A Strange and Essential Baptism
Luke 3: 15 Now the people were waiting expectantly, and all of them were questioning in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I am is coming. I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing shovel is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.” 18 Then, along with many other exhortations, he proclaimed good news to the people. 19 But when John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the evil things he had done, 20 Herod added this to everything else—he locked up John in prison.
21 When all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized. As he was praying, heaven opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in a physical appearance like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.”
John the Baptist had made a name for himself, though not intentionally. Everyone in the area had heard of him. He had been proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Many would come confessing their sins.
He had gotten a lot of attention, partly because of what he called some people – “Brood of vipers,”– he was warning them to produce fruit in keeping with their repentance.
But this righteous name calling did not go well with many. Like Herod Antipas who ruled in Perea and Galilee, both of which bordered the Jordan river where John was baptizing. We don’t know exactly how it all took place, but it is possible that Herod Antipas went to hear John preach and thought about being baptized by him. Whatever the case, Herod heard from John that he was guilty of adultery – coveting and taking the wife of his brother – and he needed to repent and bring forth the proper fruits of repentance. But both Herod and especially his wife Herodias took great offense at this public ridicule, they would not tolerate let alone accept his reproach. John was thrown into prison, and later beheaded.
Again, John had made a name and reputation for himself, but only because he was faithful in his unique calling from God.
People either loved him or hated him, respected him or disdained him, believed him or rejected him. But because he became so popular so quickly, the question naturally arose, “Who are you? Are you possibly, or are you claiming to be, the Messiah, the one we Jews have been waiting for for centuries?”
John’s answer was, “No. I baptize you with water. But the one coming after me, very soon, is far beyond me. He has a power within himself that I don’t come close to matching. He is so far above me and beyond me, I don’t even qualify to be the lowliest of servants to him, to untie his sandals before he would enter a home. “He will baptize you with the God the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
What does that mean? He goes on to explain what it means: “His winnowing shovel is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out.”
Back in those days farmers would make very hard surface called the threshing floor (think of something like cement). The farmers would throw their sheaves or grains stocks on this threshing floor and go over it with a heavy threshing sled pulled by a donkey or an ox. This would remove the husks or chaff from the wheat grains. But they were still mixed together and all they wanted was the grain in order to make bread; the chaff was useless. So they used a winnowing shovel to shovel up both together and throw them into the air on a windy day. The wind would blow the lighter chaff off to the side and the wheat grain, being heavier, would fall pretty much straight down. Then the farmer would gather together the good wheat and store it in his barn from where it could be taken throughout the year to make bread. The useless chaff could be burned up in fire.
The good wheat represents those who come repenting, are baptized, and produce the fruit of repentance in their daily lives. The coming Christ will baptize them with the Holy Spirit. The chaff, on the other hand, are those who do not repent, the evidence being no fruit of repentance. They will be baptized with fire, a fire that never ever goes out.
So everyone who comes to hear John are sinners. Everyone. But they are of two kinds of sinners. Either they repent or they do not. Those who repent are offered baptism, for it was “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3).
And then we come to verse 21: “When all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized.”
This is very odd. A sinless man goes into a baptism that is only supposed to be for sinful men? It is very strange. We even read in Matthew’s account that John tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized. But Jesus told him, “‘Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then John allowed him to be baptized.” (Matt. 3:15).”
So why? Why would a non-sinner come to a baptism for sinners? We see several things in our text.
First, the Holy Spirit would come upon Jesus in his baptism. The third person of Triune God and his power would come upon Jesus, which we be of great benefit and strength to him in what Jesus was about to do.
Second, there is the voice: “You are my beloved Son.” A great comfort to Jesus knowing God the Father loved him; again, something that would benefit him as he went on from there. Children who do not hear and know that their earthly fathers love them will not do nearly as well as those who do hear from their father, “Son I love you. Daughter I love you.” Those words are important.
But the comfort is not for Jesus alone. It is also for you. When you realize that the one who is more precious to the God than anyone is put on the cross to suffer for you, to die for you – his only beloved Son! – this is proof of God’s great love for you, a sinner. “Giving up your only and most beloved Son, for me?” Yeah! Wow. Think about that next time you are in the depths of despair, or think that life and God are unfair to you, or when you have doubts whether God really loves you. As Paul said, “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom. 5:8).
But this phrase is important as well: he says, “with you I am well-pleased.” God the Father is never well-pleased with sin. A sinner never pleases him. These words are confirming that this human Jesus, who is also the Son of God, is not a sinner, which would also benefit him in the days ahead.
