{"id":15822,"date":"2023-01-04T16:00:59","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T15:00:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theologie.whp.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=15822"},"modified":"2023-01-04T16:50:13","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T15:50:13","slug":"matthew-313-17-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/matthew-313-17-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 3:13-17"},"content":{"rendered":"

The First Sunday after the Epiphany |\u00a0<\/span>Mt 3:13-17 | 01\/08\/2023 | Judson F Merrell |<\/h3>\n

The Baptism of Our Lord<\/p>\n

13<\/sup> Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.<\/p>\n

\u00a014<\/sup> John would have prevented him, saying, „I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?“<\/p>\n

\u00a015<\/sup> But Jesus answered him, „Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.“ Then he consented.<\/p>\n

\u00a016<\/sup> And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.<\/p>\n

\u00a017<\/sup> And a voice from heaven said, „This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.“ (Mat 3:13-17 NRSV)<\/p>\n

Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n

It seems fitting to me that this Sunday, the day in which we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord, is also the first Sunday that I join you in ministry here at St. Peter\u2019s.\u00a0 As I prayed about this sermon I was drawn to our service of Holy Baptism in the Lutheran Book of Worship.\u00a0 In the opening address of that service, the following words are said by the Pastor:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBy water and Holy Spirit we are made members of the Church which is the Body of Christ.\u00a0 As we live with him and with his people, we grow in faith, love, and obedience to the will of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Right there we know the expectations that we have as baptized Children of God.\u00a0 It seems as though it is simple enough, but truth be told it\u2019s a pretty tall order.\u00a0 Perhaps even taller than what many say are God\u2019s expectations of us, as found in Micah 6:8:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 8<\/sup> He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Mic 6:8 NRS)<\/p>\n

Faith, love, obedience.\u00a0 The English translation of Micah 6:8 uses the word \u201crequire\u201d, but in the Hebrew the word is \u201cSeek\u201d.\u00a0 What does the Lord seek out?\u00a0 As baptized children of God, what is expected of us?\u00a0 Faith.\u00a0 Love.\u00a0Obedience.\u00a0 Now to turn the question around\u2026as baptized children of God, what do we expect of our Lord?\u00a0 Do we expect faith, love and obedience?\u00a0 Do we expect mercy and grace?\u00a0 Do we expect forgiveness and righteousness?\u00a0 All that for me is wrapped up in another question:\u00a0 Should we have expectations of our Lord?\u00a0 That is a question we can ponder on, and it is also a question in which we can turn to Scripture as we ponder.\u00a0 Looking at our text today, we can say that John certainly had expectations of his Lord.<\/p>\n

13<\/sup> Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.<\/p>\n

\u00a014<\/sup> John would have prevented him, saying, „I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?“<\/p>\n

\u00a015<\/sup> But Jesus answered him, „Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.“ Then he consented.<\/p>\n

\u00a0(Mat 3:13-15 NRS)<\/p>\n

John\u2019s expectations were that he was not worthy to baptize Jesus.\u00a0 His expectation, and rightly so, was that Jesus was the promised Messiah.\u00a0 As a good Jew, John had expectations of a grand king who would reestablish the throne of David, defeat the Roman occupiers, and restore Israel and Jerusalem to its former greatness.\u00a0 Furthermore, John was baptizing for the forgiveness of sin.\u00a0 Why would Jesus, the sinless Son of God, need to be baptized?\u00a0 Perhaps because Jesus knows the significance of baptism.\u00a0 Matthew records for us that at this baptism the Spirit comes upon Jesus, and God declares \u201cThis is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.\u201d\u00a0 Many people have questioned why Jesus, the sinless Son of God, needed to go through a baptism for the repentance of sins.\u00a0 Understandably people struggle with this.\u00a0 But in doing so perhaps they miss the bigger picture.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 baptism shows us the obedience and devotion to God\u2019s will that we are all called to.\u00a0 In doing so, Jesus shows us just how connected our lives truly are.\u00a0 His obedience to the Father serves as the perfect example for us.\u00a0 After his baptism, Jesus begins the greatest ministry the world has ever seen.\u00a0 It is a ministry centered around faith, love, and obedience.\u00a0 Full of the Spirit, Jesus is able to heal, resurrect the dead, cast out demons, turn Gentiles to God, and even reconcile the world to himself through his death on the cross.\u00a0 This is a ministry that we cannot do.\u00a0 But full of the Spirit, we are able to do some amazing things with ministry.\u00a0 In his baptism, Jesus showed faith, love and obedience to God the Father.\u00a0 Through our own baptisms, we do the same.\u00a0 The ministry that comes out of St. Peter\u2019s is done out of faith, love and obedience to God.\u00a0 God has blessed this congregation in so many ways, and I am so thankful that my family and I have joined with you in passing that blessing on.\u00a0 In 1519 Luther wrote in his treatise \u201cThe Holy and Blessed Sacrament of Baptism\u201d the following:<\/p>\n

\u201cGod has given every saint a special way and a special grace to follow in their baptism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ministry that each of you do shows the grace that God has given you.\u00a0 It shows how God has equipped and enabled you to be the child of God that you are.\u00a0 No one is the same, but together you are able to do some amazing things.\u00a0 All of that is only possible though through the gift of the Spirit, given at baptism to each of you. The ministry that each of you do, and collectively together as a congregation, shows the grace that God has given you.\u00a0 It shows how God has equipped and enabled you to be the child of God that you are, whether we expected it or not.\u00a0 All of that is only possible though through the gift of the Spirit, given at baptism to each of you.\u00a0 The gift of the Spirit is the new thing that God has done in your life, and it is something to be continually celebrated.\u00a0 We celebrate and rejoice in that today by hearing once again about Jesus\u2019 own baptism.\u00a0 We look forward to hearing in the weeks to come how his baptism was the starting point of his ministry, rejoicing in what he was able to do as he was filled with the power of the Spirit.\u00a0 Today we also remember our own baptisms, rejoicing that God has claimed us as his own and given us his grace and mercy.\u00a0 We give thanks that through the gift of the Spirit, God has enabled us to be a blessing to so many others in our community.\u00a0 As we take a new step in our journey today, it is my prayer that God continues to bless us as we live together in faith, love, and obedience.\u00a0 As a baptized member of the Body of Christ, it is my expectation that the Spirit will continue to help on this journey, so that our ministry will be for the Glory of God, now and forever. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The First Sunday after the Epiphany |\u00a0Mt 3:13-17 | 01\/08\/2023 | Judson F Merrell | The Baptism of Our Lord 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. \u00a014 John would have prevented him, saying, „I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,157,108,110,235,676,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-15822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-matthaeus","category-beitragende","category-current","category-engl","category-judson-f-merrell","category-kapitel-03-chapter-03-matthaeus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15822"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15838,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15822\/revisions\/15838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15822"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=15822"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=15822"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=15822"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=15822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}