Mark 1:2-11
“Baptism Begins”
January 8, 2012 - Baptism of Our Lord

         He walked through the colon and his life was changed. I’ve been reading Dave Barry’s latest book, I’ll Mature When I’m Dead. He tells how turning fifty he put off getting a colonoscopy—for ten years. At one point, a giant 40-foot replica of a colon came to Miami Beach near where he lived in Florida. He says, “If you are a professional humor writer and there is a giant colon within a 200-mile radius, you are legally obligated to go see it.”

         So Dave walked through the giant colon, making tasteless colon jokes and seeing on a macro scale what can happen if you let problems go undetected. At the end (so to speak) he came out a changed man. He wrote a column urging everyone to get a colonoscopy and signed a pledge to get one himself.

         Baptism is another in and out experience that changes your life in a much deeper way than just your willingness to undergo a medical procedure. The baptism which begins our text, John’s baptism, we read in verse 4 was meant to produce a deep repentance or turning away from sin, allowing God to forgive those sins. In Luke’s longer account of all this, John has specific directions for those who repent and are baptized: those with extra clothing or food should share; tax collectors should quit cheating; soldiers should quit stealing and making false accusations.

         In preparation for the coming of the Messiah, verses 2 and 3 tell us, John the messenger was calling people to straighten out what was crooked in their lives, to smooth the path by which the Lord would come into their hearts and lives. Baptism was the means of grace God chose to make that preparation visible.

         There’s evidence that Jewish people and even pagans practiced baptism or something like it before John or Christianity came on the scene. Pagan religion had “lustrations,” ritual washings to prepare oneself to be in the presence of a god. In Judaism, priests washed before entering the temple, women bathed after birth, and converts from paganism were baptized upon their entry into Jewish faith.

         One big difference those earlier “baptisms” had from the baptism of John and from Christian baptism was that typically, before John, you “baptized” yourself. The pagan or the Jewish convert dipped hands or the whole body into the water. Those lustrations were an act you performed upon yourself. But John was a “baptizer.” He did the baptizing to those who came. They were baptized. They didn’t baptize themselves.

         Which for us means that baptism is primarily an act of God. It’s not about what we do, as John says in verse 8, but about what God does, pouring out His Holy Spirit on those who are being baptized.

         As verses 7 and 8 also show, John acknowledged that there was something lacking in the baptisms he performed. He was waiting and preparing for someone who would completely change the character of baptism, make it better and greater than what he was doing. We see that same idea carried forward in our text from Acts 19 as Paul meets folks in Ephesus who only know about John’s baptism. They haven’t heard about the new and greater baptism in Jesus. They haven’t heard about the Holy Spirit.

         Part of the problem with John’s baptism is that it though it brought genuine repentance and forgiveness, it left people with the same old problem. They would change for awhile, but fall back into their old habits, their old sins. As Dave Barry tells his story about walking through the giant colon, he says he signed that pledge to get a colonoscopy… “But I didn’t get one,” he writes, “I was a fraud, a hypocrite, a liar. I was practically a member of Congress.”

         That’s baptism without Jesus, without the Holy Spirit He brings. We try to change, but we fail. We repent from sin, but go back to it. We need a better baptism, a baptism that will really make a difference.

         In our text, in a few short words in verses 9 to 11, we learn that Jesus gave us that better baptism by being baptized Himself. The weirdly wonderful thing that makes Jesus’ baptism so full of grace is that He didn’t need it. He came to John, who was baptizing people for repentance and forgiveness, yet Jesus didn’t have any sins to repent and be forgiven for. He didn’t need John’s baptism, but He stepped down into the muddy Jordan River and let John dip Him under the water.

         What Jesus was doing there in the waters of baptism was a key part of what He came to do overall. God’s Son came to be one of us. Though He was completely God, He became completely human. He accepted all the limitations and struggles of our human flesh. He let Himself completely identify with who and what we are. And getting baptized was part of that identification. And when Jesus stepped down into the waters of baptism, that changed baptism, gave it a new power.

         I’m gearing up to make some changes to our church web site and in the process I’ve had to learn about “cascading style sheets.” It’s a way to write computer code making it easier to do overall changes. Instead of changing things like fonts or colors or the shape of boxes one by one in each web page, you can write style sheets that apply to all your pages. So if you want to change the font or make the background a different color or put rounded corners on all your boxes, you can just change the style sheets and that will change all your pages automatically. Well, when Jesus got baptized, He changed the style sheet for baptism. When Jesus stepped into the water, the style for baptism changed, cascading down into every baptism that came after His.

         The first way Jesus changed baptism was by making it not just a sign of repentance, but a sign of real cleansing from sin. My friend Roland was telling me about playing petanque in California. It’s a kind of crazy outdoor bowling game like the Italian bocce. He said he used to play with a bunch of French chefs for whom petanque was a passion. He told how as they were getting ready to play one afternoon, one annoying fellow put his arm around Roland and said, “You’re my partner today.”

         Roland was put off at first, but then the two of them began to beat all comers. His French partner would unfailingly throw tosses that knocked the opponents’ balls out of the running. Then he’d say to Roland, “Now you throw the point.” Roland said, “I couldn’t miss with all that room he’d made.”

         That’s what Jesus does by joining us in baptism. He’s the partner who never misses the mark, never sins, and by His own perfection Jesus clears the way for us to get closer to the mark than we ever could on our own. In baptism we’re not just sorry for our sins, we are cleansed of them, washed into something holier and better than we could possibly be on our own. By being baptized Jesus changed baptism into a sacrament that actually makes a difference, actually changes us.

