With You, I Am Well Pleased
Luke 3:15 – 17, 21 – 22
Imagine if you will, picture this in your minds eye. We are in a Judean desert, there are low craggy terraces around the horizon, sparce vegetation dots the landscape and there is a gently flowing river in the foreground. There are no towns around, no obvious sign of civilization, we are out in the middle of nowhere.
It looks and feels like a place where you wouldn’t find many people, yet as we scan the horizon there are people, in fact lots of people, hundreds, maybe even thousands of them, flowing like those river waters, slowly yet constantly toward the riverbanks, and some of them walking away from the river, drenched from head to toe with the river water. Why are they here? What are they doing?
Now we notice that one man isn’t walking, he is out in the river standing waist deep in the water, he is yelling something about “repenting for sins” and the folks are in a single line que to make their way out to him. He takes each soul and lays them backward into the water, holds them under the water for a moment or two and then brings them up. Their baptism, the reason that they have had this journey, to this place, to this man, is complete. They have repented for what they have done, and the water of this river, the Jordan River has washed away their sins.
Today is the Sunday that we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. The story of the baptism of Jesus is told in three of the four Gospels, in Matthew, Mark and in our lesson today in Luke. For the most part they are essentially the same. We see John the Baptist, the one crying in the wilderness, the cousin of Jesus wading about in the Jordan River calling people to repent of their sins and to come to know the Father that loves them. We know from our previous lessons that John the Baptist, has been sent ahead of Jesus to prepare the way, to till the spiritual ground for the coming seed that Christ will cast.
John makes no apologies for his actions or his appearance with his clothing made of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. The people line up to have their lives changed, as he cries out “You brood of vipers! His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. You have been warned to flee from the coming wrath!”
But there is something unique in Luke’s version of the story. In the other two versions, we see John in the Jordan River and Jesus comes up and asks to be baptized it feels like isolated event, it seems as only Jesus is baptized. But Luke’s account feels different when he says this: When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too!
Imagine that John is out in the water looking at what appears to an endless line of humanity coming to see him. People of all types, ages, occupations, social and religious status, the wealthy and the poor alike, well to do and the dregs of society are all lining up to obey the cries of repentance of John the Baptist. One face is just like the one before it! But suddenly, as John finishes one soul, he looks up at the next and he is amazed. The face that he sees, is the face of God himself. The others that are making the journey don’t know who is line with them, but John does! There stands Jesus Christ, he is there just like all the others that day, fully human yet fully divine Jesus comes to undergo the same spiritual sacramental cleansing as all the others did. Friends, Jesus Christ was baptized just like us.
Now I can hear you thinking, Pastor that isn’t the end of the lesson that you read to us just now, there is more to it. Fair enough. The baptism of Jesus was to signify God’s approval of Jesus, God’s blessing upon him. The rest of our lesson says that the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; With you I am Well Pleased.”
Your baptism is an outward sign that you have received the blessings of redemption and salvation from God on the inside, through the sacrificial acts of Jesus Christ. At your baptism God covers you with a divine spiritual shield which protects you from the evil one’s harm.
Like Jesus’ baptism, our baptism does not eliminate our difficulties, fix our problems, take away the pain, or change the circumstances of our lives. Instead it changes us and offers a way through those difficulties, sorrows, problems, and circumstances and ultimately, a way through death.
Bad things happen to good people because we live in a world in which God allows free will, the freedom to make the decisions that can affect ourselves and others. The beauty and wonder in the world around us allows for randomness and unexpected events that can impact lives. Our physical bodies are fragile and temporal which becomes much too obvious when we lose family and friends.
So what do we say to people when they are going through such things? What comfort do we ourselves find when we face these situations? Well, today God has a word to say to you, a word of comfort and hope, for those times.
As we noted during Advent, the prophet Isaiah was writing to the people of Israel that were in great despair. Nevertheless, the Lord had a word for his people, a word of comfort and hope. He delivered it through his prophet Isaiah in our Old Testament lesson today.
Now this is what the Lord says, he who created you, he who formed you, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. With you, I am Well Pleased He says.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. For I am the Lord your God, you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I am well Pleased with you!
That is a word of hope and comfort for the Israelites in their time of trouble and abandonment and this is a word of hope and comfort for us, for you as well when we face challenges and hardships.
Friends the Lord has redeemed you, not with gold or silver, but with something far more costly, namely, the holy precious blood of his own dear Son, Jesus Christ. Now death, hell, and Satan have no claim on you. He has conquered your enemies for you. And in his resurrection, he has shown that he is their master.
Christ was baptized, not for his own sins, in fact He is the only human that was blameless, but because he came here to show you the way to redeem you from your sins. There in the waters of the Jordan, Jesus’ ministry was inaugurated and approved by God, it was the beginning of his messianic mission and it started with a baptism, his baptism like all the others, it was like ours.
The Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove as Jesus was being anointed with the Spirit as the Messiah, marked out as having God’s favor and blessing and power as his chosen one. Similarly, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we too have the Holy Spirit come land on us, fill us and abide with us!
At Jesus’ baptism the Father’s own voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Clearly, God’s choice and approval rested upon this one, Jesus, to carry out the mission on which he was sent. And that mission was to redeem you and me from our sins and to provide for you the opportunity for an everlasting life.
Hear the Good News my Friends……..
God has called you by name and says You are my beloved child; with you I am well pleased, and with that you belong him too. He is never going to forget you because you are precious to him.
Indeed, God gave his one and only Son for you, so that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He gave Christ into death in exchange for your life. Jesus got your sins, and in exchange you get his righteousness. Jesus got your death, and in exchange you get his life. Ransomed and redeemed, now you know you will live because he lives. In your baptism God’s looks upon you and says, With you I am well Pleased.
What greater comfort could there be? What greater hope could you have? Your life is now tied to Christ’s life forever! Wherever you go, he will go with you. And where he has gone, you will go also, to be with your Savior and with all of his people forever! In your baptism God’s looks upon you and says, With you I am well Pleased.
For when you passed through the waters of your baptism, what happened? Your old self, your sinful nature, was drowned and put to death in that river. “All of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, through baptism we too walk in newness of life.”
As a Christian because of Jesus’s Baptism, in your baptism you now have a new life as a redeemed child of God. You have a new nature. You have the Holy Spirit. Now you are able to serve God in a life of righteousness, resisting and repenting of sin, and rising with Christ each new day.
Dear ones, because Jesus our Lord passed through the waters of the Jordan at his baptism and went on from there to complete his saving mission by his death and resurrection, we have a new life and new meaning. Today we remember the Baptism of Jesus because God joined you to Jesus in your baptism and placed his name upon you and made you his beloved child. In your baptism God’s looks upon you and says, With you I am well Pleased! Amen.