The Baptism of Our Lord – Sunday 14 January A✠D 2024
✠ Psalmody: Psalm 89:20;89:1, 26-28;72:18–19;143:10
✠ Lection: Isaiah 42:1-7;1 Corinthians 1:26-31;St. Matthew 3:13-17
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me. The psalmist David spoke these prophetic words that became the prayer of our dear Lord as He neared His death upon the cross. Likewise, the Holy Spirit inspired them that they may be our own, too. Do you ever pray asking God to not be far from you, but near to you? I certainly hope you have, that you do, because that desire to have Him near, to know that God abides with you, is at your side, both in the delightful, real mirth that He gives in this life, as you dive into and admire His salvific beauty, and in the affliction that He allows or brings to you Himself. Be not thou far from me, O LORD. Be near. Haste thee to help me. Come quickly, my Rock and my Deliverer.
From whence comes your help? Your help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth; from that One Who was in the Beginning; from that One Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting; from that One Who is your eternal Shepherd King, Whom you desire to be near to you, especially in your hour of need. He has come near. He Who is not confined by place or time humbled Himself and came down into both, bringing near to you the Kingdom of Heaven. The Holy Evangelists have blessed you mightily by their celestial brush strokes upon the pages of the Scriptures that we hold to be so sacred. By hearing their inspired writings proclaimed in the Lord’s Divine Service now on into Epiphanytide, you should have no doubt that the One born of the Blessed Virgin Mary, wrapped in swaddling cloths, laid in a manger, sought to be slaughtered by little King Herod, worshiped by the magi from the east, is indeed the promised coming King Who is none other than the Lord Himself incarnate; in the flesh. Conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary means that this eternal Son of God entered into your world without the curse of sin. He was conceived without blemish. He lived without blemish. He died without blemish…of His own.
When God did this, coming as He did, when He did, how He did, it could not be void of cosmic-level effects and tension with how He and His actions impacted the fallen creation and the ones who sat atop of it as party responsible. Tune your minds and hearts to that tension because more gloriously appears in St. Matthew’s account of our Lord’s Baptism. Glory be to God on High and peace on earth, good will toward men because unto you is born God in the flesh. Perfect from eternity unto eternity, now bearing the Name that is above all names, that of JESUS, making waters that are combined with God’s Word a cleansing flood.
When we last gathered and encountered our King with the magi, He was but a young Child being worshiped and given gold, frankincense, and myrrh. From there, St. Matthew recounts in his Gospel the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt, the slaughter of the innocent boys in Bethlehem, and eventually the Family’s return to the region of Galilee where they came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth. From there, St. Matthew jumps nearly 30 years ahead to John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” After John describes the mightier One Who was to come after Him, we encounter our text for this morning.
All of this groundwork is important because of what is written. At that time, Jesus came from Galilee. There is the backstory cue, reminding you not only from whence Jesus came, but of what took Him there and of the eternal abode from which He departed to make His home with Joseph and Mary. He is still God this whole time and was given that precious Name, JESUS, a Name which St. Matthew hasn’t explicitly mentioned since the beginning of chapter two, the very beginning of the Epiphany text that we heard last week. This means that His Epiphany, His appearing, His shining forth as the newborn, yet eternal, King is closely tied to what takes place in the watery portal that gives entrance to the Promised Land.
At that time, Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. This is meant to be puzzling to John and to us as much, because John was baptizing with water unto repentance, which is why those who were baptized by him were confessing their sins. It was the precursor to the full Christian Baptism that you have received, yet with some common elements, namely water and repentance. John tried to prevent [Jesus from being baptized], saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” John speaks truth. If this Man, coming from Galilee, is truly He Who comes forth from eternity, the Holy God, then there can’t be any sin in Him for which there is a need of repentance, much less for a baptism unto it. Why then does Jesus come to be baptized and insist on it? Be not thou far from me, O LORD. Do you see what He is doing?
It is one thing for God to become Man, but when perfect God becomes perfect Man, is there not still a distance between you and Him? The only contemporary analogy that I could think of as to how you may look at Jesus coming from Galilee, from eternity, to be baptized with a sinner’s baptism would be like you running into a famous billionaire or head of state as you and he both reach for the same thing in a wall cooler in your local Aldi. What in the world are you of all people doing here?…you’d wonder. By your eyes you would see another person as you are: head, arms, legs, eyes, nose. By your ears and mouth you would communicate just as he does and he as you. But being who you are, which is much like yet so much different from what I am, how are we meeting up in front of the bacon? Don’t you have people to do all the normal people stuff for you? Is this not far below you? Now multiply that gap of status by infinity and you will see how the distance between the Infinite God, tabernacled in humble flesh like yours, is still high above this whole globe’s population. Nothing is a greater distance than Holy God compared with unholy man. God, Jesus, the Christ, even in our mortal flesh, does not need to be baptized. He has no sin of which to repent, no way of life to correct. His baptism needs not be done, yet Jesus answered and said to [John], “Permit it to be so now…” as if to say You are right. I need this not, but allow it to be done, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
Here is where you can see your Lord’s, your God’s intention on not remaining distant from you, for righteousness He lacks not one bit; for righteousness you have not one bit. Your desire is for Him to be near and in His Incarnation, in His Holy Nativity, in His Baptism, He takes the measures necessary to come to you, to come for you. Is it so that you feel that He is close to you? No, it isn’t. Your feelings often betray you; yes, your own ones do this. Pray that you may bring them into submission to the Christ and His Word which give you the sure anchor to which you may trustingly tether your whole life; body and soul, emotions included. He gives you this certainty by stepping down into water so that by water and the Word He may be near to you and you to Him.
See St. Matthew’s entire Gospel in this way: He begins with two chapters of introducing us to this One Who ends up coming from Galilee to the Jordan. We have heard of His beautiful origin in the brief description of Jesus’ early years. But the bulk of this 28-chapter book is about the adult life and ministry of Jesus, the Christ, the One anointed in His baptism to make for you a life-giving water, rich in grace. Magnificently positioned at either end of that bulk about His earthly ministry stands baptism: Jesus’ in the Jordan River; yours in His institution and command to baptize all nations. In both, we see this to be a heavenly-sanctioned and -enacted gift, for at the Jordan there is the Father beckoning us to behold that This is His beloved Son, in Whom He is well pleased. We see there the Son, begotten of the Father from eternity, yet descended into these waters, numbered among sinners, in order to receive baptism in His own humble flesh. We see the Holy Spirit descending upon the Son as an anointing, declaring Him to be the promised Messiah Who would accomplish what His given Name declares.
Then, after you hear the Good News that He was anointed to not only be numbered among all sinners, but to die in your place with full payment of His holy, precious, shed blood, in Matthew 28 you hear of that same blessed Holy Trinity, in Whose Name you have been baptized. He was baptized so that your baptism would become what it is for you. Your baptism is precious and most worthy to be remembered and lived in every day, because your sins are washed away in baptism because this Christ, this Son, from eternity, from Galilee, was baptized. Jesus the Christ, your Savior, is always near you if you are baptized into Him. He is not far from you but near to you always, because when He came to the Jordan, He, unstained and all pure, numbered Himself with you, who are stained to the core with your sin.
Pray Be not thou far from me, O LORD, and trust that He is always near to you. You are joined to Him in the waters that He has sanctified by entering willingly into them alongside you. O my strength, haste thee to help me. Indeed, this Christ has hastened to the earth, to Galilee, to the Jordan, to the cross to help you, and by the Holy Baptism that you have received in His Name, you have forever received the help. In this way, He is always near to you and you to Him.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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