Baptised to ‘Well Please’ – Sermon 11 January, 2015

Baptised to ‘Well Please’
Mark 1: 1-11, Acts 19:1-7
About the year 445 AD St. Patrick baptised King Aengus.
During the baptismal ceremony, St. Patrick leaned on his sharp-pointed staff and unintentionally stuck it the king’s foot.
After the baptism was over, St. Patrick looked down at all the blood, realized what he had done, and begged for the king’s forgiveness.
“Why did you suffer this pain in silence?” St Patrick asked.
The king replied, “I thought it was part of the ritual or the ceremony and did not appear to consider any suffering of consequence at such a moment.”
There may be more truth in that than meets the eye.
This morning’s Gospel reading is all about the Baptism of Jesus. This is one of the events that all three of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) describe and was obviously an event that the Early Church saw had great importance.
Mark’s Gospel gives us the briefest details. Surprisingly the historian Luke doesn’t give us much more, but St. Matthew fills out the story a little bit more:
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:13-17)
The story is well known. John the Baptist has been calling people everywhere to repent and Jesus, amongst others, responds by being baptised.
But have you ever wondered “Why did Jesus need to be baptised?”
Does Jesus, the Incarnate Son of God need to repent?
No I don’t think Jesus needed to repent.
But I think Matthew’s account gives us a clue for why Jesus was baptised. In that account we read that John the Baptist at first refused to baptise him, because John felt unworthy. However Jesus said:
“Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfil all righteousness.”
What did Jesus mean?
Someone has answered this question well saying:
“By submitting to baptism, Jesus acknowledged God’s claim on him, as on others, for total consecration of life and holiness of character”.
We can give at least three reasons to say why Jesus was baptised.
1. His baptism was a sign of his complete dedication to following the will of God.
For everyone else who came to John for baptism, this required a change in direction – hence the call for them to repent of their old ways and turn to God’s way of life.
But Jesus by his baptism was publicly declaring
a) His love of God the Father
b) That He was following the will of God in His life.
We recall Jesus words in the Garden of Gethsemane, when he knew that he was going to die on the Cross, he prayed:
“Father if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done” (Lk 22:42)
It was the ultimate submission to the Father’s will – to go to the Cross for our sakes – to reconcile us to the Father. But following the Father’s will was painful.
Jesus’ baptism was a public declaration of his commitment to the Father
But Jesus baptism was more:
2. His baptism was the announcement of the beginning of His earthly ministry.
Both John the Baptist and God the Father both confirmed Jesus unique calling publicly.
Jesus baptism was a consecration for ministry.
We recall the Father saying something similar at the Transfiguration event:
Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” (Mk 9:7)
3. His baptism was as an example to us.
Jesus taught his followers to be baptised – and here He is giving a good example that we should follow.
The words of His Great Commission in Mt 28 read as follows:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you (Mt. 28:19-20)
And we see God the Father’s response:
“This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
I think this is the piece that we would do well to apply to our own lives, we should live so that the Father is pleased with us. For when God is pleased, nothing else matters.
Jesus not only marked the significance of baptism by being baptized, he commanded baptism for all people of all ages. And baptisms that happen today are as revealing as Jesus’ baptism, for what happened at Jesus’ baptism still happens in our baptism. When the water is poured over a sinner’s head and God’s Word is pronounced, all heaven breaks loose as the Holy Spirit descends on that person to create or to strengthen faith (Acts 2:38, 39; Titus 3:5-7; John 3:5, 6), and God the Father says: “This is my child whom I love. I am pleased with him. I am pleased with her.” The holy God can claim us sinners as his.
By baptism we can claim to be God’s children because that’s what God made us in baptism. Baptism is God’s declaration to us, not our promise to Him. When a child is adopted he/she doesn’t take any oaths about being faithful to her new family. He/she doesn’t pay any legal fees to join the family. The adopting parents make that oath of love and faithfulness to their adopted child and pay the legal fees to seal the adoption. In the same way, when we doubt our standing with God we just need to look back on our baptism and remind ourselves of what happened there. The Holy Spirit came to us, and God the Father said with certainty: “You are my child!” The Father makes that declaration because his Son, Jesus, paid for our adoption.
When the Sadducees and Pharisees came out to John to be baptized with no remorse over their love for money and power, John said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:7b, 8). If these religious leaders were truly sad about their sins and desired the forgiveness God offered in baptism, they would have turned away from their sins. Since they had no intention of doing so, God’s judgment remained on them. When we act this way we turn our backs on God’s forgiveness. That of course isn’t what God wants us to do. And so he sends the Holy Spirit to us again through his Word to turn us away from those attitudes and to remind us of who we are through baptism: God’s children.
At His baptism God revealed Jesus to be his Son, the world’s Saviour. At our baptism God reveals that we sinners are his children. Since that is what we are, children of God, we should turn away from our petty arguments, our pride, and our stubbornness and live as the children God has declared us to be in our baptism.
We should live a life that pleases God. He should be “well pleased” with us.
Is He?

Krikor Youmshajekian