’s minds just turned off: “I don’t need another quote.” I’m sorry, but it’s just so good. And it says: “For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved. If only half Adam fell, then that which Christ assumes and saves may be half also; but if the whole of his nature fell, it must be united to the whole nature of Him that was begotten, and so be saved as a whole.”

If you’re sitting there going, “What the heck did that mean?” let me explain. The important part is: that which he has not assumed, he has not healed. Because our fallen nature needs to be healed. That’s what baptism is all about. But what he did is he embraced the fullness of our humanity. Because there were people arguing, “No, he was a physical man, but he was actually God on the inside.” It was like God wearing skin and bones, walking around, but it was really God. And he’s like, “No, no, no, no. He was us.” He not only was, but is us. He came and became human, assumed our broken nature, and led us into healing.

And so my last point is to say: stop talking about how you’re only human, because he is the capital-H Human. Anything you do that is sin, that is weak (and I mean weak in a bad way, not the weakness of falling on Jesus, but the weakness of trying to control your life), anything that you do that’s outside of him is actually inhumane. It’s not human. The human part is coming and falling at his feet and marching along with that Human who went before us.

As C. S. Lewis writes in his sermon “The Weight of Glory”: at the very end (he’s preaching this on a Sunday, just like us, in an Episcopal church) he says, at the very end, “But tomorrow is Monday morning.” So what are we going to do? He knows the reality: you get back to work, and all these high-floating ideas… How do you encounter Monday morning? He says: let us follow our captain, who has torn open the veil into his kingdom. He says it better than that. But the point is, even as you start your Monday morning, follow Jesus, the Human. Live out of your identity, and enter the kingdom of God. Amen.