Sermon on Luke 3:5-22

The Baptism of our Lord, 01/09/2022 | Sermon on Luke 3:5-22 |  by Brad Everett |

Today is the feast of the baptism of our Lord.

To avoid any misunderstanding, Jesus was not baptized for his sake but for ours. The baptism offered by John in the wilderness of the Jordan River was a sign of repentance. Those who received it were making a public and personal statement of their desire to turn, or asking God’s help to turn, from sin and back to God. It served as a symbolic washing and a declaration of their intent to make the necessary amendments of life that went along with such change.

As Jesus was sinless, repentance was a moot point for him—but not for us. Instead, Jesus’ baptism marked the beginning of something new. Offerings, sacrifices and the ritual washing of baptisms had been the way Israel sought God’s forgiveness and grace. The symbolic dying, burial and rising of baptism, foreshadowed the events of Calvary. It hinted at the violent grace Jesus’ death on the cross, his burial in the tomb and physically rising on the third day would win for all who desired it, the forgiveness of God and a right relationship with him.

As a foreshadowing, it’s one of many events in the life of our Lord understood best in hindsight. John the Baptist’s description of what Jesus was going to do i.e. baptizing people with the Holy Spirit and fire, winnowing fork in hand clearing the threshing floor to gather the wheat and burn the chaff, is only truly understood in light of Christ’s death, resurrection and ascension.

After his baptism, when Jesus was praying, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove and a voice came from heaven saying “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased”, wasn’t for Jesus’ sake so much as it was for the sake of those on the banks of the Jordan that day as well as us who read or heard of the event over the centuries. The dove and voice didn’t tell Jesus who he was, it told us who he was, just as his baptism didn’t bring him forgiveness, but showed us that ours was coming.

It was one way Jesus showed by both word and deed that he came for us and for our sake—that in his relatively short time on earth, he would go through everything we would for our sakes and our salvation.

By his baptism in the waters of the Jordan River, Jesus hallowed all waters, preparing this particular path for us to be made children of God, to receive the promise of eternal life and forgiveness of sin through water and the Word of God.

This feast of our Lord’s baptism illustrates in a particular way Christ’s love for us in his provision of this sacrament.

He didn’t give us a set of directions to follow or a process to navigate in our own strength and understanding, but instead went ahead of us to prepare a path, only to come back to walk that path with us through baptismal waters, and all of life.

This is the wonder of the Incarnation, the mystery that God became flesh, the mystery of the feast we just celebrated Christmas, Jesus’ nativity. God isn’t or wasn’t just watching us from a distance, he loved us so much that he came to be with us and participate in our lives, up close and personal. Jesus’ observation of our lives wasn’t restricted to a remote location, he came to be with us, hence one of the titles of Jesus, Emmanuel ‘God with us’.

This is a central aspect of Jesus’ life which we celebrate in some fashion in every one of his feasts.

Today on the occasion of his baptism, we give thanks that our Lord identified himself with our sinfulness and need for forgiveness even though he himself was sinless. We express our gratitude that this identification was not just one of distant empathy but was the first step in providing a remedy for our circumstance.

We are reminded today, there is nothing we encounter in our lives that Jesus, by his life, death and resurrection hasn’t already gone through first for our sakes, and that he continues to go through for our sake and our salvation as he walks beside us. Just as went before us in baptism, he has gone before us in death and resurrection, preparing the path to walk with us through this life and into the next.

Pr. Brad Everett

Calgary, AB, Canada

Email: everettsts@gmail.com