This one covers everything from Baptism to ancient Roman adoption practices. Enjoy!
Luke 3:15-17,21-22; Acts8:14-17; Psalm 29; Isaiah 43:1-7
Keeping in fashion with the timeline of the church year speeding along in some places and moving quite slowly in others, Jesus just got 30 years older. We come to the beginning of his ministry, yet before he starts he goes to the Jordan River, is baptized, and the Holy Spirit come on him like a dove.
It’s kind of interesting really, and I have to wonder why Jesus needed to be baptized. Even John the Baptist really didn’t understand what Jesus was doing – in other gospels he put up a fight, basically saying that Jesus should be baptizing him not the other way around. It seems odd that the one who is sinless should be baptized for repentance. What does he need to repent of?
But that’s not what Jesus baptism is about. According to our good buddy Martin Luther, Jesus was baptized so that he might properly take our place. In becoming sin for us, Jesus was baptized not to wash away sin, but to take sins he didn’t commit upon himself. Other church fathers say Jesus was baptized so that later Christians would not neglect baptism but view it with importance.
The more important thing to look at is not what happened when Jesus was baptized, but what happened after. The Holy Spirit descended on him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven saying, “You are my Son, with you I am well pleased”. How’s that for acknowledgement of who Jesus is when is ministry began? As if it wasn’t clear through Jesus’ extraordinary birth or the events in the Temple, this pretty well solidifies that Jesus is someone special.
This isn’t anything new for us though. We already KNEW Jesus was important. But we have to wonder now what this means for us. In Acts 8, the believers in Jerusalem heard that some folk in Samaria had heard the Word of God and were baptized, but hadn’t yet received the Holy Spirit.
Now, how many of y’all think that Jews and Samaritans were nice cozy friends and got along great and threw great dinner parties? Well, if you think that you’d be wrong. Jews and Samaritans got along about as well as cobras and mongooses do. And the biology reference lost you, it’s kind of an avoid if possible, get violent if necessary kind of situation. They were not friendly. That the Word of God was preached there and then Peter and John went there to check on the new believers is just another sign that the power of God surpasses that of human divisions. But when Peter and John arrived, they laid hands on the people and they received the Holy Spirit.
You see, at Baptism two major things happen: we participate in Christ’s death and rising to new life, thereby bringing us forgiveness of sins; and we receive the Holy Spirit. Now that’s not to say that we ever didn’t have the Holy Spirit, but it’s complicated. So allow me the error in language, if you don’t mind. This is stuff we knew, or at least should have learned, from our Confirmation classes. Coming up in several week’s we’ll be getting to Baptism in the adult Sunday school class if you need a refreshed.
So all this is well and good, but it’s still kind of abstract. So let’s head over to Isaiah 43. There’s a whole bunch of things God promises us through Baptism. We are redeemed, called by name, protected, precious in His eyes, loved, and created for glory. Remember how his baptism God said to Jesus “This is my beloved son”? At our Baptism God says the same to us – through Christ he adopts us as his children, will all the benefits of an heir.
Now to help you understand this, I need to give you a little history lesson. It was extremely common in the ancient world to adopt someone as a legal heir. For example, in 44 BC Gaius Octavius Thurinus was adopted and named heir by a fellow named Gaius Julius Caesar and became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus. When Octavius became Emporer Augustus, he in turn adopted and named (my favorite Roman Emporer) Tiberius Claudius Nero his heir. In the movie Ben-Hur, the title character is adopted by Quintus Arrius, a Roman general. When adopted, the adoptee maintains his original family ties, but he holds the same status as the adopter, and becomes his heir at death.
So when God adopts us, we no longer belong just to our earthly families but to God’s eternal family. God calls all of us by his name. He saves us through Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, also strengthened in us through Baptism. It’s amazing what God can do with a little bit of water.