Much of the time we take water for granted. After
all, water’s one of those facts of life which always seems to be
there. Water is the most common substance there is. It covers
about 70 percent of the earth’s surface. The human body is made
up of about two-thirds water. Water falls on our heads and houses
in the form of rain. We water our lawns, our gardens, our
houseplants, and use water to wash our bodies and our cars.
Water’s pretty commonplace stuff. It’s easy to
take for granted. But there was nothing at all commonplace about
the water mentioned in today’s Gospel. True, it was ordinary river
water – the water of the Jordan River to be exact. But it was
still special. In the truest sense of the word, it was holy
water. It wasn’t holy because of any particular qualities in
itself. It was holy because of who it was associated with and
what it was used for. It was holy because of the One who entered
that water and had it poured over His head when He was baptized.
It was holy because it was God’s water, used to publicly set apart
God’s beloved Son as the Christ, the Savior of the world.
St. Mark tells us how our Lord Jesus Christ
answered John’s call for Baptism just as other people did, but
with one big difference. John was preaching a Baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and the whole Judean
countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. They
confessed their sins and then were baptized by John in the Jordan
River.
However, the ultimate purpose of John’s Baptism was
to point people to Jesus. John preached that after him would come
Someone more powerful than John, the thongs of whose sandals John
wasn’t worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with
water, John said, but He will
baptize you with the Holy Spirit.
And so Jesus, the One who would baptize with the
Holy Spirit, came to be baptized by John. But He didn’t come
because He was a sinner who needed forgiveness. Who of you
can convict Me of sin? our Lord would later ask His
enemies. The book of Hebrews says that Jesus is like us in all
ways, and has been tempted in all points as we are – yet He is
without sin. There’s the difference between us and Him. Conceived
by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus didn’t labor
under a burden of sin like you and I do. As God in the flesh, He
was perfect in all His ways. So why, then, did Jesus come to be
baptized?
It wasn’t for Himself that Jesus was baptized; it
was for us. It was to fulfill all righteousness for you and me.
That’s what Jesus’ life, sufferings, death and resurrection are
all about. Everything He did was on behalf of us sinners. From
His circumcision to His death on the Cross and His burial and
beyond, it was all for us. So we could be forgiven through faith
in Him. So we could be declared righteous and reconciled to God
through His holy precious blood and His innocent sufferings and
death. So we who by nature are sinful and unclean could be made
holy and acceptable to God through faith in Jesus.
Today we observe the Baptism of our Lord and what
it means for us. When He was baptized Jesus entered the water of
the Jordan the same way He entered the world -- as the Word made
flesh, the One who was to die on the Cross for the sins of all
mankind. He entered the water the same way He entered the world
-- as the Word made flesh, the One who would take away the sin of
the world by the things He suffered on the Cross and the blood He
shed. He entered the water the same way He entered the world – as
the Word made flesh, the One who would make all things new and
holy by His entry into creation. In the Person of Jesus Christ,
God’s Word was united to the water of the Jordan so that all
Baptismal water could work forgiveness of sins, so that all
Baptismal water could rescue from death and the devil, so that all
Baptismal water could give eternal salvation to all who believe.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Word and promise of
God, are what make Baptismal water a holy, saving thing. For
Jesus’ sake, the water of your Baptism was a holy water, because
God’s Word and promise to you were attached to that water. God
now sees you as holy because through the Word and water of Baptism
you have been united to Jesus who fulfilled all righteousness for
you. You’ve been washed in His Blood. You’ve been adopted into
the family of the Triune God. You’ve been declared righteous and
holy and spotless and pure because of Jesus.
The leprosy of sin from which you suffered? – it’s
been cured. The curse of mortality you inherited from Adam? –
it’s been replaced by God’s blessing of life eternal through the
grace of God in Christ. You are baptized. By God’s grace,
through faith in His Son, you are now a saint, a holy one – holy
and pure because of Jesus.
So don’t ever take your Baptism for granted.
That’s to treat something holy as though it were commonplace.
It’s to profane the sacred. Ultimately, it’s to despise God’s good
and precious gift as something worthless.
At one time or another, we all tend to treat the
good and precious gifts of God as if they were no account. When
we waste food, we’re forgetting that God gives food to us to keep
us alive. When we abuse our sexuality, and use it in a way
contrary to how He intends us to – in marriage – we’re profaning
His good gift, and the result is pain and heartache and
brokenness. When we fail to gladly hear and learn God’s Word,
we’re taking that Word for granted, treating it as if it were no
more important than a television commercial.
The list goes on. When we take Holy Communion
lightly, and don’t hunger and thirst for the forgiveness, life and
salvation God freely bestows in the Sacrament, we’re treating a
holy thing as common and ordinary. When we cast Christ’s Body and
Blood aside like a chewing gum wrapper, we’re treating something
holy as commonplace and without value.
And when we forget that we’re baptized into
Christ’s death and resurrection, called to die to sin daily
through contrition and repentance and live before God through
faith in His Son, we’re treating God’s holy, precious gift of new
life in Christ as something profane. We’re baptized, for Christ’s
sake! We wear the Name of the Triune God! We’ve been snatched out
of sin and death and judgment and have been given eternal life,
eternal blessedness, on account of Jesus. That’s certainly not
something to take for granted. That’s certainly not something to
treat as commonplace. On the contrary, it’s something to rejoice
in. It’s something to live for. It’s something that gives
meaning and purpose to our days, our sorrows, our joys, our
hopes. We are God’s forgiven children, right now, through our
Baptism into Christ. That’s something special, beyond the power
of words to describe.
It’s true our human race tends to treat holy things
as commonplace. That comes with the sin we’ve inherited from
Adam. But through His Son Jesus Christ, God does the exact
reverse. God treats the commonplace as something holy. He takes
the commonplace and makes it holy.
You might say that taking the commonplace and
making it holy is God’s specialty, His proper work. Through the
Incarnation, that’s what He did for our human nature when He sent
His Son into the flesh. That’s what He does for ordinary bread
and wine when through the Words of Institution Jesus’ Body and
Blood are put into the bread and wine for us to eat and drink for
the forgiveness of our sins.
Taking the commonplace and making it holy is what
God did for you and me through our Baptism. It’s what He does for
plain, ordinary water when He unites His Word to it and makes it
“a Baptism, that is, a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a
washing of the new birth, in the Holy Spirit.” Titus 3 puts it
like this: He saved us through the
washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured
out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that,
having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having
the hope of eternal life.
God saved us through our Baptism into Christ.
Through Baptism we sinners have been washed, reborn and renewed by
the Holy Spirit. We’ve been justified by God’s grace and made
God’s heirs having the hope of eternal life. God made us holy
through Holy Baptism. He made the water of our Baptism holy
through His holy Word. His Word is holy because the Word made
flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, is holy. And everything our good and
gracious Lord comes into contact with is made holy too.
God takes commonplace things and makes them holy
things, for Jesus’ sake. He takes human words and makes them
holy, life-giving words because of Jesus. He takes ordinary water
and makes it holy, life-giving water because of Jesus. He takes
ordinary bread and wine and makes it the holy, life-giving Body
and Blood of Christ, given to us to eat and drink. And He has
taken you, and He has taken me – commonplace though we are -- and
He has made us holy on account of Jesus. We are His holy
children, His holy saints, His holy redeemed people. God keep us
from taking any of this for granted. Because indeed, there’s
nothing commonplace about it.
In Nomine Patris. . .