         Jesus not only identified with us. By being baptized, He made it possible for us in baptism to be identified with Him. The second change Jesus made in baptism was to make it the way for us to be identified with His own dying and rising. As we read this past summer, in Romans 6, verses 4 and 5 Paul writes,

Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been untied with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

When Jesus stepped into the baptismal water, He left the power of His own undying life there for us. So we identify with Jesus in our own sufferings and death, fully trusting and expecting that we will be identified with Him in new life and resurrection.

         That’s what our friend Kay Strom says about her Christian friends in Egypt who may be arrested for sharing their faith with Muslims. They believe that because Jesus suffered they are identified with Him. They are willing to suffer too so that they may identify with and enjoy the resurrection He experienced.

         New life in identity with Christ comes into us through the gift of the Holy Spirit. After Jesus’ baptism, we read in verse 10, “he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.” That’s just what happens to us, what happened to those believers in Ephesus when they were finally baptized in the name of Jesus. The Holy Spirit comes down and lives in us and gives us new life.

         So Jesus made baptism our cleansing and our identification with His new, resurrected life. Third, He also made it the sacrament of our entry into God’s own family. In verse 11, Mark tells us that “a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” His baptism was the point where God identified Jesus as His own Son in public. By being baptized and experiencing that announcement of His sonship, Jesus made our own baptisms the point at which we are publicly acknowledged as children of God.

         Jesus made our entry into God’s family possible by coming alongside us as our Brother, even in a baptism which He didn’t need. Dave Barry finally got his colonoscopy. He got it because his brother, who was ten years younger, got one. For Barry the clincher was his brother’s phone call to say that his colonoscopy had discovered cancer, so Dave had better get one too.

         Dave Barry got his colonoscopy. He finally changed his ways because he learned that there might be a heritage of cancer and death in his family. We are baptized and accepted as children of God because in Christ our Brother we see that there is a heritage of healing and life in His family, and we are welcomed and invited into that heritage.

         Cleansing from sin, identification with the life of Jesus, and welcome into the family of God—these are the gifts Jesus brought into our baptisms by His own baptism. There is still one more dimension Jesus added to that sacred water. In the next few verses after telling about Jesus’ baptism, Mark records how Jesus was tempted by Satan and then began His mission. He began “proclaiming the good news of God.”

         We’ll look at Jesus’ temptation and the start of His mission more next week, but for right now, let’s just note that His baptism led directly to opposition and to mission. So in our own baptisms, the fourth thing Jesus gives us is solidarity with Him in His mission to the world. As Christians we are called to get up out of the waters of baptism, and like Jesus Himself, go out to share the good news of God’s kingdom with others.

         There will be opposition when we live up to our baptism and proclaim the good news. Some of you may have heard about the several pastors and a city councilman who were arrested Wednesday in New York City. They were peacefully praying and protesting the city’s decision to immediately evict all worship services from public school buildings. About 60 churches must leave by February 12. Many of these are churches serving poor people in neighborhoods where prices make it impossible to purchase church property. After the school action, the New York City Housing Authority tried to follow suit and started evicting churches. One of the people arrested Wednesday was a Covenant pastor.

         We join in the mission of Jesus, even when it’s unpopular. It’s part of our baptism calling. Here at Valley Covenant we serve the homeless even while some people think we’re just enabling them. Doug Bales, the director of the Egan Warming Center, had a woman tell him last week that she was “against the homeless.” We’re for the homeless because Jesus was for them. He has good news for them and for everyone. In baptism we acknowledge our mission to share that good news.

         Our mission is to carry out Jesus’ command to go and “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” It’s a baptismal mission that began in Jesus’ own baptism.” In our baptisms we became part of it.

         We learn a lot about baptism by looking at Jesus’ own baptism. This is where baptism begins. Cleansing from sin, identification with Jesus, welcome into God’s family, and mission are all part of Jesus’ baptism and therefore part of our baptism. And His baptism can help us answer other questions, like why we ask that you be baptized before you come to the Lord’s Table. It’s partly because that’s the order in which Jesus did it. Baptism came first and then later He sat down to break the bread of His body and share the cup of the New Covenant in His blood. We simply follow Jesus own example in expecting that same order of things from ourselves and our children.

         We could also talk about our Covenant practice of recognizing both infant and believer baptism as valid Christian baptism. That goes back to a point we made early on. Baptism is not about what we do, but about what God does. The focus is on God’s grace, not on the person receiving it. Even an infant can receive the grace of God. But we don’t treat baptism as magic. Just getting dipped in or sprinkled with water doesn’t make a person a believer. Faith is necessary. But in believer baptism we look backward at the faith that has already been expressed. In infant baptism we look forward to the faith we pray for and in which we bring up that child.

         There’s lots more we could say and learn about baptism, but the last thing I’d like us to hear this morning is what I shared earlier with the children. Jesus went in the water first so that you and I could follow Him. He’s standing there with His arms outstretched, ready to catch us if we’ll jump in with Him. So if you’ve yet to step into those waters, I invite you to do that. We would love to talk with you about what it means to trust in Jesus as Savior and receive Christian baptism.

         By the way, Dave Barry’s brother came through fine. He’s doing well after being treated for his cancer. And you will come through even better if you receive Christ as Lord and join Him in baptism. His healing grace will bring you a new life that will last forever.

         And if you’ve been baptized already, if you’ve been through the water, then consider all that it means. Join Jesus in all that He gave you and all that He is doing. Accept His cleansing from sin and let your life be changed. Hope in the new life and resurrection He gives you. Rejoice in being part of God’s family. And join in Jesus’ mission to bring good news and the gift of baptism to anyone who needs and wants it.

         Amen.

Valley Covenant Church
Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
Copyright © 2012 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj