God's Promise of New Life (January 8, 2023) Mt. 3.13-17

I like football. I like to watch it and comment on what I have seen or heard. Sure, it gets my blood pressure up and I get way too invested in the game that I have no part in, but I like football. So, you might imagine the horror and shock that I felt last Tuesday when I heard the news of Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin being taken to the hospital after suffering cardiac arrest on the field. It was a terrible thought that a 24 year old man (just a kid in my book) might have died playing a game. But there were trained professionals who moved quickly and saved his life. It is said that when he was able to communicate, Hamlin asked if Buffalo had won the game (not the first question I would have asked if I found myself in the hospital). He was told that yes, he had won the game, the game of life. He has been given a new lease on life as the saying goes. Now he needs to go and live it.

We have a promise of new life as well. The life that is given to us through baptism. It is here that we demonstrate that we have died to the old life of sin and been given new life in Christ to live for God. While we may not realize this, our baptism allows us into the new life found in the kingdom of God.

I remember my baptism. The words that were said stick with me because they promised the new life that I have stated. This was a Baptist baptism meaning that I was dunked under the water. The words that were stated were this: Buried in the likeness of his death, raised in the likeness of his resurrection. As a seven year old at the time, I am not sure I understood what all those words meant. But as I grew older, I began to realize that I had a new life because of my baptism. My old life of sin was taken away and a new life was given, a life that God promised to give me because I trusted in Jesus as the “author and finisher of my faith.”

Today is the Baptism of the Lord. It is an interesting thing that Jesus was baptized. There is a lot going on in this text. The discussion of John and Jesus, what happened immediately after the baptism and even what was going on before. But there are two questions that are very important: what was Jesus doing getting baptized and what happened after the baptism.

First things first. Most of us are like John in asking what Jesus was doing at the river. This is Jesus after all. He is the Son of God and is sinless. He has no need for the baptism to remove sins. John realized that and tried to have the roles reversed. He was telling Jesus that it should be the other way around, that he needed to be baptized by Jesus. But Jesus insisted that this was the fulfillment of God’s will, that he had to be baptized with the same kind of baptism as that of sinners. In doing this, Jesus identified with the humanity that he was a part of. In the incarnation, God became human and, in this baptism, God was willing to say that God was working with humanity in understanding what we go through though knowing no sin. One must understand the culture as well. In the Mediterranean, honor and shame were (and still are) the bywords of how one conducted themselves. In this baptism, Jesus was laying aside the honor that properly belonged to him as the Son of God and took up the shame of humanity so that he would be able to identify with us and understand what we go through. In Hebrews 4 we find these words that express what was happening here: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin”.[1] Because Jesus was willing to set aside his glory without any fanfare, God was willing to honor Jesus publicly as the Son, the one who was to bring about the reconciliation of humanity with God.

Second, what happened after the baptism. Many a time there are those who come to church to have their child baptized and then disappear. Or someone will come, be active, get baptized and then, again, disappear from the church. They have come to believe that baptism is the end result of the life of the church. They now have gained the grace of God and need to do nothing else. However, this is in total disagreement with what happens after Jesus’ baptism and also what Jesus taught.

After his baptism is when Jesus’ ministry begins. He goes from the Jordan and, after his temptation in the desert, begins his ministry that leads to the cross. In fact, after his baptism is when the story of Jesus really takes off. Before we have heard of birth and a few snippets of what he did as a youth, but it is here that we find Jesus moving forward with the mission that he came to fulfill in this life and world. It should go without saying then that our baptism should be the very beginning of our life in Christ and should reflect a lifetime of showing the grace of God that was bestowed upon us like the Spirit coming upon Jesus when he came out of the water. Reformed theology makes it quite certain that a new life begins after baptism. Daniel Migliore defines baptism in this way, saying that it: “takes the form of a public confession of faith and immersion in, pouring on, or sprinkling with water in the name of the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The rich symbolism of baptism includes washing away of sin, dying and rising to new life in Christ, being born to new life by the Spirit, and being welcomed as a child of God into the family of faith.”[2]

Pretty powerful stuff, isn’t it? We die to sin that is washed away and we rise to a new life in Christ that is the life of the Spirit and we are now a child of God and part of the family of faith. As part of the family, we are all a part of the baptism of those in the Church. Whether it be a tiny baby or a senior citizen who is being baptized, we are all called to be a part of that. This is no private service between pastor and the one being baptized. This is a family affair. It involves a public profession of faith by parents who bring the infant for baptism or by the one who can make that profession on their own. It involves the congregation (thought you wouldn’t be called in on this didn’t you?) in helping to bring these new members of the family along in the faith. It is not a “free pass’ but a call for all of us to show our faith and give thanks for the work done in Christ.

When the baptism of Jesus was finished the sky opened up and something like a dove appeared and lighted on him. This was the Holy Spirit coming down to Jesus and letting those around him know that something happened just now. There was a voice too that said “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”[3] God was pleased that Jesus set aside his rightful place to become like us and take the baptism that we are to take as well. In doing so he showed that he was humble and willing to be a part of this thing that we call life. And the Spirit coming down showed that we are to have new life in baptism. In the Nicene Creed the statement is that the Holy Spirit is the giver of life. When we are baptized, the Spirit comes upon us and gives us new life. It is life and life more abundant than anything we can imagine.

Our confessions tell us that life is found in baptism. The Confession of 1967 has this to say: “9.51 By humble submission to John’s baptism, Christ joined himself to men in their need and entered upon his ministry of reconciliation in the power of the spirit. Christian baptism marks the receiving of the same Spirit by all his people. Baptism with water represents not only cleansing from sin but a dying with Christ and a joyful rising with him to new life. It commits all Christians to die each day to sin and to live for righteousness. In baptism the church celebrates the renewal of the covenant with which God has bound his people to himself. By baptism, individuals are publicly received into the church to share in its life and ministry, and the church becomes responsible for their training and support in Christian discipleship. When those baptized are infants, the congregation, as well as the parents, has a special obligation to nurture them in the Christian life, leading them to make, by a public profession, a personal response to the love of God shown forth in their baptism.”[4]

God’s promise is a life that will be more than we can ever imagine. It will be a life in which we will never be alone because we will have God and each other. In baptism we are given this new life and a family that will never end. May we cling to the promise of new life and may we never forget our baptism. Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [2]Migliore, Daniel. Faith Seeking Understanding, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2014. 444 [3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [4]Confession of 1967, Book of Confessions, 296