Epiphany 1
He Stands Out
St. Mark 1:4–11
11 January 2015 – Redeemer
When you read the Bible there are people that don’t fit into the family picture of God’s children. Noah who faithfully built the ark by faith later ends up drunk in his tent. Abraham, the father of all who believe, betrays his own wife twice in foreign lands to save his own skin. Sarah his wife laughed at God’s promises. Peter, part of the inner circle of disciples, sinks in the sea, and later tries to keep Jesus from the cross. Mary Magdalene, a formerly demon possessed woman, is the first to see the risen Jesus.
In every one of these Biblical portraits stands a person who simply doesn’t belong there. So it is in today’s text – there is one who doesn’t belong in the picture.
John the Baptist certainly belongs there. He is the one crying in the wilderness, wearing what Elijah wore, calling the people to repent. Sure he stands out in the picture, in his antiquated camel’s hair robe, with honey dripping down his beard, but John was expected. He was the voice, foretold by Isaiah, crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord.
Who else is in the picture? Sinners are in the picture. All kinds of sinners – women who lured men into adultery, men who cheated others out of money. There were rich people and poor people, respected people and despised people. Grandpas and newborns. There was every kind of sinner imaginable in the picture. John preached a baptism of repentance. They were convicted by God’s Word and John told them where to find forgiveness – in baptism, in the waters of the Jordan. So that certainly fits the picture – sinners confessing their sins and receiving forgiveness in the waters of baptism.
There’s only one more person in this portrait that Saint Mark has painted. John the Baptist tells us who He is, “After me comes He who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.” John, the last of the OT prophets, and the first of the NT preachers, is nothing compared to this coming One. You know this One of whom John speaks. In the last few weeks you seen His birth painted by Matthew, Luke, and John. He is God conceived in the virgin womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit. He is the Word made flesh. He is the Most High God. Hes is pure and holy God and sinless Man. And where is He in the picture? He’s right there in the muddy water of the Jordan. He’s getting baptized. He’s down there in that water with prostitutes, tax collectors, and a whole herd of stinking sinners. He doesn’t belong there and that’s the point of His baptism. He doesn’t belong in the waters of baptism. He doesn’t belong in the place of sinners. But this is the picture of our salvation. Our God stands out in the pages of Holy Scripture because He takes the place of sinners. He takes our place.
When you think about it, isn’t everyone out of place in this text? Doesn’t it seem ridiculous that you have a preacher, a man like any other man, in John’s case, a man weirder than any other man, calling people to repent? Who does he think he is to judge sin, to call people out? And it gets worse. He directs sinners to the muddy waters of the Jordan river. How can that water do such great things? Water wash away your sins? Water clean your soiled conscience? Water remove the guilt that you feel in your soul? Really?
Then what about all those sinners? Aren’t they all soiled with sin? Cheaters, liars, thieves, abusers, fornicators? According to this text all they need to do is listen to some words of a crazy man and take a bath and presto – sins forgiven? Come on? That cannot be the picture of salvation – sinners being forgiven by Word and Water. Is it really possible for an adulterer to be forgiven? A liar? An embezzler? A woman who had an abortion? A man who broke his marriage vows? A teenager who had sex outside of marriage? A drunk driver who killed a six year old girl? Can those people really be brought back into God’s family? Can you?
Yes – because of the One who is totally out of place in this picture. You are forgiven because Jesus of Nazareth was baptized by John in the Jordan. Jesus needed no baptism. He had no sin, but He chose to be baptized. He chose to go in your place. To enter those muddy waters with those filthy sinners. He shared their bath because He would bear their sin. Everywhere Jesus goes He appears out of place. God almighty is laid in a manger. Wise Men gives this baby gifts fit for a King. In the temple a 12 year old boy teaches the doctors of theology. The Holy One of God is baptized with sinners for forgiveness. You know where this is going – where He is going.
Is there anything that stands out more in Scripture than God on the cross, God being arrested, God being whipped, God being convicted and sentenced to death, God spit upon, God nailed to a cross. God dead and buried. Why does this happen to God? Because He chose to enter your family portrait where every human life, where your life ends with you out of the picture and in the grave and then in hell.
There is one final place where He sticks out. Everyone in every cemetery is dead. You don’t go to visit the graves of loved ones expecting an open grave and your father sitting on the tombstone waiting for you. But on that first day of the week, three days after He died, there He stood, free of the grave clothes, wounds healed, completely alive – is it any wonder everyone who saw the Risen Jesus didn’t recognize Him at first? No one ever leaves the cemetery after their funeral – no one except Jesus.
What does that mean? It means drunken Noah is forgiven. Lying Abraham is forgiven. Laughing Sarah, Sinking Peter, and Possessed Mary are all in the family picture of God’s holy people. They are His children and so are you no matter your sin. You should find that odd, strange, and incredible because you don’t belong there. I don’t belong there. Our sin rules us out, but because of Jesus of Nazareth, God’s own Son, Mary’s first born Son, because He was born of a Virgin, slept in a food trough, was baptized with sinners, hung on a cross, and was found alive in a cemetery, we’re in the picture. We are sinners who are forgiven. We are rebels welcome back by our Father. We are people whose last trip won’t be to the cemetery, but from the cemetery to be with Jesus. Jesus stands out in the text, and that is outstanding for us because it means we’re back in God’s family in the name of Jesus. Amen.