Rolling Around In The Mud With Pigs
Text: Matthew 3:13-17
In
the name of Jesus: Amen.
Jesus
becomes one of us.
There
was no holding Him back.
He
became one of us when He put on flesh and was born into a stinky stable that
Christmas long ago. He also became one
of us when He took on all that has gone wrong with us – our sins. Yes, this is the way that it is with the Son
of God; He descended into the sin filled world by His birth in a manger; He
plunged further still by going to the Jordan River and being baptized by John
the Baptist in a sinner’s baptism.
Take
pause for a moment and consider what was just said. Consider our Gospel reading from this morning,
as well.
Out
in the wilderness next to the Jordan River, we hear about dirty water, water
that had washed over some 500,000 sinners in a baptism of repentance for the
forgiveness of sins.[1] John the Baptist had blasted away at sinners;
confessions of sin, acknowledgements of failure, and concessions of corruption
abounded; baptismal water dripped from the heads of adulterers, thieves, liars,
prostitutes, swindlers, blasphemers, murderers, legalists, rebels, and
ragamuffins. It was an unusual place by
the Jordan River with John the Baptist; people laid bear with the ugliness of
life exposed and lines of individuals went into the water for baptisms.
Indeed,
things out by the Jordan River were surely no sanitized walk in the park; it
was messy and unclean. It was no rated
“G” event. The stench of sin filled the
air and the waters of the Jordan River were polluted by transgressors, and this
is exactly what Christ walked into and embraced. It is exactly what Christ took hold of as if
it were His own.
John
the Baptist did not seem to like this though.
He even argued with Jesus, telling Him to stay back. For John the Baptist, Jesus needed to stay
detached; He needed to keep His distance.
He had no business being baptized with dirty sinners. We may think the same as well, that Jesus needs
to stay clean and pure and holy, for He is the Holy Son of God. We may not like the way that this all
sounds. Yet, contrary to John and to our
thoughts, Jesus moved into the dirty water and demanded to be baptized.
Dear
friends, this is the way that it had to be.
Like a cleanly bathed child going to roll around in the mud with pigs,
Jesus descended into the Jordan and was baptized in the midst of sinners. The water of filthy sinners was applied upon
Christ, showing that He was the one who would bear the sins of the world—that
the mud of sinners was to be splashed upon Him.
This
is the kind of Savior that we have.
There is no distance or separation between us sinners and Him. This is God showing you and me that we are in
this together; not alone and not abandoned.
This baptism of Jesus is the fulfillment of righteousness; it is how
righteousness and the gospel work for us.[2]
As
it was in the Jordan River, it is no different for us today. Just as He came into the midst of sinners at
the Jordan River, the Lord Jesus Christ comes in the twenty-first-century to
where sinners gather. He comes to where
sins, failures, troubles, guilt, and shame are confessed. He comes to churches like Zion Lutheran
Church—a hospital for sinners. He comes
to sinners in the Word and the Sacraments, in order that we might believe,
know, and understand that there is no distance or separation between us sinners
and Him. Truly, He comes to the place of
sinners, because the Gospel is for sinners only. He comes to gift forgiveness, life, and
salvation.
What
does all of this mean? It means that Jesus
belongs to us. It means that we cannot
cleanse ourselves and move closer to Him, but rather, Jesus comes into the muck
of our sin for us. It means that “Jesus
placed Himself in the Jordan River, so that in Baptism He might place you
inside Himself. [Indeed, it means that you
blessed Saints] are baptized as a member of His body, intimately connected to
Jesus as a finger is to a hand. . . . His
life flows into you as freely as the water flows onto you in Baptism. You are [connected
with God in your baptisms,] filled with Him who fills all things, and fills you
in particular with forgiveness, everlasting life, salvation, peace, all the
riches of heaven.”[3]
Think
about it! At the baptism of our Lord,
the Father’s happiness and pleasure and favor were upon Jesus. And since we are in Christ through
Baptism—joined to Him—the Father delights in us as well.
