The Need for Baptism Sermon

First Sunday after Epiphany / Baptism of the Lord
8 January 1978
Dad is 38 years old.
He preached this sermon to the congregation at Bethany Lutheran Church, Escanaba, MI.

"The Need for Baptism"
Matthew 3:13-17

"Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?"

Not just Matthew, but so do Luke and Mark include in their Gospels the event of Jesus' baptism. And all three Gospels also coincide with each other in their chronology by placing this event as the beginning point of Jesus' public ministry. Such agreement can't be found about many portions of the Scriptures and the fundamental conclusions of biblical scholarship would therefore cite this event as being an indication of something highly important and essential to the story of Jesus' life. In other words, we dare not ignore or overlook Jesus' baptism if we want to know something about who he is and what he is all about.

This is why the first Sunday in the season of Epiphany has been designated as it is...a commemoration or festival celebrating the baptism of our Lord....which is a manifestation, a revelation (which is what the word Epiphany means) that gives meaning to the Incarnation event...of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. Without the emphasis to be given during the Epiphany Season, then Christmas truly becomes nothing but a box of ornaments to be stashed away or like a Christmas tree, now bare of its needles, to be thrown away amidst the trash.

Parents concern themselves greatly about what their children will be like once they grow up. So do we as Christians concern ourselves with what happens when the babe of Bethlehem grows up and becomes someone other than a carpenter in Nazareth. We begin this morning, as indicated so strongly by the Scriptural support and evidence, with Jesus' baptism.

Yet, according to the story as told by Matthew, the event almost didn't take place. It wouldn't have if John the Baptist had made the decision. "Me baptize you...it should be the other way around." This was the reaction of Jesus' cousin who was setting the local people aflame with his fiery message of repentance and proclamation of God's kingdom being at hand. Knowing what we do about Jesus because our advantage provided by history and the rest of the Gospel writer's story, we can well empathize with John the Baptist. I suppose I would have a similar reaction if I had Reggie Jackson walk into my office and say, "Hey, I heard that you played softball for Bethany Church...will you show me some pointers about hitting?" Or I could cause the same sort of reaction among some of you if I walked down the aisle this morning and said, "Hey, would you take over and give the sermon this morning?" Why, knowing as I do the fear some of our good folk at Bethany have about getting up in front of people, we would have to get three ambulances over here to take away those who would suffer from a cardiac arrest if I pulled that on them.

John was immediately aware of the implications involved with Jesus' request for baptism...it would imply Jesus had a need for repentance and that John would be seen as being superior to Jesus...and the Scripture indicates elsewhere that problems continued concerning this relationship between John and Jesus as evidence by the rivalry existing between the followers of each and those in Ephesus who confronted Paul with the story of being baptized in the name of John instead of Jesus. Yet John did as Jesus requested...he was baptized in the River Jordan...and from that point on, he began his preaching and teaching the good news which we, as His followers, call the Gospel.

In attempting to give a perspective to this event and its epiphany implications, I would this morning begin by recalling the analysis given by some as to why people contend with so much unhappiness, worry, and concern these days. That analysis makes a distinction between wants and needs and suggests that people should want what they need rather than feeling they need what they want. There is little doubt about the rise in expectations which people have had in the past couple of decades and the high cost of living is due for many because of the cost of living high. Each generation begins to assume as essential what for their parents was considered extreme luxuries.

For us to say, like John, however, that we need to be baptized depends upon what we want...and without such wants, we certainly would not need baptism. The first want I would single out is that of salvation. To ask whether people want salvation might seem as self-evident as the answer to whether we want a million dollars. But the facts and evidence of life indicate that people want other things other than salvation. They might identify such wants as salvation, but that isn't what they really mean and consequently see no need for baptism. For instance, some people would interpret salvation as being security...and security is to be gained by what we would do in life rather than acknowledge what God has done. People struggle and strive to acquire enough which will see them through to the end of life...they concern themselves about pension funds....they seek to insure themselves against any and all catastrophe...the emphasis is upon protection. Governments participate in the same quest as they expend enormous amounts of money on defense and armaments, formulate treaties, pass legislation in the shape of social security or medicare, and heap regulation upon regulation concerning worker safety, food and drugs, or auto emissions. The name of the game is security which for many is seen in terms of salvation. But as such effort is expended, people today feel more insecure than ever before. History has shown time and time again how the plans of people and nations have ended up as folly and the goal of security becomes like a wisp of wind which eludes and defies anyone's grasp.

