Baptism of Our Lord C 2025

Text: “21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”” (Luke 3:21–22).

{Pastor looks closely at the people in the congregation for a long moment.}

I was just curious if any of you were wearing your Detroit Lion’s gear this morning. Perhaps there will be more next Sunday, after their bye week. There are certainly a lot of people in a lot of places around here who are proudly declaring their identity as Lion’s fans. The one Lion’s item that caught my attention this week was a shirt that has the blue Lion on the front and says, “Married into this….” I may or may not end up with one of those. We’ll see.

Let’s take that thought a step further. If you laid out all your clothes and took a look at the rest of your wardrobe, what would it say about you? Who are you, based on the clothes you wear? “Clothes make the man,” right? Not just the logos from your favorite sports teams, but the stye of your clothes, how new or old they are— they tell us a lot about you.

Or think about the walls in your house. Who do they tell us that you are? What do you have hanging on those walls? Pictures of family? Artwork? And what kind of artwork? If you have expensive paintings by famous artists, that says something, doesn’t it? If you have paintings by local artists, that might say something a little different. If your walls have artwork drawn by your grandchildren, then that says something about who you are. How may times would we find the Michigan logo on your walls? …the Michigan State logo? Who do the walls in your house say that you are?

Except those are all external things. They are just as likely to be used by people to put on a facade. The Lion’s bandwagon has gotten a lot bigger over the past few years. It sounds like this has all been really good for business— more than a few people suddenly feel like they need Lion’s shirts or hats or jerseys who never really needed them before, oddly enough. Some of these external things can be used to try to make you look like someone you are not.

On the other hand, there are other external things which tell us more about who you truly are than what you say about yourself. You may say that you are a certain type of person, but your actions tell the real story.

Your checking account statement is a popular example. Think about where your money goes. What do you spend it on? What does that say about who you are— about what is most important to you? We could go on. Look at the calendar on your phone; look at the list of phone calls and texts; look at your social media feeds; etc…. Put them all together and they give an interesting picture of who you are.

I suppose I could score a cheap preaching point by asking how many of your t-shirts proclaim that you are a Christian or how many crosses and Bible verses you have decorating the walls in your house. But selling merchandise is not the goal this morning. It’s your life that God is concerned with. If someone followed you around and watched where you go, listened to what you say, and watched what you do, who would they say that you are?

Isn’t that one of the uncomfortable things about living in our day? So many companies have all of that information. You give them access to see the events on your calendar; they track what shows and movies you watch; they examine what you post and what you comment on online; they track where you go; they collect a full history of everything that you buy; they follow what you look at online…. It’s really uncomfortable, isn’t it?

Do you think that God has less information about you than Google does?

John warned that Jesus would “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). He will “gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Luke 3:17). Is that good news for you? When the books are opened and the God who knows more about you than Google sits in judgment, will you be found to be chaff or good wheat? Will you be worthy of gathering into his barn or will you be burned with unquenchable fire? Because you can put on a show for us— you can fool other people. You can dress yourself up and you can be in church and you can say all the right things…. But God will know everything. “He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity” (Psalm 98:9). But it will not be on the image that you want to project. Your words, your actions, what you do for those who can not offer you anything in return, what you do when no one is looking, how you treat your enemies— when all of that is revealed, who will He decide that you are?

That is the point of Jesus’ baptism. It was not for Him. John was out there in the wilderness baptizing as a sign of repentance. Jesus did not need to repent. He did not need to be baptized. He did it for the people around Him. He did it for you.

There could be no question about who Jesus was. Not only had there been angels and shepherds and stars and wise men at His birth, now everyone who was there that day saw the dove descending from heaven; they heard the voice from heaven declare, “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). That is who He was— and not just on the surface. All the way to His core. He proved it with His actions; He proved it with His words; He proved it through the way He treated the poor and those who offered Him nothing in return; He proved it through the way He treated His enemies; He proved it in what He did for you.

Even then, 2,000 years ago, He knew more about you than Google. And He used that knowledge to make sure that every single one of those sins from you so that He could carry them Himself. He used that knowledge to make sure that every single one of them was paid for in full on the cross.

He did not need to be crucified any more than He needed to be baptized. The death He died there was yours. There on the cross you see your sin more clearly than even you know. You see the death that you deserved. And they are not yours any longer. He took them from you and suffered for them and died the death that you deserved.

The point of Jesus baptism is that the person you see there on the cross— feeling the full weight of their sins— is not who you are any longer. When you were brought to the waters of baptism, it was not just a cute ceremony. God did something powerful to you there. Your old self— your sinful nature— your old self was crucified there with him in order that you are no longer enslaved to sin. In that water, you were baptized into His death. You were buried with Him by baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead, you too might live a new life (Romans 6:3-4).

Baptism is about your identity. There, at the baptismal font, God called you by name and declared you to be His beloved child with whom He is well pleased (Romans 8:15). Because you have been clothed with Christ and His righteousness. That perfect life is what the Father sees when He looks at you. He sees His dearly loved child.

That is who you are now. Call it a disciple of Jesus Christ, call it God’s child, call it whatever you’d like, but He has redeemed you from the death and judgment you deserved and has given you a new and holy life.

“11 So you …must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:11–14).

“22 [P]ut off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,… 24 and …put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4:22–24). That is what your life should look like now: the life of a Child of God.

I’m glad to see that none of you came wearing your Lion’s gear today. This really is not the place, is it? But the fact that you have been clothed with Christ should always be visible. Whatever clothes you are wearing, that identity should shine through. Strive to make sure that the new life you were given in baptism is audible in your words and visible in your actions— especially for those who can offer you nothing in return; especially toward your enemies…. Strive to make it permeate your home with prayer and regular scripture reading— with the Word of God seasoning your conversations each and every day.

Because you are His beloved child, in whom He is well pleased.