The Baptism of Our Lord • Year B

Historical Collect

Heavenly Father, in Jesus’ baptism you declared him to be your beloved Son and set him apart as your agent of grace for your creation. May we who are baptized into his life also be sent as agents of grace in your world; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thematic Collect

Heavenly Father, the Spirit revealed Jesus as your beloved Son at his baptism in the river Jordan. Through our own baptism you call us your children and draw us into abundant and eternal life through Jesus. May the Spirit grant us rebirth and daily transform us into those who reveal your love to the world; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

The Common Thread

The chaos of our sinful lives requires the creator Spirit as much as the dark face of the deep did in the beginning. The light that God spoke into existence was good; the light that he speaks into our lives through Christ excels over all good things. He brings life through our baptisms into the death of his Son. He brings order out of the chaos of sin so that we may walk with him in a newness of life. Because we have died with him, we shall also be raised like him. As he did in creation, God speaks this recreation into existence. For the voice of the Lord thunders over chaos, over sin, over death, bringing peace through Christ. And we are left with a word on our lips: “Glory!”

First Reading • Genesis 1:1-5

When the Spirit of God hovers over chaos, he means to create new life in the midst of, and out of that chaos. Just as he created light from the darkness of the watery void, he creates new life in sinners through the same creative word. He speaks the promise in the water of baptism so that it becomes “a gracious water of life” (Small Catechism 4.3), delivering from death and the devil. 

Psalm • Psalm 29:1-11

“If only God would speak to me, then I would know he exists and would, of course, believe in him.” Many people are known to speak such twaddle. The Scripture insists, however, that God does speak. His voice thunders over the roar of the flood. “Where is this voice?” some ask. They cannot hear it though it is proclaimed in pulpit, home, work, school, and street. They do not listen though the Word of God has been published in over 500 languages. Their hearts are hard and their hearing dull, and all the while, God speaks to them day by day. 

Second Reading • Romans 6:1-11

It seems an irony that so many baptisms happen shortly after birth, since we are baptized into the death of Christ. Yet it is also a paradox. Baptism is indeed about dying but only in dying to sin may one live eternally. Through baptism, God buries folk into the very death of Christ. That means that the old person, however young, along with her sin nature is now dead. This seems a thuggish thing to the world but to the redeemed it is glorious. We know that through death to sin, we are no longer bound to sin. How can we be, since we are dead? We are freed from our sinful selves to walk in new lives with Jesus.

The second verse is a sticking point to some people. Let us be clear. Many believe the verse to mean that, once baptized, they must somehow lead sinless lives. Though one should endeavor in earnest to “go and sin no more,” we must admit that we will fail in our attempts many times. Paul says that this is not really we who sin but instead it is our dead, sinful flesh doing the sinning (Rom 7:17-23). In other words, reborn people, though they will sin sometimes, are no longer dead sinners but are alive in Christ. Verse 11 proves the point. Though it may seem you are mired in sin, you must “consider yourselves dead to sin but alive in Christ Jesus.”

Gospel • Mark 1:4-11

The conclusion of this Reading is the declaration that Jesus is the beloved of God—that God is pleased with him. The result of Jesus’ obedience in the Jordan, his fulfilling of all righteousness, is that when we are baptized into Christ (Gal 3:27), we are also made into beloved children of God. The Father is well pleased with Christians—not because of their good deeds but because they have put on Christ in baptism. As Christ fulfilled all righteousness in baptism, it is fulfilled in us when we are baptized into his death. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23) and that requirement has been met in the waters of baptism.