January 13, 2013 at Calvary
Evangelical Lutheran Church – Mechanicsburg, PA
“Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been
baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit
descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You
are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.’”
The Lord’s people Israel heard many statements about who they
were and their relationship to Him. These statements revealed their identity,
their special status that no other groups of individuals possessed. At the
heart of those statements were descriptions about the Lord’s actions that He had done for them. From the land of
Ur of the Chaldeans, the Lord had
summoned Abram to become a patriarch of a nation. Out of all the nations of the
world, the Lord had delivered the
Israelites from Egyptian slavery and made them great. The Lord had prospered Israel, so that it
was a prominent kingdom among the Ancient Near Eastern civilizations. And why
had this taken place? Because the Lord
desired it. It was well-pleasing to Him. His love and favor had been shown.
These descriptions of what the Lord had done for them are what the
Israelites were always to keep foremost in their mind. What the Lord said and did was to become the
heart of their faith, the bedrock on which they would establish their trust.
Without the Lord’s acts, the
people would become nothing. They would be left abandoned. They would have no
hope. That is why even in the midst of Israel’s apostasy and falling away from
faith, the Lord would send
prophets to speak again, exhorting them to remember their identity as the
nation that the Lord brought into
being, the people of promise.
This is the background for
Isaiah’s statements that the Israelites heard centuries ago, the same words
that you heard this morning. Speaking prophetically about the nation that would
be exiled to Babylon and Persia, Isaiah reveals the Lord’s promise to them: “But
now thus says the Lord, He who
created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have
redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine. When you pass through
the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not
overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the
flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord
your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.’” The Lord states again that He had called the
Israelites to be His. The people are called back to faith in the Lord who had brought them into being. As
they would put their trust in Him and His promises, they would even endure
centuries of exile away from their land.
In fact, the Lord makes a promise for His people
concerning what He will do for them: “I
give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are
precious in My eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you,
peoples in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring
your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say
to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring My sons from
afar and my daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is called by My
name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.” The Lord promises that He will ransom and
deliver His people. He will put their exile to an end, even giving up other
nations for them. That is the extent of the Lord’s
love and favor for His people. That is how far the Lord will go for them, even for people who had been
disobedient, who had doubted His promises, who had chased after other gods.
What is set forth in these
promises to exiled Israel is how the Lord
who is gracious and merciful acts. His statement about giving a ransom for
people reveals how He operates: “Because
you are precious in My eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return
for you, peoples in exchange for your life.” That is His character put into
action. It leads to the giving of a ransom for all people to deliver them out
of their separation and banishment. But the Lord
does not stop at giving nations in exchange for Israel. No, that will not do
when speaking about redemption for the world. Instead, what is given is even
greater, more precious. The ransom is what steps into the Jordan River and
picks up the sins of the world to bear on His shoulders.
The Lord looks at the world and sees its problems. He sees it at
enmity with Him, separated by the boundary between holiness and imperfection,
righteousness and iniquity. He views the world caught up in the slavery and
bondage of sin and death. Your own contributions to your plight are noted by
Him: each time that you have violated His commands, every instance where you
have doubted anything that He had said, all your chasing after other gods or
making yourself supreme in your lives.
And yet, the Lord says to you: “Because you are
precious in My eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give a Man in return for
you, a Person in exchange for your life.” And who is this Man? Who is this
Person? It is Jesus who was baptized for you: “When Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were
opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove; and a
voice came from heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased.’”
That is your ransom.
So what does this beloved and
well-pleasing Son do? He does not stay wading in the Jordan River. Instead, He
walks out of it to take up a mission of rescue and redemption. It is what you
will hear for the next 12 weeks, as the Church Year progresses through Epiphanytide
to Lent to Holy Week and Easter. But you need not wait another day to hear it.
No, it was heard this morning in Paul’s Letter to the Romans: “Do you not know that all of us who have
been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried
therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness
of life.” Death and resurrection: that is what the beloved and
well-pleasing Son of God does for you. Death and resurrection: those are the
acts performed on your behalf because you are precious in the Lord’s eyes, honored and loved.
So the Lord incorporates you into the ransoming act that has been
carried out for you. That is what Holy Baptism does. As you step into the
baptismal waters, you are brought into union with Christ. You are linked with
Him. You enter into a covenant with Him that establishes a new relationship.
For now you are no longer independent, allowed to set and determine your own
destiny. Neither are you abandoned, left to fend for yourself. No, you have
something different, a special status. The Lord
says to you: “Fear not, for I have
redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are Mine.” That is the
identity that is bestowed upon you.
The incorporation into the Christ’s
death and resurrection performed for you effects a change in you. This is what
being baptized brings about: “We know
that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be
brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who
has died has been set free from sin.” The old life is over; a new life has begun.
It is similar to how Abram was summoned to become Abraham, the Great Patriarch.
Or how Israel was delivered from slavery by the Exodus through the Red Sea to
become a free people. Or how the people were prospered by the Lord’s care. The change is made for you,
as the Lord’s voice thunders over
the baptismal waters and places His name on you. Now you are His. Now you are His
people, those whom He strengthens and blesses with peace and pardon.
That is the new identity that
the Lord has bestowed upon you. He
has created and formed you. He has redeemed you. He has called you by name. He
has made you His. It was good and well-pleasing to the Lord to do this for your benefit. That is what being
baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection has accomplished for you. Like
the beloved and well-pleasing Son, you have died and risen. You are no longer
enslaved to sin. No, you are dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Having
the Holy Spirit poured out upon you, your desire is to follow the way of life
that the Lord has established for
you, to faithfully keep His covenant, to be well-pleasing to Him in what you
think, say, and do.
The Lord’s love and favor have been shown to you. He calls you
to place your trust in His acts and promises. That is what happens as you put
your faith in the death and resurrection of Christ. Likewise, you rely on what Christ
says to you about how He distributes His gifts of forgiveness, life, and
salvation. This is why you believe that baptism actually accomplishes something
for you, as well as the pronouncement of absolution and the eating of the
Eucharist.
Your trust in the Lord’s acts and promises is also why you
place your hope in the Lord’s statement
concerning a final gathering of His people: “I
will say to the north, Give up, and to the south, Do not withhold; bring My
sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the earth, everyone who is
called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.” Resurrection
awaits you and everyone who has been baptized and trusts the divine promises
made in it: “For if we have been united
with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a
resurrection like His.” This is your destiny, your end that the Lord established for you. It is your special
status, an identity that no other group possesses. And it is all because you
are precious in the Lord’s eyes,
loved and honored by Him, having His beloved and well-pleasing Son given in
ransom for you.
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