By the way, take note that all three persons of the Triune God are present: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I will come back to this.
I want to mention one important thing about Jesus’ baptism. This is the anointing of Jesus to begin his public work, his ministry, his service as the Messiah. His servanthood as the Christ now begins.
It is like he has been in the starting gate of a horse race up until this point. This baptism is when the starting gate flies open and he’s off to the races. He leaves the gate with the Holy Spirit and his power, he is off to the races assured of his Father’s love, and he’s out of the starting gate with no sin.
Where is he going? Obviously, he is not basking in the forgiveness of sins, for he has none. He is not saying goodbye to his sin.
Instead, as he comes out of his baptism he runs headfirst into sin, to deal with sin. Immediately after his baptism, right out of the gate, he is led by the Holy Spirit to meet sin head on in the person and temptation of the devil. One cannot be confronted with sin any more than this – this is the bowels of sin.
The devil says to him, “You think you’re pretty hot stuff, Jesus! I’m going to prove you wrong. I’ve dealt with your kind before. I was successful in getting Adam and Eve to sin, and I’ll do the same to you.”
But Jesus, the beloved Son, the perfect man, did not fall. He went head-to-head with the devil and sin, and he won. He was sinless and he maintain that sinlessness so his Father would continue to be pleased with him. In fact, not long before his death, at the Transfiguration, the Father again says the exact same thing about him: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.” (Matt. 17:5).
Sin had not crept in (like it does with you), sin had not taken hold of him (like it has with you), sin was not found in him (like it is found in you). Every day, I find sin in here, I see that it has somehow crept in. There are times when it seems to have a pretty good grip.
But not Jesus. He beat it. And he did so for us.
But he would still have to meet sin head on in one more way. And this time it would not be sin the devil was tempting him to perform and commit. The sin he had to meet head on and deal with and beat and conquer was yours. He would pay the price for it. And that meant the cross.
Jesus at his baptism was anointed to go and deal with sin. The one on whom the Holy Spirit came to empower, the one who God called his beloved Son, the one with whom God was and remained well-pleased: the devil would not beat him, sin would not win out over him, and in the end even death would not defeat him.
And we follow the example of Christ. We also are baptized. In fact, we are commanded to be baptized.
His baptism brings to you in your baptism what his baptism brought to him. Let me say that again. His baptism brings to you in your baptism what his baptism brought to him.
Who comes to you in your baptism? The Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
What does God say to you in your baptism? He says you, like his Son, are his own dear beloved child.
What else does he say to you in your baptism? God says to you, like he said to Jesus, “With you I am well-pleased.” And he is well-pleased with you because Jesus conquered your sin, he beat it, he stomped on it, trampled it down, he paid for it.
And what does God give you in your baptism? Like Jesus, God gives you the Holy Spirit, In Paul’s words, he gives you “the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). Why? So you can walk out these doors and take on the world, sin, and the devil – and all they throw at you. You can meet them head on. You will find sin, you will be afflicted, you will experience dark and terrible days, like Jesus, but they will not master or conquer you. As Paul says, “we were buried with Christ by baptism into death, that just as He was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:4). Christ was baptized, and he won. You, as you remain faithful Christians, are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and you will win.
Now we sing the sermon hymn (ELH, 246).
God’s own child, I gladly say it:
I am baptized into Christ!
He, because I could not pay it,
Gave my full redemption price.
Do I need earth’s treasures many?
I have one worth more than any
That brought me salvation free
Lasting to eternity!Sin, disturb my soul no longer:
I am baptized into Christ!
I have comfort even stronger:
Jesus’ cleansing sacrifice.
Should a guilty conscience seize me
Since my Baptism did release me
In a dear forgiving flood,
Sprinkling me with Jesus’ blood!Satan, hear this proclamation:
I am baptized into Christ!
Drop your ugly accusation,
I am not so soon enticed.
Now that to the font I’ve traveled,
All your might has come unraveled,
And, against your tyranny,
God, my Lord, unites with me!Death, you cannot end my gladness:
I am baptized into Christ!
When I die, I leave all sadness
To inherit paradise!
Though I lie in dust and ashes
Faith’s assurance brightly flashes:
Baptism has the strength divine
To make life immortal mine.There is nothing worth comparing
To this lifelong comfort sure!
Open-eyed my grave is staring:
Even there I’ll sleep secure.
Though my flesh awaits its raising,
Still my soul continues praising:
I am baptized into Christ;
I’m a child of paradise!
Amen.
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