Lent … fancy church name that comes from “Lengthen” as in the days are getting longer as in it’s springtime. So thing!
Mark 1:9-15; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Psalm 25:1-10; Genesis 9:8-17
It seems a little odd that the lessons for the First Sunday in Lent all revolve around Baptism. We read similar texts back in January when we celebrated the Baptism of Jesus. It doesn’t seem to fit right away with the themes of Lent — reflecting on our sinfulness and returning to God. It the Small Catechism, Martin Luther writes, “[Baptism] brings about forgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe it, as the words and promise of God declare.”
Yet in the season of Lent, we focus not on salvation, but on our repentance. It’s a time when we recognize all the ways that we have failed God. Luther was focused on the regenerative aspects of Baptism, of which there are many, to the neglect of the aspects related to repentance, of which there are also many.
Now here’s where things get a bit messy. When John was baptizing people in the Jordan River, it was a baptism for repentance — an outward sign of a person expressing sorrow over one’s sins and turning back to God. Jesus, however, was sinless, so why was He baptized? The best reading, done by people smarter than me, is that Jesus, who came to earth to experience all that humanity experiences, was baptized in part to connect with human experience. Even though He didn’t need to turn back to God, for He was already following, the baptism that John was doing still showed the world that He was following, especially after the voice came from heaven declaring, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Now in 1 Peter 3, Peter draws a comparison between baptism and the events of Noah and the flood, in which the world is “baptized” with a flood, and only a handful of people whom God said were righteous; namely Noah, his three sons, and their wives; were saved. After the flood, God declared that He would never again destroy the Earth with a flood, a covenant sealed with the sign of the rainbow in the sky. Through baptism, God declares that our sin will no longer destroy us, with the Holy Spirit as the sign of this promise.
Yet Peter also says, “This water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also–not the removal of dirt from the body, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” This describes the two things that happen in baptism — the forgiveness of sin and our commitment to follow God.
Remember what Jesus did after his baptism: He immediately went out into the desert and was tempted for forty days. His commitment to God was tested in every way those forty days, and He came out alright. In Matthew and Luke we read of three specific temptations, but the letter to the Hebrews asserts that his temptation was not limited to three things. Jesus persevered through His temptation, so that he could go to the cross without sin, and therefore pay the price for our own sin.
Just as Jesus publicly expressed his following God at His baptism, at our Baptism we, or our parents in the case of infants, also express that we will follow God. The baptismal service, in the case of children, opens with something like this:
“In Christian love you have presented these children for Holy Baptism. You should, therefore faithfully bring them to the services of God’s house, and teach them the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. As they grow in years, you should place in their hands the Holy Scriptures and provide for their instruction in the Christian faith, that, living in the covenant of their Baptism and in communion with the Church, they may lead godly lives until the day of Jesus Christ. Do you promise to fulfill these obligations?”
Put more simply, it’s a commitment to bring up the child following God. Later, at Confirmation, there is a similar set of commitments, at which time the confirmand pledges to do on his/her own the things that follow from what their parents promised at Baptism:
“You have made public profession of your faith. Do you intent to continue in the covenant God made with you in Holy Baptism: to live among God’s faithful people, to hear his Word and share in his supper, to proclaim the good news of God in Christ through word and deed, to serve all people, following the example of our Lord Jesus, and to strive for justice and peace in all the earth?”
The words are a bit different, but the promises at Confirmation are the logical extension of the promises at Baptism. This is the “pledge of a good conscience toward God” that Peter talks about, the commitment on our part not to squander the gifts that God has given us, but instead to follow the first command that Jesus’ gave: “The time has come; the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”