You’re standing in the wilderness across the Jordan River. A voice calls out from a distance, “Prepare the way of the Lord!” A figure approaches, a wild-haired, bearded man. His skin is bronzed by the sun, his eyes ablaze with prophetic fire.
He comes adorned like a prophet from the pages of Scripture. Coarse camel’s hair is his clothing, and a leather belt straps itself around his waist. You think this crazy figure of a man is Elijah, back from the haunts of death. You now realize you are standing where tradition tells you God chose to whisk Elijah off to heaven centuries before.
The strange figure draws near. “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” He glares at you with a stubborn stare, pointing a finger in your direction. Yes, he means you, church-going religious one. Yes, you, sincere Israelite, Pharisee, Sadducee, and Scribe. He also includes you tax collector and prostitute, the dregs of society.
No matter who you are, repent. So, you help your neighbor. Repent, for what you do is not enough to bring you into God’s graces. So, you are a wayward son. Repent, you are worse off than you think. You also need the Messiah and what He brings.
What a strange man he is. He follows a paleo diet, eating grasshopper protein and wild honey. From where does he hail and who sent him? His name is John. He is the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, old parents when he enters the world, too old.
John grew up as an orphan in the wilderness. He wants little to do with the Temple. Oh, he comes from a family line of priests, but he is not a priest. His business is at the Jordan River. He comes to baptize, not Gentiles, but Israelites.
People underwent baptism in John’s day. Now, God did not command the practice, but baptism became a way for Gentiles to show their Gentiles ways are washed away, no more a part of their lives. Gentiles received a baptism when they became Jews.
So, John’s baptism is nothing new, but something is different. For the people whom John urges to receive baptism are not Gentiles but Jews. Some are also religious leaders: Pharisees and Sadducees. Why do they need to renounce Gentiles ways?
No wonder John’s baptism causes such controversy. He is calling Israel to repent. Their understanding of what God set up for them is so far off track they might as well be Gentiles. The Israelites misunderstand God’s Law. His Law shows us we need a Savior. God did not give us His Law for us to try to climb our way to heaven.
So, John singles out the religious leaders for the harshest treatment. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. Turn from your fallen ways, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” John appears in the wilderness, showing the Old Covenant is now ending.
Prophet Malachi wrote of Elijah, who will come before the Day of the Lord to prepare the people for the Messiah. John speaks in the spirit of Elijah, becoming the last Old-Covenant prophet. The Messiah is here, and Israel is in desperate need of a bath.
John calls Israel to be washed and ready for the Coming One. He calls Israel away from Jerusalem and its religious institutions. For with the Messiah, everything is going to change. You Israelites might as well be Gentiles!
To repent is a change of mind, to change your thinking. Repentance is not about behaving; no, behaving is a byproduct of repentance. To repent is a total flip of the mind and will. The time is here, stop wasting time, for the kingdom of heaven is near.
So, Jesus listens to John’s call and comes for baptism. Do you not find what Jesus does as strange? John does. God’s sinless Son comes to receive a baptism of repentance for forgiveness. He doesn’t need to repent. He doesn’t need forgiveness. What Jesus does perplexes John.
What sins does Jesus need to confess? None, but He still stands before God, standing with sinners to be baptized, to be washed of His sins.
John objects; this isn’t what he planned. He pictures the Messiah as robust and mighty. The Messiah will come with a fiery baptism, with an ax in one hand and a pitchfork in the other. Jesus is the Messiah who will clean up the threshing floor, gather the proper wheat into His barn, and burn the chaff with voracious fire.
John gazes into Jesus’ eyes. “I should be baptized by You. I’m the sinner; You’re the sinless one. I’m baptizing people to prepare them for You—yet You come to me. I’m confused.”
Jesus insists: “Let it be, John.” Jesus speaks the same word for forgiveness when He tells John to “let it be.” “Let go of how you think I’m going to work. I come to forgive, to fulfill all righteousness.” In those words, we realize how God will save the world. The sinless Son of God will take all sin into Himself and become the world’s sin.
Jesus becomes the world’s sin. He comes to embody all humanity in Himself. In His sinlessness, He takes the world’s sin into Himself. Jesus is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, taking all our sin into His dark death. He stands in John’s baptismal water, contaminated by our sin.
Jesus now takes water to do His bidding, to purify those who will later come to His baptismal waters. So, we learn the baptism of John and Jesus are different. John baptizes to prepare for our Lord’s first coming. Jesus commanded His Church to baptize to prepare people for His second coming, on the Last Day.
Your baptism came from Jesus, not John. Your baptism came with the flaming wind of His Spirit. Jesus fulfills John’s baptism when He stands in the water to be baptized by him. How can we be sure? The heavens open. The Spirit descends, the Father speaks, and the Son is wet with water. The Holy Trinity affirms as much, with the Father giving voice: “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him, I am well pleased.”
John’s baptism prepares the way for Jesus’ coming to die and rise. Your baptism prepares the way for Jesus’ coming in glory when He will call forth the dead and fulfill His salvation. Our Epistle Reading told us as much. Baptism joins you to Jesus in His death and resurrection. Why? So you will die with Christ to rise and live with Him forever. Jesus will fulfill your baptism on the Last Day when you rise to new life.
John points to Jesus as the promised Messiah—and what a Jesus he preaches! John’s Jesus holds a winnowing fork in His hand, a fork to separate the grain from the chaff. John’s Jesus comes with burning judgment, ready to scorch the chaff with ravenous fire as He gathers His wheat into the barn. John’s Jesus holds an ax chopping at the root of every fruitless tree.
John prepares, and Jesus appears. Which Jesus do we find? He comes humble and meek, bringing Himself to receive John’s baptism of repentance when He doesn’t need to repent. We don’t find an ax and a pitchfork, but cross and death. We don’t find God coming in judgment, but coming to be judged. We find a different Jesus.
Oh, Jesus can be the God of burning wrath, but He prefers not to be. Think back to God giving His Law to His people. At Sinai, God revealed His judgment is to the third and fourth, but His faithful love is to the thousands. Understand the ratio? Three to four versus thousands. God will judge, but He prefers mercy and grace instead.
So, Jesus comes as the Gospel to John’s Law. Who thinks God will use His ax against the promised “shoot from the stump of Jesse,” Jesus? Who will think the fire of God’s judgment will turn against the Son in His passion to save us? Who will think the way of heaven is for the King to die for His subjects and rise from the dead? So we learn, once again: God’s ways are not our ways.
Seven-hundred years before John, God’s prophet, Isaiah, foresaw the coming Kingdom. A little shoot sprouts from the stump of King David’s family tree. The small shoot is Jesus, the sprout who will become a branch bearing life-giving fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him.
Jesus will judge the world in His righteousness. He comes to restore wholeness and harmony to all creation. The wolf will live with the lamb (Isaiah 11:6). The broken will become whole and complete. Creation will groan no more.
The baptism Jesus put in place is a letter from the Triune God, addressed to you. Christ saved you in His death on the cross—but baptism makes salvation personal. In Christ, YOU are born from above. Baptism now marks YOU as a child of God, becoming His testimony to you: You belong, you’re mine, part of my family.
At Jesus’ baptism, the heavens opened, the Spirit of God descended, and the voice of the Father spoke: “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him, I am well pleased.” So also with you at your baptism. Heaven opens, the Spirit descends, and the Father smiles with approval: “This is my son, my daughter, whom I love.”
In God’s Son, Jesus, whom He loves, you are loved. You are born from above, renewed, resurrected, for you are baptized. All thanks to Jesus and what He does for you in baptism. Amen.
