January 4, 2023 – Baptism of our Lord                      Text:  Matthew 3:13-17                                    

Dear Friends in Christ,

    At this time in the church year things can move along rather quickly.  Epiphany was Friday – the visit of the Wise Men.  Now here we are two days later and the Baptism of Jesus.  He is an infant on Friday and a 30-year-old at His Baptism.  We fast forward to this unique event, a baptism unlike any other, yet a baptism that lays the groundwork for our own baptism.

    When Ed Koch was mayor of New York City, he was famous for strolling the streets and asking his constituents, “How am I doing?”  He took his cues and set his course based on their replies.  He was pleased when they were pleased.

    How’s Jesus doing?  We have a vested interest in the answer.  In our text we will discover that answer.  

“HOW IS JESUS DOING?”

    It is an odd question for us to be asking.  Does Jesus need our approval?  What kind of focus group do we think we are?  He is Jesus, after all.

    But even Jesus had his critics.  Even Jesus had those who questioned what he was doing.  The Pharisees and Sadducees make their first appearance in Matthew.  In the verses preceding our text they are questioning John about Baptism.  They don’t think they need to repent and confess their sins before being baptized.  They had their good works.  They had their heritage.  They were descendants of Abraham.  Ironic that they would play that card because Abraham was one who lived by faith with repentance and trust in God’s promises.  If John is touting this Jesus who is mightier than him, well these folks have a problem with Jesus too.  And as we know this will not be the first time that they question what Jesus is doing.

    But why baptize Jesus?  Why does someone who is sinless need this water of the Jordan?  Jesus had no need of this.  But Jesus makes a point:  I will be baptized.  Why?  Because I have come for sinners.  I stand with sinners.  I shoulder the burden of all.  This is the start of his three-year journey to the cross.  

    The Pharisees and Sadducees would say that he has blown it.  What is he doing mixing with this crowd?  They will be a constant focus group and a pain in the side of Jesus throughout his ministry.  But their approval doesn’t count.  “How am I doing?” the question goes.  Jesus doesn’t need to wait for the polls or the election.  He has immediate feedback which is better than any exit poll.  Jesus is baptized, comes out of the water, and immediately heaven stands in solidarity.  “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”  Not just anyone, but a “Son.”  Not just pleased, but “well pleased.”

    God stands in solidarity with Jesus, the Christ, the Anointed, the Messiah.  We can understand if those on the riverbank were stunned and confused.  There were messianic expectations, some quite extraordinary.  This Jesus looks ordinary.  Beware of wanting Him on our terms.  Rather, take what is given, trust what is said.  It is rude to remake a gift.

    This “Son” would come for other sons and daughters.  He would come for prodigals who left the faith.  He would come for children who never knew the faith.  He would come for you and I so that we could be accepted by the Father.  Jesus is here for us sinners.  But God in solidarity with Jesus puts things in a new Epiphany light.

    God gives His approval that Jesus is doing great.  Here is how the circle works.  Jesus in solidarity with sinners, God with Jesus, and God with us.  How so and where?  In our Baptism.  Jesus’ baptism obviously is not identical with our own.  The path for Jesus was not finished.  There are still cross and empty tomb to come.  We are baptized into that death and resurrection.  His baptism is ours as our sin is His.  Martin Luther calls this the “happy exchange” that happens in our baptism.  “Who for us and for our salvation” as we confess in the Creed.  Christ’s name is put on us.  All righteousness was eventually fulfilled in Christ.

    Have any of you read where church roofs have opened with doves descending and voices from the sky giving approval during a baptism?  I haven’t either.  There is no need for that.  Something spectacular still happens as the Father, as Christ, stand in solidarity and give the Spirit.  As the Trinity is invoked and the water is sprinkled, we stand in awe at the power of our Lord.  His salvation is our salvation.  You are watermarked.

    How is Jesus doing?  In this God is well-pleased.  That is all that matters, right?                                                        Amen.    

