The Bible begins with baptism. It starts out, “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2). Over the ancient and chaotic creation, there was Spirit and water, water and Spirit. That’s baptism!
Do you remember Jesus speaking to Nicodemus at night? What did He say? Jesus said, “I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).
It’s creation and a new creation. It’s God doing His creative work through water and Spirit with the Word. In the beginning of Scripture and the beginning of the world, we see a baptismal beginning. Before day and night and sea and sky, there was water, Spirit, and the Word. In the beginning, when the earth was still waste and welter, there was water, Spirit, and the Word. Baptism is a new creation. For through water, Spirit, and the Word, you are made a new creation.
From that perspective, you can also understand the ancient Flood. Through the Flood, God returned everything to as it was in the beginning. Water again covered the world. And so the Flood became a washing with water for a creation gone awry. And when Noah stepped out of the ark with his family and the animals, it was a new creation, a new beginning for all humanity.
From that perspective, you can also understand Israel’s Exodus through the Red Sea. For it was then that Israel emerged from the water as a nation. Egypt was Israel’s womb and the sea was its birthing water. As the Israelites walked through the sea, they went from being slaves to free, from nothing to a nation.
That’s how God prepared the way for baptism, for those who with the eyes of faith to see. And so we now listen to the voice of the Evangelist, St. Mark. The Gospel of Mark starts out with John the Baptizer and the baptism of Jesus. Mark doesn’t tell us about Jesus’ conception, birth, or circumcision. Matthew has already filled in those blanks. And Luke will do so later.
For Mark, the Gospel, the good news of Jesus, begins with His baptism. And so we are here today, considering the baptism of our Lord by John. Like John, his baptism was a transition, a bridge between the Old Covenant and the New. In Scripture, John’s baptism was different, unprecedented, and new.
In the Old Covenant, you dealt with sin by a blood sacrifice. It was the blood of an animal for your blood, a life for a life. But with John came something new. With John, we see in Scripture a baptism of repentance into the forgiveness of sins. You came to John, who was standing there in the Jordan, confessing your sins, and you were washed in the water (that is, baptized) and forgiven. Your sins were washed away.
So, Jesus came from Nazareth to the Jordan River and stood before John. And there something astonishing happened–Jesus wanted to be baptized! The Sinless One wants to be baptized as a sinner. The only One who has no need for repentance wants to receive John’s baptism of repentance.
St. Matthew records that John objected. “I should be baptized by you,” he said. And he’s right. The sinner needs to be baptized by the Sinless One. But Jesus says to John, “Let it be. For this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15).
So, there in the water of the Jordan, in John’s baptism of repentance, Jesus is fulfilling all righteousness. The sinless Son stands in solidarity with sinners, washed in their sin-infested bathwater. All their lies, deceits, adulteries, and blasphemies are washed into that water. It’s into that water that Jesus steps. He steps in to make the dirty water clean. Like a sponge, He absorbs the sin of the world and becomes the Sinner “to fulfill all righteousness” for you.
The Son is baptized, so in baptism you might be born together in Him. In baptism, as Jesus told Nicodemus, you are born of water and Spirit, born from above (John 3:3,5). This birth was “not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). That’s why being born again isn’t any more of a choice than you deciding to be born the first time.
Jesus, the Sacrifice of the World, is washed. He is baptized into His own death, for this episode of baptism leads to His cross. Mark tells us that as Jesus stepped out onto the shore, the heavens were “torn open.” There’s violence in that phrase “torn open” (skizo). The heavens were torn open like cloth being ripped in two. The next time Mark uses that phrase is at Jesus’ crucifixion. That’s when the Temple curtain that separated the Holy of Holies was torn open from top to bottom. That’s Mark’s point–Jesus’ baptism and what He fulfilled in His death go together!
If Jesus’ baptism and His death go together, then where water and the Word get together, watch out! Something monumental happens. Mark tells us that as Jesus stepped away from the water, the heavens were torn open, and the Spirit descended on Jesus in the form of a dove. The Father then said, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.”
Jesus is unique in His Baptism. It was then the heavens opened and the Father spoke. That happened at no other baptism of John’s. For no other person did the Spirit descend bodily. For no other person did the Father declare such words: “You are my beloved Son.” The Father only spoke such words to His Son Jesus, the One from Nazareth, whom John baptized.
But here’s where it gets even better. For what uniquely took place with Jesus, He uniquely gives to you. For in your baptism into Jesus, the heavens were torn open for you. In your Baptism into Jesus, the Spirit descended on you and anointed you. In your Baptism into Jesus, the Father spoke His word of His approval over you: “You are my beloved child.”
Although sinless, Jesus was baptized as a Sinner, so you, although sinful, could be baptized into His righteousness and holiness. In His baptism in the Jordan, Jesus takes up your sin. In your Baptism, Jesus washes your sin away and covers you with His own robes of righteousness. It’s a swap unlike any other. It’s a happy exchange: The Sinless One becomes the sinner for you; and you, the sinner, become the righteous one.
What does this all mean? The apostle Paul tells us: “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were, therefore, buried with him through baptism into death, so, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3-4).
That’s the greater baptism of which John spoke. That’s the baptism that makes you a new creation in Christ and gives you new birth as a child of God. That’s the baptism that washes the stain of sin away and joins you–not only to the death of Jesus–but also to His life! That’s the baptism that puts you into the Body of Christ and robes you with Him and His righteousness. That’s the fiery baptism of the Holy Spirit who works through water and the Word. That’s Jesus’ death and life applied to you personally. In baptism, God makes salvation personal.
Jesus the Messiah was baptized for everyone in the Jordan. He died for everyone on the cross. So far so true, but a distant God dying for you is of no help unless it becomes personal. And it does. Jesus’ salvation is applied to you personally by the Holy Spirit working in and through the water of baptism.
It’s as the Apostle Peter says. He says that “baptism saves you” (1 Peter 3:21). And it does. For in baptism, God the Holy Spirit takes sons of Adam, born in Adam’s sin, and makes them children of heaven, born of water and Spirit through the Word. Baptism joins you to Jesus in His death and life with all the promises and certainty they bring.
But for the baptized, baptism isn’t just one day in your life. It is your life. Baptism is like a marriage. You weren’t married; you are married. You weren’t baptized; you are baptized. Baptism isn’t something that happens once and then you forget. No, you live in and live out your baptism. Baptism is dying to sin every day. Each day, in baptism the sinner dies and the saint in Christ arises.
Each day is a resurrection day, baptism raising us to new life, renewing us, lifting us up out of the death of sin to life in Christ. It’s an identity we wear. We don’t simply say, “I was baptized,” but “I am baptized.” That’s who you are.
Baptized into Christ, you are a new creation. The Spirit hovering over the water has come to you in a new way. The Spirit hovering over the baptismal water has ordered the chaos of your sin and death into something new. You are now a sinner made right with God through His Son, Jesus, in the Holy Spirit.
Because of what God does in and through baptism, even now, He allows you to consider yourself already dead to sin. For sin’s lordship has ended. You are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, that’s where all the action is: your life, salvation, and holiness.
Did you understand all that when you were baptized as an infant? Of course not! We will never fully understand the mysteries of God. But we have a lifetime to grow into them, even eternity. That’s as many days as the Lord gives you, and then the eternal Day in which the darkness of sin and death is no more.
You are baptized. Welcome to Light and Life. Amen.
