The Baptism of Our Lord                              Mark 1:4-11                                    1/8/06

                                                         “It Will Never Be The Same”

 

There are two kinds of people in this world.  One kind gets a present and very carefully slits open the wrapping paper wherever it is sealed.  Then, they flatten out the paper eliminating any possible wrinkles.  It can take them hours to open their Christmas presents.  Their pleasure in being very neat and  the anticipation of what they will find is almost as great as in the present itself.

 

The other kind of people don’t let anything stand between them and the real gift.  They’ve been patient enough just waiting for the day to come.  They hardly take time to find where the wrapping paper is closed, choosing rather to attack any weak point.  They rip.  They tear.  They shred.  And the floor by them looks like World War III has taken place.

 

I know that God loves both kinds of people, but I think God has a particular appreciation for the ripper, tearer, shredders.  I feel this way because God seems to be of this temperament in our Gospel lesson. 

 

Just look at the wording in vs10, “...he (Jesus) saw the heavens torn apart”.  Doesn’t that just sound like the person who can’t wait to get to the gift so (s)he immediately tears into the wrapping.  God can’t even wait for Jesus to get out of the water, much less dry off.  He rips open the heavens to let Him know how pleased He is with His Him.

 

But, wait!   We must have a problem with editing or translation here.  It says that Jesus came to be baptized by John.  John’s baptism was purely the baptism of repentance.  That’s why the baptism Jesus inaugurated is greater, because it is only baptism in His name that conveys the Holy Spirit. 

 

So, why would Jesus be baptized by John?  Wasn’t Jesus without sin?  If He hadn’t sinned and didn’t have sin in Him like those people coming for John’s baptism, why go down there like that?  And why should God be pleased that He participated in what for the Son of God must have been an empty ritual?

 

There’s a beautiful word I learned a number of years ago, in the 1980’s.  Various trade unions in Poland united to challenge Communist control of their trades.  They formed a movement and ultimately a political party called “Solidarity.  Over the decade, other groups from farmers’ coalitions, to academic groups, to religious organizations joined, and in 1989 Solidarity defeated the Communist government and took power.  Poland would never be the same.

 

Solidarity was people breaking down the barriers that separated them – barriers of social standing, education, income, ethnicity – and standing together in the cause of liberty.

 

In Jesus’ baptism, God broke the barrier of His own righteousness to stand with us sinners.  Jesus came together with sinful humanity in the cause of liberty from sin, death and the devil.  He was baptized to be one with those people.  He was baptized to be one with us.

 

This is why God tore, ripped, and shredded the heavens.  He couldn’t wait to be rejoined with the people He created and loved more dearly than life itself.  It would take the three years of Jesus’ ministry and His death on the cross, when in Mark we read of another divine tearing, but God made sure that when He opened the heavens nothing would separate us from Him again.

 

Nothing would separate us and nothing would ever be the same.  The old sacrificial system and the old works system were demolished.  God in this epiphany – this manifestation of His power and glory – made clear that the mending of the relationship between Him and His people would be purely by the work of the Holy Spirit given in baptism for the sake of Jesus who died for us.

 

At every baptism the pastor reads what is called “the Flood prayer” which includes these words, “In the waters of the Jordan your Son was baptized by John and anointed with the Spirit.  By the baptism of his own death and resurrection your beloved son has set us free from the bondage to sin and death, and has opened the way to the joy and freedom of everlasting life.”

 

That joy and freedom is not a state of being or experience that comes only with death and it has nothing to do with how good we are in this life.  That joy and freedom are to start the very moment of baptism.  When the pastor says, “I baptize you in the name of the Father...,” we too can hear, “You are my son (my daughter), the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”  And no matter what we do in life, no matter what other people think of or say about us, no matter what we feel about ourselves, God’s proclamation that we are His beloved with whom He is well pleased stands. 

 

This is so because our joy and freedom from the bondage to sin and death are not dependent on how well we resist sin, on how good we are, on our good works or on our own value.  God gives us this freedom because He loves us and we become pricelessly valuable because He loves us.

 

This is just the reverse of what we tend to feel and what the devil would like us to think.  Sin makes us believe deep inside that we must become valuable through works or being good enough for God to love us, when in fact, God gives us our value as a free gift through His Son in the waters of baptism.  Nothing can take that value away from us.  Nothing we do can make God take it back.  Nothing anyone else says or thinks can diminish it.

 

This is what we grab hold of when we are tempted to believe that we are irredeemable, when someone tries to shame us, when the devil tries to tell us we haven’t done enough.

At such times we need to say with Luther, “’I am baptized’ and that is enough”.

 

Some people believe that they need to brow-beat, criticize, shame and demand obedience from others – that everyone must live up to their standards or suffer the consequences.  I don’t know about you, but when I encounter this attitude I rebel.  I am likely to do just the opposite.  I act (or refrain from acting) in anger rather than love. 

 

On the other hand, when I am respected, affirmed, supported and allowed to be the best that I am – to live out the value God gave me – by putting all my energies into doing good.  When I am reminded that in baptism God has freed me from the bondage to sin and death I can hold my baptism up as a shield against the devil who would make me sin.  When I am reminded that in baptism God says I am His beloved, I am empowered to try and be like Jesus – to love and serve God with all my heart, soul and body.

 

I said when I began that there are two kinds of people in this world.  Actually, there is just one kind of people in this world.  They are beloved children for whom God once tore, ripped and shredded  the heavens so that He could show them His love forevermore.  And when we hear that message deep in our hearts, nothing will ever be the same.  Amen