January 1, 2023 – Circumcision and Name of Jesus                          Text:  Luke 2:21

Dear Friends in Christ,

    I am sure all you noticed the brevity of the Gospel lesson this morning.  “At the end of eight days.”  This is not an arbitrary time.  This is an appointed time with an appointed meaning.  Why is the eighth day so important?

“WHY THE EIGHTH DAY?”

    Why not some other number?  Why eight days?  Here is one thought:  the eighth day is the best day for circumcision because on it baby boys produce the highest percentage of vitamin K and prothrombin, which are necessary for coagulating blood.  Interesting fact, because we wouldn’t want all those baby boys bleeding to death.

    Beyond the physical benefits of the eighth day, there is probably a more theological reason.  When God gives the command to circumcise, He is making good on his promise to deliver his people.  This wasn’t just freedom from Egyptians and Canaanites; it is the triumphing over this sinful world.  A new heaven and a new earth.

    When God first creates, He does so in six days and then rests on the seventh.  This is the first creation.  But we have a new creation on the horizon.  This world will be destroyed and made new again.  God again is the architect, and this new work begins when Jesus rises from the dead.  He is the reason for the resurrection unto eternal life.

    Try to follow this.  Jesus died on Friday.  Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath.  Easter Sunday then came.  The Sabbath is the end of the week or the 7th day.  Jesus rises on Sunday which is actually the first day of the week.  Seven days plus one day = eight days.  The beginning of a new creation.

    This is why sometimes you hear of an eighth-day theology.  The Early Church shaped their baptismal fonts with eight sides – for in Baptism, like we witnessed today – something new is being brought forth.  It is also a reminder that eight souls were saved on the ark when the floodwaters came – Noah, his wife, three sons, three daughters-in-law.

    It all starts to make some sense now.  It is a foreshadowing of being made new, being added to the kingdom of God, rising together in the resurrection and inheriting a new creation prepared for us in Christ Jesus.

    “At the end of eight days . . . he was circumcised.”  If you have sons you have experienced their pain.  Most of us had it done in the hospital after their birth.  It was hard to watch the nurse take them away and you just cringed when they were gone.  It started a lifetime of hugging, kissing and love after they experienced pain.

    Joseph and Mary probably watched, which would be even more difficult.  They provided the comfort.  But the pain Jesus went through would be multiplied.  The shed blood of His circumcision would lead to the shed blood of Holy Week.  The blood of Christ is first spilled here in the circumcision.  It points to the purpose of His life.  He has come to shed His blood for all. 

    What pain have you felt?  What pain are you feeling?  What emotional hurt weighs on your mind?  The pain and agony that Jesus felt, like all those baby boys felt, will only be the beginning of what He must undergo for the redemption of mankind.  The life of Christ will be one of suffering.  It will be one where He submits himself to the will of His heavenly Father and thereby lays down His own flesh and blood for the life of all fallen mankind.  This was God’s plan since the fall.  Look at the name – Jesus – God saves.

    Jesus has come to hug and kiss and love us.  He provides the comfort in the midst of our pain.  He sympathizes with us because He experienced it.  Like our boys when going under the knife, do we cringe still at the Lenten/Easter story?  Do we still see the pain?  Do we acknowledge the agony?  Does the shed blood make us turn away because we know it is our sin that causes Him so much discomfort?

    That is how great His love is.  He is worthy of His name because He saves.  He saves you and I from discomforts that could be debilitating.  Would you ever want to go through the death of a loved one without hope?  By coming in the flesh, by shedding His blood, and by rising again on the third, that is the first, that is, remember, the eighth day.

    This Day of Circumcision gives us hope.  It encapsulates the curse of the fall, the promises of the Gospel in the Old Testament, and their fulfillment in the New Testament.  It even points us forward to the return of our Lord in glory, who at that time will consummate all things and make them new in the new heaven and the new earth.

    In the name of Jesus.

                Amen.