Other attempts have been made to translate salvation into terms of education. If we just would learn the things which make for peace...if we would simply teach people to love each other and be good...if we would provide all people with the same advantages of being able to live in a humane way and utilize all the skills of technology available to us today, then a new and better world would come into being...salvation would be at hand. Yet as Victor Frankel, a Christian psychologist who survived the horrors of a concentration camp reminds us, it was learned engineers who built gas chambers, educated physicians who poisoned children, and college graduates involved with shooting women and babies. People have learned to become highly educated and skilled in the most inhumane and exploitative manner.

Jesus' baptism becomes significant for Christians and for anyone else who would want salvation because it identifies God's action and not ours. It is a reflection of God's grace....Jesus did something he did not have to do. He who was without sin took upon himself through baptism the identification with all of sinful humanity. God reveals through Jesus Christ the one and only way for salvation...namely to receive the gift of faith and place our trust in what God would give to us through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Sure, security is worthy of our pursuit...so is education...so is morality...so is charity and good works. But none of these nor anything else within the scope of man's endeavors is able to achieve his own salvation. That prophet word needs to be proclaimed time and time again by the Christian community not only as reminder to themselves, but also to a world which obviously sees no need for baptism into Christ, because what they want is not ultimately the salvation which only Jesus Christ can provide. We baptize people within the Christian community not to save them, but rather in obedience to Jesus Christ who seeks to adopt us through faith and receive God's grace. It is the grace of god which saves which is received and perceived only through faith.

This is why I get uptight and a bit squeamish as a Pastor when people come to me to talk about the baptism of their child because somehow they think of it in terms of tradition alone, or sentimentality, or as some sort of security and insurance which will be cashed in at the time that child grows up and eventually dies. It is not because the parents are concerned about their relationship to Christ...it is not because the parents are interested in being faithful followers of the Lord...it is not because they want salvation which only Christ can provide...and if we don't want salvation, there is absolutely no need for baptism.

But let me also briefly identify another want which leads to needing baptism. I speak of the want to have a mission and purpose in life. Luther wrote this about baptism: "For just as the truth of this divine promise, once pronounced over us continues until death, so our faith in baptism ought never to cease, but be nourished and strengthened until death by the continual remembrance of this promise made to us in Baptism. We have vowed enough in Baptism, more than we can ever fulfill; if we give ourselves to the keeping of this one vow, we shall have all we can do."

It was from baptism onwards that Jesus adopted for himself the mission of becoming the servant...the suffering servant...the Son of God with whom God was pleased. What was pleasing to God is the mission Jesus Christ would accomplish through his life, death, and resurrection...and it is through baptism that we becoming identified with that same mission. It is a vow...it is a task, which Luther says provides more than what we ever could do or accomplish.

Certainly Baptism is an event which calls for a celebration...within a congregation and for the individual family...but what we celebrate is the mission which Jesus Chris has given to us as his adopted brothers and sisters...a mission which, in the words of the prophet Isaiah, is to bring light to the nations, open the eyes of those who are blind, bring prisoners out from their dungeon and sit in their darkness. But if that mission doesn't turn you on...if that isn't our mission and reason for living, then baptism is again relegated to something unnecessary or a meaningless ritual...who needs it?

The year 1978 offers us within this congregation some unique opportunities to identify with that mission and to extend the proclamation of God's salvation and saving works through Jesus Christ to others. We have begun this year our Century Mission Fund...we anticipate the presence and addition of an intern to our church staff...we will shortly begin work in making plans for our Centennial and events which would intensify people's commitment to the mission given to us through our baptism. I don't know and neither can anyone else predict with certainty what the outcome will be of such plans and hopes. But we can have confidence in God. His promise will not fail nor will it be broken. The need we have for baptism is based upon our wanting salvation and a mission which only God can provide....and the good news is that we know salvation has been accomplished through Christ....and that God's mission will ultimately be victorious and not thwarted even by death and the passing of time.

Luther concluded his triumphant hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," with these words: "Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill; God's truth abideth still..his kingdom is forever." Through baptism we are brought into that kingdom...it is an act of God's grace and not man's moral achievement...and it becomes the foundation to all that we do in fulfilling the mission which Christ has given to us. There is need for baptism and always will there be a need as long as people desire and want what God offers through that Sacrament. Remember your baptism people, celebrate it...and let it be your reason for living and serving God.