Epiphany 1 (A)
Jesus is Out of Place
St. Matthew 3:13-17
12 January 2014 anno Domini
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There in his mud caked camel hair robe stands John the Baptist – a dirty, wild man of a prophet. His congregation is not only filthy from their muddy bath in the Jordan river, but they are a filthy lot – sinners, tax collectors, old ladies who gossip on the phone, husbands who surf for porn after their wives go to bed, teenage boys who sleep with their girlfriends, firefighters who faked disabilities to collect pensions, ponzy scheming invest managers, welfare recipients who could easily work, rich people who didn’t give to charity. Sinners were coming to John – messy and dirty sinners like you and me.
John was a mess – wild hair, bugs stuck in his teeth, honey dripping down his beard. Even his baptism was messy – the Jordan River never made it into beer commercials – this was not sky blue water, but sewer stained sludge. Forgiveness is messy because sin is messy.. Don’t think it is any different in the church today, that somehow the church is peace, purity and pleasure. Dealing with sinners is a messy business and yet there in the midst of the mess God is a work to forgive sins and clean sinners.
In the midst of that mess stands Someone entirely out of place – as out of place as the Lord’s protective mark on the forehead of murdering Cain, as out of place as Noah’s ark in a desert. In the midst of the mud and sin and filth of this Jordanian congregation comes the Lamb of God whose life was white as wool. There has never been hatred in his heart. He never lent his ear to gossip or his tongue to slander. He never took something that wasn’t his and was always content with what he had. He never rolled his eyes at his mother or raised his voice to his father. Pure as the driven snow. Righteous in word and deed. He never wallowed in the mud of our mayhem.
There He stands in today’s text, right in the middle of that mess, totally out of place – a righteous man asking to be baptized. Preacher John knows Jesus is out of place. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Who needs to be baptized? Surely not Jesus. Why would the holy and righteous Lamb of God risk a filthy bath with all those sinners? He might catch something.
But that’s the point, isn’t it? As Jesus clearly says to John, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. Jesus is not afraid of catching something. He actually wants to catch and contract our sin to Himself. “Let it be so now,” Jesus says. It is as if He is saying, “John, this is an exception to the rule. I have no sin, but I must be baptized as a sinner. When I go into those waters I will look like all these others sinners, but this is the very reason I have come into the world, to be sin for them, to be sin for you.”
Let it be so now, it is fitting. It is fitting that Jesus appears out of place at the Jordan. He is a righteous man among sinners. He is the pure and spotless Lamb of God becoming immersed in the filthy bath water of sinners. It is fitting because this is exactly how Jesus will save the world from their sins. John does not expect Jesus to come to the Jordan for baptism and the world does not expect God Himself to die for His sinful people – but this is what He does. He is immersed with sinners in His baptism because He hangs with sinners in His crucifixion. At the Jordan Jesus received what sinners receive – a baptism and at the cross Jesus receives what sinners receive – God’s condemnation, hell, and death.
Jesus is out of place at Calvary but He is there because He has taken your place. That is where you belong – suffering for your sin, feeling the wrath of God, cast off into hell. You are the one who rebels against your Father’s Words, who rolls your eyes at His ways, whose lips poison those around you, whose hearts covet and lust. Jesus never did any of that. Sin doesn’t course through His veins like it does through you. Yet, it is His blood that is shed. It is His life that is given. The Father doesn’t turn His back on you. He turns His back on Jesus. Is there anything so out of place as God the Father forsaking God His Son? That ought not to happen, but it happens for you. Jesus willingly leaves His rightful place to take your place, to suffer death and hell as you, for you – out of place, in your place.
When Jesus comes out of the water there is something else out of place – a dove descends. Now if this Jesus has come to be a Savior why a dove? Why not bird of power like an Eagle? Why not some colorful and attractive bird like a Cardinal or an Oriole? No one ever named their sports team the Doves! Doves are basically white pigeons.
The Dove is only out of place if you don’t know the Bible. There is another baptism in the Bible where a dove appears. Do you know what baptism I am referring to? It was a baptism of judgment and salvation, a baptism of death and life, it was a baptismal flood that lasted 40 days and 40 nights. In the days of Noah (a righteous man) the Lord judged the world. They had rejected Him so He condemned the unbelieving world to death by drowning, but Noah, who was righteous by faith in the Lord, was saved along with His family and the animals in the ark. Noah sent a dove out of the ark to see if the judgment was over and if the waters were receding and the dove returned with an olive branch in its beak.
So when a Dove descends upon Jesus we are taught that God by this baptism is going to judge so that He might bring peace, as in the days of Noah. Does that not happen in the person of Jesus Christ? God’s judgment is placed upon Jesus and peace is made between God and man. “For in [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:19–20, ESV) What a marvelous and mysterious picture we see in Jesus – the fullness of God in the flesh bearing the fullness of our sin and receiving the fullness of our punishment by shedding His blood on the cross that we might have the fullness of God’s peace.
Every Sunday morning in the Divine Service you confess that you are out of place. You come into the Holy House of the Lord God- enter into His presence and confess, “I am a sinner.” The world looks at that picture of the church and mocks you for being out of place. Have you ever heard the saying, “I don’t want anything to do with the church – they’re all a bunch of sinners?” By faith however you know the truth about your sin and your place here. You are not out of place, for Christ is greater than your sin and He has won forgiveness. Christ took your place at the cross and by your baptism into Christ God has graciously given you Christ’s place – a son of God, a daughter of your heavenly Father – God’s own child I gladly say it I am baptized into Christ.
So today and every day you live in the most blessed place – the place God created you to be and the place He redeemed you to be – the place of His child – which gives you great confidence in your prayers, great promise for your future, great comfort in trouble, great life in the midst of death. That blessed place is yours in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
11 January 2014 anno Domini