1. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth, and the meditation of our hearts, be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message today as we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord is taken from Luke 3:15-22. Water that fuels fire. Now, there’s an interesting thought! I don’t know where you’re from, but where I’m from, “water that fuels fire” is called gasoline. And only a fool adds this kind of water to a flame. It’s deadly. It kills. It scars. It burns. And it consumes, leaving nothing!
2. Today’s Gospel from Luke 3 is also about a water that fuels fire. But this water is a water of grace—Baptism. When the water of Baptism comes into our lives, we’re fueling the fire that purifies us from sin. Yet this gracious water comes with the same explosive power that one sees when adding gasoline to a flame (but in Christ, without the same deadly effects). Because of Christ Baptism destroys, kills, and consumes our sin with explosive power, and, in grace, it also gives off the explosive power of new life in you.
3. Water that fuels the fire. Is that a picture of heaven or hell? God or the devil? Saving or damning? Judgment Day’s lake of fire or the Baptism of Christ? What do you see? What kind of fire is it? It depends upon what is being burned. Our Gospel lesson for today speaks of the fire of God’s wrath that will burn in judgment forever. But there is another fire that also burns—the fire of his grace, brought into our lives through Baptism, that burns away our sin.
4. I wonder what people living in the portions of our United States saw as, day after day they gazed into the fires consuming hundreds of thousands of acres of forest lands last year and even the recent fire in Colorado that destroyed many homes and caused cities to be evacuated? Superstitious people often believed that many of the sounds and sights of nature (thunder and lightning, for instance) were the voices of the gods speaking to them. How would primitive people have interpreted lightning burst after lightning burst that set acres of forests on fire? Certainly, this voice from heaven would seem to be unappeasably angry.
5. Today’s Gospel lesson from Luke 3 also has a message coming from the heavens. Only this time it really will be a voice of grace. Something is going to be consumed, and much will be burned away. Darkness will lead to light. Life will start all over again. But note that the voice of God wasn’t the only thing that came down. At just the right time, so did God’s Son. And in timely arrival, so did God’s Holy Spirit. For when you see Jesus in the the Jordan River and the Spirit of God coming down, you see the beginning of our Lord’s public ministry. Someday heaven will be full of saints, saints who were once sinners. They will be there because of the work he accomplished in his ministry. Because of Christ the sinful will be perfectly cleansed. This is the same cleansing that comes to us now through the Word and Sacraments.
6. When people feel as though their lives are being consumed by the world around them, do you think they ask for help? “Who’s going to help me? I’m tired of getting burned by my life, my world, and even my God! Sometimes, it seems that he disappears just when things are getting rough. God, don’t you have anything to say to me?”
7. Sometimes I feel that I too am just one of many in the crowd: unnoticed, unimportant, and uncared for. A crowd of people came out to John the Baptist. Why? Could it be that they, too, were afraid of getting burned? How many had already been scarred by life? How many had become numb to any hope of healing or future? How many had sought ways to deaden themselves to the pains and tragedies of this world? How many of us would have been found coming out to see John the Baptist that day, wondering if he had a word of hope for us?
8. Sometimes people in the world are real snakes. You’ve got to watch out. “You brood of vipers,” John the Baptist called them. Sometimes I wonder if God really understands what it’s like down here in this fallen, sinful world. Does Jesus have a clue as to what I’m going through? Yes, he does! Listen to how Jesus prays at Gethsemane, in Lk 22:42 he says, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” At Gethsemane (Lk 22:41–44) the thought on Jesus’ mind is about a cup that he must drink. Normally, a cup to drink from is a cup of refreshment, but this one that Jesus will drink will not add to life but take it away. At this point, not drops of Jordan River water fall from his body recently baptized but the water of sweat like drops of blood. In Gethsemane Jesus is again at prayer, as at his baptism (Luke 3:21b). His baptism in the Jordan has finally brought him to face the fires of hell. It will soon be time for the cross.
9. From the Cross of Calvary Jesus says in Lk 23:34, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Here again, Jesus is surrounded by a large crowd coming out to see what can be seen. Again, he is in the midst of vipers. Each viper accuses him, spewing insults with a deadly strike. But at the cross there are also those who followed, weeping and wailing for him. Could there be any believers who were baptized by John in that crowd of mourners? Jesus prays: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” For Jesus knew that these are some of the people for whom he took up this mission when he was baptized. So, he asks the Father to remember his good pleasure and have mercy on them through him now. If only those mourning could have understood his mission. After Jesus rose from the dead some would understand more clearly. But for now, Jesus prayed. So, what was Jesus praying about when He was being baptized in the Jordan River? If Gethsemane and Golgotha are any clue, it could have been that Jesus knew already that this is the water in the Jordan that fuels the fire, the water that leads to a hellish cross.
10. Jesus “joins with the crowd.” Jordan water fuels the hell fires of the cross as it is the first step in our Lord’s public ministry that takes him to the cross. Remember Jesus’ prayer. Our Baptism in Christ also purifies and saves.
11. A little boy loved to get dirty as he played outside on a regular basis. One day he received a good scrubbing. But, his mom could only clean the outside. She couldn’t clean the inside. Although one time she tried with her son. She said, “If I hear that word comes out of your mouth again, you’ll be washing it out with soap.” But soap can’t clean what comes from the sinful heart and then out of the mouth. The boy’s mom handed him the bar of soap, and he said, “You’re kidding, right?” She wasn’t. Childlike cursings didn’t stop coming out of his mouth because Dove soap did such a good job. A different dove was needed—a heavenly one, the Holy Spirit. That Dove cleansed the boy’s heart and mind and put a new desire within him—the desire to speak for God, rather than against him.
12. Sometimes you, too, may have stood wondering and waiting, one among the crowd. “God, where are you? Will you save and rescue me?” Today’s baptism of Christ is the Gospel’s promise of power. The power that brings grace to gather you as God’s field and raise you up to new life. This Gospel comes through Baptism in Christ. It brings the power of the Spirit. It brings forgiveness. It forgives the good we didn’t do for our neighbor (Lk 3:10–14) and what we did to God on the cross (Lk 23). It empowers us to live this day differently than we lived yesterday. Because today we’ve been reminded that our Christian Baptism gives us freedom from sin so that we can love one another, even as Christ loved us. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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