Jesu Juva
“The Day Everything Changed”
Text: Mark 1:4-11; Romans 6:1-11; Genesis 1:1-5
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.
It started the same. It ended very, very different.
People from all over were coming to John to be baptized. Young and old, rich and poor, from the city and from the country. The Jordan was a busy place. So another man from Galilee, coming to the Jordan, coming to be baptized, was no big deal. And just another man from Galilee, coming up out of the Jordan, after being baptized, was no big deal.
Until it was.
For in a moment, everything changed. For then, it was seen and heard that this was, in fact, no ordinary man from Galilee. Oh, He looked the same, He walked the same, talked the same, but He wasn’t the same. For on no other did the Spirit descend like a dove. For no other were the heavens opened. For no other did the voice of the Father ring down from heaven, saying, You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased. Only on this one, this man, Jesus of Nazareth. He is different. Turns out, this was a big deal after all.
So what started the same, just another baptism, ended very, very different.
And it is what happens here, too. Each of us comes to the font - like little Ava last week - just another poor, miserable sinner. But then, everything changes. For here, what happened to Jesus happens to us. Here, the Spirit descends through water and the Word. Here, the heavens open. Here, the Father is well-pleased as another sinner is made His child. Jesus is baptized to change baptism; to put Himself into it, for us. So from this moment on, you are different. You are not the same. Jesus joins Himself to you, and joins you to Himself. So this is a big deal.
And then . . . when the heavens were closed back up, the dove departed, and the voice was no longer heard . . . Jesus went back to Galilee, back to life as normal, back to the carpenter shop . . . Oh wait. No He didn’t! Now He began to do what He had been set apart to do. Now, He would battle the devil, heal the sick, cast out demons, forgive sins, and preach and teach. Those first steps He took out of the Jordan that day were the first of many that would only end when those feet were nailed to a cross. That’s what Jesus’ GPS was set to. Starting point: the Jordan. Destination: the cross.
So . . . if what happened to Jesus in His baptism also happened to you in your baptism . . . what about after? Jesus didn’t go back to life as usual, but do you? Do you leave this place where the font is front and center and we remember every week that I am baptized; I am a baptized child of God! . . . Do you leave this place where you receive the forgiveness of your sins . . . Do you leave this place where you hear of all that Jesus has done for you . . . Do you leave this place after receiving the Body and Blood of Jesus that He laid down for you on the cross and now places into your mouth . . . Do you leave this place the same as when you came? No way! But do you go back to your life as usual, living the same, doing the same things, no one really knowing or noticing or being able to tell whether you’ve been here, in Church, in the very presence of God, this week or not? I’m afraid the answer to that question may not be so good . . .
Here, Paul’s words to the Romans can help us. Because maybe you don’t know, maybe you don’t realize, what has taken place here in your baptism. So Paul said: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. Which is to say that the steps we take from the font, the steps we take from the altar, the steps we take from the church, be steps not back to life as usual, but steps to walk in a new life. A life raised up and made new. A life renewed by the life and forgiveness of Jesus.
For here’s the before and after: Before Baptism, you were dead to Jesus and alive to sin; after Baptism, Paul says, you are alive to Jesus and dead to sin. Before Baptism, the slavery of sin and the fear of death control us; after Baptism, the life of the Spirit and the promise of eternal life guide, direct, and empower us. Before Baptism, your sin in on you, you are responsible for it, and satan accuses you of it; after Baptism, your sin is on Jesus, He paid the price for it, and you have peace with God. So back to life as usual . . . ? Really? Why? Why go back to sin, slavery, worry, fear, death, and an uncertain future? Why leave these gifts here for a weekly, or bi-weekly, or monthly visit, when you can have them 24/7?
Maybe it’s not intentional. Maybe we’re too weak, or maybe life just gets so busy. I get that. For me, too. Life never seems to slow down. There’s just more and more, faster and faster, change upon change. But if that’s the case, then maybe we need to make it intentional. Maybe we need to take more care and pay more attention to the life of Christ we here receive, and maybe not take it so much for granted. You think?
This is, in fact, what we prayed for today, in the Collect of the Day earlier. We asked our Father in heaven to make all who are baptized in [Jesus’] name faithful in their calling as Your children and inheritors with Him of everlasting life. That what was begun in Baptism be brought to completion in us. Not that God is unwilling or unable to do that for us - He promised to do so! We’re the problem. It’s so easy to get off track. So easy to go back to life as usual. So easy to have something or someone other than Jesus be the center of my life. Which doesn’t mean that everyone has to be a pastor or a monk or a nun and be thinking about Jesus all the time! No. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: if everyone in the world was a pastor, this world would be an absolutely horrible place! We need teachers, we need doctors, we need people working in the government, we need construction workers, we need pilots, we even need lawyers! But what drives your life? What is at the center of your life? What informs your life? What shapes your life? Take an honest look . . . and you might not like the answer . . .
So for Jesus to be your life, or at the center of your life, means this: My job is not my life. My investments are not my life. My relationships are not my life. My hurts and brokenness are not my life. My wretched past is not my life. My hobbies, health, interests, teams, sports, and education are not my life. Because none of these things can give me life! None of these things can forgive me, restore me, delight me, or fulfill me.* Oh, maybe for a time I feel fulfillment, pleasure, and value from these things. But when that time ends, then what? Then the center - once filled with these things - is empty. An emptiness far worse than staring at the empty spot where your beautiful Christmas tree once stood, or at the empty chair where your loved one once sat . . . And then when it happens to you, when your place becomes empty when your grave becomes full . . . which of those things that were at the center of your life can raise you to life again, and present you washed and cleansed and holy to the Father?
So, Baptism. Not Baptism as in: oh, that happened to me a long time ago. But Baptism as in: I am baptized. That is who I am. That is my identity. When I can’t rely on anything or anyone else, I can rely on this. Whether I am rich or poor, whether I am full of life or near death, whether I am unemployed or have a very important job, whether I am liked or disliked, whether I am married or unmarried, popular or lonely, whether I have a good life or have made a mess of my life . . . this is my cornerstone: I am baptized. I am a child of God. Forgiven. Dearly loved. Raised to new life with Christ and with the promise of everlasting life. I am baptized. This is the reality that supersedes all others.
If that’s the case, if you have been re-created and made new by same Word of God that spoke and made everything new in the beginning (as we heard), then going back to life as usual makes no sense! It makes as little sense as Jesus going back to Galilee and the carpenters shop. No. Now, your GPS has been reprogrammed. Before, your starting point was birth and your destination was death and the grave. Now, baptized into Christ, into His death and resurrection, your starting point is the Font, and your destination eternal life. And if you make a few wrong turns along the way - which we all do! - not recalculating, but repentance is the answer. Repentance and receiving the forgiveness of Jesus which raises you back to life and puts life back into you. The life of Jesus, back at the center.
So within the next hour, you’re going to step out of this church - either because Jesus has come again and will fulfill your Baptism and all the promises He made to you there! Or because He didn’t, and you will go out to live in your Baptism. Either way, you go a changed person. You are different. A person filled with Jesus and His life. Filled not with locusts and wild honey, but with the Body and Blood of Jesus. And filled with His forgiveness, you can forgive. Filled with His love, you can love. Filled with His mercy, you can have mercy on others. Not judged and condemned, you can stop judging and condemning others. You have a new life to live! A life not dead to Jesus and alive to sin, but dead to sin and alive to Jesus! Which, I think, maybe others might notice. And if they do, and ask, you can say: I am baptized into Christ. It’s kind of a big deal . . .
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
* A few of the sentences here taken from Zechariah by R. Reed Lessing (CPH ©️ 2021), 530.
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