The Baptism of Jesus - Mark 1:4-11

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Bible begins with the phrase, “In the beginning, God…” It’s a remarkable phrase: in the beginning, before there was anything – light, dark, day, night, man, animal, vegetable or mineral – there was God. He has always been, always is, and always will be. He is infinite without beginning or end.

He is also omnipotent, all powerful. Each piece of creation was spoken into existence, “Let there be,” and it was so and it was good. God’s Word is infinitely, omnipotently powerful.

And, don’t forget, in the beginning, the Triune God is fully and completely and mysteriously present. I say mysterious, only to our human minds: how can God be three persons in one being? Philosphers, theologians, scholars all seek to explain it and in the end we simply say, “I believe this because the Scriptures tell us there is God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.” The triune God is present in creation: Father, Son and Spirit. Jesus, pre-incarnate – that is to say, before he becomes flesh via the womb of Mary – is present at Creation. Don’t forget that. In fact, it is so important to understand and know this that John actually begins His Gospel by saying, “In the beginning [note the connection to Genesis 1] was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Jesus is the Word; the Word is God; Jesus is God; the Word spoke all things into existence. We will confess this in the Creed in just a few minutes: “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made…”

Jesus is God. That means He carries all of the attributes of God: infinite, omnipotent, holy, sinless, perfect. He was there at the beginning.

And, then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God is enfleshed and born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. The early church took special note of this and called Mary “The Mother of God.” And this is true. God deigns to dwell among man. Jesus, God’s Son and Mary’s Son – fully God, willfully setting aside his full Divine power and majesty; fully Man, taking onto Himself our physical body with all of our physical attributes. In His flesh, Jesus will know a beginning; He will not know all things; He will experience all human emotion including hunger and pain; joy and sorrow; rest and fatigue.

But, the one human experience he will not have is to sin. He will be tempted by those around him, including the Jewish leaders, the crowds, His own disciples, even face to face by Satan himself. Yet, the Scriptures tell us He is like us in every way except without sin.

This is what makes this morning’s Gospel reading so remarkable: John is baptizing in the River Jordan. St. Mark is clear: “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.”

Jesus has no sins to confess. He has done nothing wrong. He is God and God is holy and sinless. Yet, Jesus humbles himself, in flesh, to descend into the water to be baptized. Remember: He is taking the place of every man. He steps into humanity to take our place. It is the undoing of man’s unholiness. So, in His baptism, instead of having his sins washed away, our sins are being washed onto Jesus. Baptismal water, which washes our sins away, carries all of our sins and pours them all onto the sinless son of God.

There is an ancient technique for making delicate, silk veils. A pan is filled with clean water. The artist then uses different colored oils and, carefully, drips the oils into the desired pattern on the surface of the water. The veil maker and their apprentice will then carefully lower the clean, white silk onto the surface of the oiled water. Instantly, the oil bonds to the silk. They lift the now-stained cloth up and it has taken the oil’s stain into itself. The water, left behind in the pan, is clean and ready to be used again.

The analogy is in your baptism, your sins were washed into the water. Unlike the oils, you can’t see the sins in the water. But they are there. And Christ, the pure, sinless son of God, takes up our sins into Himself. He, who knew no sin, became sin for us.

This is no analogy: your sins - Your trusting your bank account more than the saving promises of God; Your casually tossing God’s name in disgust when the receiver drops the big pass; Your failure to study the Scriptures; your hateful speech to your kids and your parents; your taking things that don’t belong to you, or trying to figure out ways to get them; your staring at that calendar with the cool firetrucks and cars – oh, and the scantily clad fire-studs and babes in bikinis that make your heart skip a beat;  and so much more – all of your sins that deserve condemnation get exactly what they deserve. Jesus, baptized into your sins, dies the sinner’s death of condemnation and separation from God. He takes each and every one to the Cross. He does it so you do not. He does it out of His great love for you, while you were still a sinner, Christ died for you.

A wonderful exchange takes place in Baptism. With your sins removed from you, Christ’s righteousness rushes in. You are declared holy, washed clean in Christ.

So you do not doubt this, not only does Jesus die, He also rises. His death pays the price; His resurrection is the proof-evidence that satisfaction is made. Baptized into Christ, you died with Christ; baptized into Christ, you have risen with Christ. Do you understand what a remarkable gift this is? All of your sins, removed from you in Christ. They can no longer be held against you. The debt is paid in full.

Jesus public ministry is about to begin. He will enter the three years of public service of teaching and preaching, performing miracles, healing and raising the dead. He will call disciples to follow and enemies will rise against him. Through it all, the devil will work to derail Jesus purpose of being the world’s Savior. As Jesus climbs out of the riverbed, with the cross on the horizon, the Spirit descends on Him in the form of the dove and the Father’s voice is heard, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

We are now beginning the season of Epiphany. It’s an oddity of the church year: we don’t follow the life of Jesus, chronologically. Last week, Jesus was a baby; this week, he is a man. Epiphany means “revealing,” that is, Christ being revealed as Savior. The season also begins to show people’s response to Jesus and His ministry. Those words serve to strengthen Him. No mere man; Jesus is God’s own Son – with God in the Beginning, now beginning His earthly ministry as Savior.