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Mark 1:4-11

⁴ John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. ⁵ And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. ⁶ Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey.

⁷ And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. ⁸ I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

⁹ In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰ And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. ¹¹ And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

I’m not a person who enjoys taking a bath. Maybe once every other year, I’ll take a bath to relax, but not to get clean. For one thing, I’m too tall to fit nicely in a bathtub. But mostly, I don’t feel clean after a bath. Showers, now, showers are great – the water washes the dirt right down the drain. With a bath, you just sit in your own filth.

Imagine though, taking a bath in someone else’s used bathwater. It’s not really a nice thought, is it? We are blessed with plenty of clean water in our country so we don’t have to even consider doing that in an attempt to make ourselves clean.

In our Gospel text, John the Baptizer is doing his thing – baptizing and preaching. John came on the scene preaching a baptism which led to and resulted in repentance. Sometimes this gets turned around by people with a theological agenda. John was not baptizing people because they were repentant. Instead, the baptism they received brought the people to repentance (the grammar here makes it very clear, so does Mt. 3:11). People heard John’s preaching, got baptized, and became repentant people. A lot of people did. “All the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” That’s a lot of people.

Men, women, children, and even infants (unless there were no infants in all of Judea and Jerusalem) were all going out to be baptized by John and going home repentant people. They came and their sins were washed away in the waters of the Jordan.

Now, imagine having the eyes of God and seeing all the sins of all the people of Judea and Jerusalem mucking up the Jordan River. It would be a cesspool. The Parks & Rec. Department should shut down the beach and send everyone home. They would call in teams wearing hazmat suits to get the clean-up effort started. The headlines would read, “Jordan River Becomes Toxic with Sin.”

Now, here comes Jesus to the Jordan River, and He is here to be baptized. John tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized. Mark doesn’t record it this, but Matthew does. John said (Mt. 3:14), “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me? This isn’t right, Jesus. What do You think You’re doing?”

John is thinking like we do. We think that God must stay separate from sinners. Sinners should have to move to God – not the other way around. But Jesus is not going to hear of it. Jesus is here to be with sinners, to stand next to us, to identify with us. Jesus will be baptized. He will go down to those sin infested waters and be washed.

But unlike the sinners coming to John, Jesus has nothing to be repentant of. Jesus is not washed to remove His sins and make Him repentant – just the opposite. Like a filter, Jesus sucks all the sin, all of the filth, all of the muck out of the water into Himself. Jesus takes on all that has gone wrong with us, all our sins. God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin for your sake.

We often think of Jesus bearing our sin on the cross, and He did. But His baptism is where He began to be the sin-bearing Messiah. John says as much later. When he tells people about the time he baptized Jesus, he says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29).

In His baptism, Jesus fulfills Isaiah’s prophecy in Is. 53:11 that God’s Servant, God’s righteous One, shall bear their iniquities. In His baptism, Jesus takes your sin and the sin of the whole world so He could bear that sin to the cross and to the grave.

And now you who are baptized into Christ Jesus are baptized into His death. That’s right. In your baptism, you have already died the only death that will have any lasting significance for you. God uses the waters of your baptism to put you to death with Jesus – but no so He can leave you there. Because remember what happened to dead Jesus. He rose again. If you die with Jesus, you certainly will rise with Jesus.

So there is Jesus, in those sin-filled waters, receiving a sinner’s baptism. He comes out of the waters and God shows up, and God shows up violently. Immediately the heavens were torn open. But it doesn’t stay violent. Normally, when God shows up like this, people are falling to the ground in fear. But instead of fear and trembling in the presence of God, a dove, a sign of peace, descends. The Holy Spirit comes in peace and descends, literally, “into” Jesus. And the voice of God says, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

God’s pleasure and delight is in His Son, Jesus. And that is where you are. “As many of you who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:27).

God is not far off. He is not aloof. He is not separate. In fact, God has come straight to you. He walked right up to you and took your sin. Jesus was baptized to become your sin-bearer. Where your sins are is where Jesus is. And where Jesus’ righteousness is, is where you are (Nagel).

Jesus has taken every last thing that is wrong with you. He has taken it away and, in return, He has given you His righteousness. Amen.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.