Make
no mistake about it, what is ours—that is our sin—becomes Jesus’; what is
Jesus’—that is His righteousness—becomes ours.
Simply stated, because God delights in Jesus and we are in Jesus by
baptism, well then, God delights in us too.
If our hearts would totally take all of this in, Martin Luther once said
that our hearts would burst for joy into a hundred thousand pieces.
This
world is given over to sin, death, and the devil; it is perishing. More specifically and a bit closer to home, we
live in a world were slander attacks our character, gossip assassinates our friendships,
unjust condemnation presses upon our consciences, and demonic accusations
pierce our souls. We live in a world
where people falsely believe that they have successfully risen out of the
sewage of sin by their own strength and clever endeavors, whereas other people
celebrate the filth of sin as if it were glory and normal. We live in a world where there is truly no
safe place to lay one’s head; always on guard, sleeping with one eye open, and
constantly looking over the shoulder. We
also carry around this body of death, the old sinful nature, like a ball and
chain to the end of our lives. Considering
this, even though it is true that you are in this world, you mustn’t forget
that you are not of it.
Dear
Baptized Saints, your citizenship and life are hidden in Christ; your life is
not your own. You live and rest where
Christ is, where God has His delight, for you are connected with Christ in
baptism. Hear this: God has spoken His
divine word upon you! “With the water
His name was put on you at your Baptism.
[Therefore,] you are not just a doubtful, ambiguous, meaningless,
hopeless bunch of atoms bouncing around.
[You are not some accident of natural selection.] [Furthermore, the world, sin, death, and the
devil, do not possess you, for] you have the word of God put on you. At your Baptism, surely, and at Jesus’
baptism too. For there [in baptism] Jesus
is in [unity] with [you] and [you] with Him.
Because he is the beloved Son, we with Him are beloved sons and
daughters, delighted in and beloved of God.
So you can’t just drag along dreary, fearful, guilt-ridden,
nobody-loves-me, me-against-the-rest [of the world], . . . me-separate, all
alone.”[4] No, none of this is possible. You are not alone; the world, sin, death, the
devil, and your sinful nature do not have the final say, for you are connected
and joined to Son of God in your baptisms.
Through
the baptism in the Jordan River, Jesus sanctified (that is made holy) and
instituted all waters to be a blessed flood, a lavish washing away of sin. Yes, in your baptism you are
forgiven—completely, nothing held back.
In your baptism, you have been made a member of the Son, and an heir to
all of the treasurers of heaven. You
have been chosen and claimed and marked as the Lord’s own; no one can pluck you
from His hand.
Hear
this today: there is no separation with the Father, for we are baptized into
Christ. Sin cannot disturb your soul any
longer, for you are baptized into Christ!
Death cannot end your gladness, for you are baptized into Christ! Satan’s
might has come unraveled, for you are baptized into Christ![5]
Dear
Christians, firmly hold this gift. Give
God thanks forever! Baptism gives the
power to uplift; it revives your soul; it makes you stand and makes you whole;
it is your glorious robe of righteousness.[6]
You
are God’s own child, blessed Saints, for you are baptized into Christ. Nothing can change that reality and nothing
can separate you from your Lord that unites with you.
In
the name of Jesus who was baptized in the Jordan –for you: Amen.
[1] It has been estimated that some
200,000 to 500,000 people were baptized by John the Baptist, for Jewish
Historian Josephus mentions that the Baptist caused a great sensation.
[2] Norman Nagel, Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis (St.
Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2004), 43.
[3] Chad Bird, “Gather at the River of
Life and Death,” Flying Scroll,
https://birdchadlouis.wordpress.com/category/baptism/ (Accessed January 9,
2016).
[4] Ibid.
[5] Erdmann Neumeister, Lutheran Service Book: God’s Own Child, I
Gladly Say It tr. Robert E. Voelker (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing
House, 2006), 594.
[6] Paul Gerhardt, Lutheran Service Book: All Christians Who Have Been Baptized (St.
Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2006), 596.
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