St. Mark 1:4-11
Divine Service

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

What an odd thing – the way they have devised our lessons for Sunday.  This lesson overlaps with a lesson from about 6 weeks ago.  You would think that they could select distinct passages for us to have on each Sunday of the year.  But Mark’s story of John the Baptizer is repeated this week, but with a little different focus.  In Advent we were preparing for the arrival of our Lord – now He has come, and we are going to follow some of His life through the Gospel of Mark.

As I said, our Gospel lesson repeats the account of John the Baptizer preaching a message of repentance in the desert.  That is a tough message to sell.  Repentance: that means you have to admit that you have done something wrong, and no longer do that wrong.  That is a tough sell anywhere, any when!  Most people don’t want to be told that they are sinners.  Yes, people need to repent – but not really me – I’m not all that bad – the other guy needs to clean up his act! 

Not only is John trying to sell a tough message, he is doing it in a bad place.  Maybe downtown Jerusalem would have been better.  Did he call synod and get a demographic study?  Did he really think that people would go out of their way to listen to him?  But the people did come … ‘the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him.’ 

Apparently John was having some success, but it sure didn’t show up in his attire or cuisine.  Dressed in camel hair – rough, scratchy, homespun camel hair.  And a leather belt – today we consider a leather belt to be normal.  But the ‘belt’ that would have been worn in those days would have been more like the cincture that I am wearing to keep this alb closed, and leather would not accomplish that as well as cloth does.  And a diet of what he could scrounge from the desert – locusts and wild honey – poor fare for a successful preacher!

But these conditions are apparently what John prefers.  He is waiting; waiting for one of whom he says  ‘the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.’  This preacher knows that it is not about him.  He is not the one that God has sent – other than he is a messenger for the one God sent.  But what about his human pride?  Does John really like being second fiddle?  We don’t know about his thoughts, but we do know that he stayed on his humble ways – right up to his death at the hands of King Herod.

John has been baptizing people in the Jordan River.  We are not told what his procedure was.  Baptize simply means to wash with water.  People throughout the 2000 years since the time of John the Baptizer have tried to make all sorts of special rules about HOW baptisms should be done.  The HOW is not as important as the WHAT.  Yet, the baptism of John, by his own words is not the baptism of today ‘I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.’ 

And this is our baptism.  We call upon God to send the Holy Ghost to baptize through the water and the Word, not simply the water.  This is the difference between the Christian baptism and the baptism of John.  He preached ‘a baptism of repentance.’  We confess a baptism of the forgiveness of sins, which delivers us from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe.  Repentance versus forgiveness: the difference in the baptism of John the Baptizer and our Christian baptism.

John had a task – a special vocation appointed for him by God.  He was the one who was to prepare the way for the coming Messiah.  He was that second Isaiah; come to make smooth the path for the Promised Savior.  He had been special from before he was conceived, and now that special moment that God designated for him was at hand. 

One of those in the crowd stepped forward to be baptized by John, and things changed!!  Mark does not report that John recognized Jesus…Matthew gives us that account.  But based on either or both accounts, John was not expecting Jesus to be there.  No, when the Word made flesh stands among His people, He has no form or comeliness; and when they see Him, there is no beauty that they should desire Him.  Furthermore, He makes no statement of authority that day; He does not seize the reigns and declare Himself to be the Mighty One.  He comes as Lamb, not lion; and rather than boast of His holiness and superiority before the multitudes, He comes to be baptized-just like all the poor, miserable sinners gathered to listen to John.

He came to be baptized, and He.  The protests that Matthew records are not the point. What is important is that Jesus has come to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness – baptized to fulfill all righteousness for you.  For this is the very beginning of that baptism that grants to each of us the forgiveness of sins – here in the stream known as the River Jordan; here as Jesus, the man without sin, receives his baptism. 

And then something spectacular happens; an event extraordinary in the history of the world.  ‘As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open.’  Not just the heavens open, but the heavens torn open.  A tear in the heavens that allowed, even if just for an instant, a man to look into heaven while still on this earth.  Never before or since has this happened.  A single miraculous moment, and we so often overlook it as just ‘another’ event in the life of Jesus Christ! 

Then the entire Trinity shows up at once.  The Son coming out of the water, being lauded by the Father while the Holy Ghost appears overhead like a dove.  What a wonderful object lesson for us to use against those who would deny the Trinity.  Here, at the same time, but in 3 different forms is our Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.  Yet still, just one God –for we know that ‘The LORD our God, the LORD is one.’ (Deut 6:4).

Christ receives an unnecessary baptism, and through His baptism we receive the forgiveness of sins.  What a great deal for man!  We are baptized not just into the life of Jesus Christ, but also into His death.  By and through His Baptism, your Baptism is sanctified!  Just as the Trinity was there at Jesus’ baptism, so are they there for each and every baptism. 

the font. If your sins are not washed away, you cannot stand the presence of God.

The baptism of Jesus is the very beginning of His time of teaching and healing on earth.  In just 3 short years, there will be another miraculous event.  Jesus will be welcomed into Jerusalem to joyous crowds on the first day of a week approximately 3 years from this time, and less than a week after that He will be sentenced to death.  He knew from the very start of His ministry that this was to be His destiny.  He had come to earth for this very reason.  Without His death on the cross, and His subsequent resurrection, His baptism would have been meaningless! 

We will see some of Jesus life through the eyes of Mark the Evangelist over the next few weeks.  For each of these lessons, we should keep in mind that Jesus began His ministry with baptism.  We should also keep in mind that we began our life in Christ with our Baptism, even though most of us were too young to remember it. 

As Father, Son and Holy Ghost were working for your salvation at the Jordan on the day of Jesus’ baptism, so they worked your salvation at the font, when a pastor washed you with water and Word "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." So the Holy Trinity renews your Baptism with the words, "I forgive you all of your sins." By this Absolution, you are prepared and renewed for the Lord's Supper, where you dine in the presence of God. All of this goes back to Jesus' Baptism in the Jordan River. If He is not baptized, your Baptism is not sanctified. If your sins are not washed onto Him there, they are not washed off of you at the font. If your sins are not washed away, you cannot stand the presence of God.

But Jesus is baptized. He is present in Word and Sacrament for your good. So you have the hope of eternal life that comes through Him.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

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