Sermon for 2/08/09

To Fulfill All Righteousness

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. 14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?"
15 But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him.
16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He^[c] saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. 17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

 

Picture this. Here is John the Baptist. He has found a patch of water that is deep enough to baptize people in. He is baptizing a few, and then preaching for a little bit. Baptizing and preaching. Talking about repentance.

His beard has a little bit of honey on it that he has not noticed from the locusts and wild honey he has eaten that morning. His hair is unkempt. It is hot, and his skin is darkened and wrinkled from spending day after day in the middle eastern desert.

John baptizes another. Then another. Then Jesus walks up. He wants to be baptized.

Now, you need to know that John was the first one to notice who Jesus was. John the Baptist recognized Jesus as the promised one in-utero. He leapt for joy in his mother Elizabeth's womb when he noticed that the Virgin Mary was pregnant with Jesus the Messiah.

John has spent his adult ministry preparing the way for Jesus. Preaching repentance. Baptizing a baptism of repentance.

Then Jesus comes to him. Jesus comes to John from Galilee. Trekking over dirty dusty trails. Walking up to him like any other man. Asking to be baptized. How would you have responded if you were John the Baptist?

How would you have responded if the Son of God came to be baptized by you? If the Lord put you in that place of leadership and authority over him? I imagine you might have responded like John. No it is you that should baptize me! You would have felt unworthy to have Jesus come to you just like John the Baptist did. Unworthy to untie his sandals much less baptize him. I think, in other words, if you and I were in the same situation we would respond very much like the way that John the Baptist did.

"Who I am Jesus, to baptize you? You should be baptizing me?"

 

What puzzles me as I look at this Bible passage is something simpler. Why would Jesus need to be baptized anyway? What does it mean when they say that Jesus was baptized to "fulfill all righteousness"? And what made God so pleased at this event more than the many other events in the life of Jesus?

As I worked on understanding this passage, these are the questions I come to this passage with. And if I have these questions about what is going on, I thought maybe you did too. So I thought we would work together to understand a little more about what is going on here, and thus grow a little in our knowledge about Jesus.

One of the things that challenges me about Jesus' being baptized by John is that the baptism of John is a baptism of repentance. And Jesus, being without sin, did not need to repent. So, if Jesus did not need to repent, why did he need to be baptized?

Well the answer to this is easier and harder than we might anticipate. The answer to our question is found in our reason for asking that question. It is a simple answer, but it will take a while for me to unpack and explain. The reason Jesus came to baptized like one of us is that he wants the BE ONE OF US.

Jesus wants to be one of us. The theological shorthand for this is incarnation. He is fully human. Even though he is also fully God, he wants to set that aside to sweat with people, and eat with people. He wants to talk with people, and sleep like other people do. He wants to get tired and lonely, cold and hungry. So that he can know us, and identify with us.

Phillippians 2 puts it this way, as Paul looks back over what Jesus did, quoting one of the earliest church hymns:

5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,

6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,

7 but made Himself of no reputation,

taking the form of a bondservant,

and coming in the likeness of men.

8 And being found in appearance as a man,

He humbled Himself

and became obedient to the point of death,

the death of the cross.

9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him

and given Him the name which is above every name,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

of those in heaven, and of those on earth,

and of those under the earth,

11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

 

When Jesus enters into the waters of baptism, he is saying YES to this call from God. He is saying yes to loving us enough to enter into our heartache and our pain. To live life as a human. And to love us. To love us enough to suffer and die for us.

 

This baptism is Jesus' installation service. It is where he commits to be the faithful Son of God as a human being. Where he says yes to God's call and agenda. As humans we all have free will. We all have to choose. This is the point where Jesus says yes to his mission as a person like you and I.

 

As Jesus enters the waters of baptism, it is his anointing into the ministry. It is his initiation into the formal part of fulfilling his mission to be one of us, and yet die for all of us. This is what Jesus means when he says fulfilling all righteousness. Fulfilling that mission and obeying that call of God.

 

And it is this obedience to God's call that makes God open up the heavens and say that he is pleased with Jesus. Because when Jesus enters those waters of baptism he obeys GODS call and GODS mission.

 

Now that we understand this truth, that this baptism about Jesus saying Yes to God's call on his life to live with us and love us, to suffer and die with us, entering into a baptism of repentance makes a little more sense. When we came to the waters of baptism, we come repenting of our sin. We come baptism saying that we have sinned and fallen short personally. When Jesus comes to the waters of baptism, he comes to the waters of baptism KNOWING that He is going to take on the sins of all.

 

Remember what we learned over Advent. Remember how Matthew views history. God creates people. And people sin. He calls is Israel as his own people. And asks them to trust Him. And they sin and they turn away. And in the fullness of time, God send's Jesus. And Jesus is Israel personified. Israel is referred to as the Son of God. And Jesus is referred to as the Son of God. And the first two chapters of Matthew show us how Jesus is faithful, where the nation of Israel and all humanity was unfaithful, Jesus is obiedient . All of history is like a funnel, and the center point and the focal point of that funnel is Jesus. Everything that has happened before in history leads to him, and everything after him flows from his life and work. And now, Jesus submits to a baptism of repentance. Not because he has sinned. No, Jesus is sinless. But because Jesus stands in those waters on our behalf. Agreeing with God that Israel has sinned, you and I have sinned, each of us has sinned and fallen short of the God. He comes to the waters of baptism knowing, as Paul teaches in Romans, that he who had no sin became sin for us. Martin Luther says it this way, "For He was not washed from His own sins (since he had none), but for my sins and the sins of the whole world."

So Christ comes to the waters of baptism to be one of us. To say YES to God and his mission. To say Yes to taking on the sins of the world.

 

But Jesus comes to the waters of baptism for another reason. He also comes there because he is the great teacher. The greatest teachers, you see are always the ones that show the way, not only by the words that they say, but by how they live. Good teachers don't ask you to do what they have not done.

 

Jesus wants us to trust him enough to follow him. Following him starts with repentance. And then he calls us to be baptized. And by being baptized, to stand up in front of everyone and say 1—I have sinned and 2—I want to follow Jesus. Jesus wants us to become disciples and be baptized. But he does not ask us to do what he is unwilling to do. He shows us the way by being an example. He shows us the way by doing himself what he asks us to do right from the start.

 

Perhaps now, it is important to explain what the world disciple means. It means someone who has the discipline to imitate the Master. When one chooses to be a disciple, one chooses to do what the Master does, to experience what the Master experiences, so that they can become as much like the Master as possible.

 

Why is this important. Because Jesus says YES to God and his mission, YES to taking on the sins of the world, YES to being one of us because he calls and invites US to be like him.

 

To live like him. And to love like him.

 

To do the will of the Father like him. And to have the Spirit of the Living God descend on us like it did on him that day.He wants to show us the way. He wants us to spend eternity with him YES. But he wants that eternal life to begin in your life and heart now.

 

As we continue in Matthew he will show us how to pray and forgive, how to give up on worry and judging, and live a life of strength and power and beauty.

 

He wants to die for us, and live with us and be one of us so that he can show us a better way to live. To live with hope. And with love. And to live in the power of the Holy Spirit, letting God's holy spirit do things in us and through us that can only just imagine now.

 

The question is, will you say YES to him? Will you step into the water, and give your whole life to living this in this God-driven, God-blessed, Christ-like life that he has in front of you? I hope that we will all say YES anew today.