Epiphany 1 C
The New News
Romans 6:1-11
10 January 2016 – Redeemer
Wouldn’t it be nice to get some new news in the New Year? That Islamic terrorists made peace with Israel and the West. That the stock market went up 12% and the local credit union will give you 8% on a one year certificate. That the cure for your cancer was found and a months prescription was $10. But that’s all wishful thinking isn’t it? The writer of Ecclesiastes nailed the coffin lid shut when he said, “there is nothing new under the sun.”
But in Epiphany there is something new. During this season of the Church Year God reveals some new news, some never before heard news – Jesus is God in the flesh and He has come to do something new.
The wise men followed a star to see a New King. John the Baptist preached the good news that someone mightier than John had come into the world. God said something new from heaven – there was now a man on earth with whom He was pleased – Jesus. The Epiphany season is filled with new news – Jesus makes new wine out of water for a wedding in Cana. He makes the blind to see, the lame to run, the dead to rise. Now there’s something new – when’s the last time you saw a resurrection?
Let me tell you – I looked it up – the last resurrection here at Redeemer was September 13, 2015. Before that we had one on May 10, March 1, and we had a couple in January If you were in church on September 13th then you witnessed a resurrection. That’s what Saint Paul tells us in today’s Epistle. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
In the waters of His own baptism Jesus was revealed by God to be His favored Son. This One is my own – said the Father and with Him I am well pleased. From John the Baptist’s word it is clear that Jesus came into the world to put an end to the old way of sin and death and that way was a mighty judgment – a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. His work would separate the wheat from the chaff – the dead would be cast aside and the living would be kept. As Jesus journeyed on from His baptism that judgment became all the more clear. He journeyed into the wilderness and battled Satan and sin and for the first time in human history – a man continually beat Satan’s best and greatest temptations. Jesus turned back the tempter with God’s own Word. Jesus 1 – Satan 0. But Satan wasn’t finished and so Jesus marched on to Jerusalem. And that’s where judgment day took place.
Do you know what happens to sinners on judgment day? Look at Jesus. He suffers. He dies. God goes silent and doesn’t answer His prayers. If you’ve got your sins with you on judgment day that’s you. It appears that Jesus’ life ended like every other man’s life – in the cemetery with a nice big stone. Satan thought he won. Jesus is dead. No contest. Death wins. Sin wins. Satan wins. Nothing new to look at here – move along. But something new was going on and Satan was so blinded by his evil intentions he couldn’t see it. This man on the cross was God. This man on the cross had no sin of His own, but had taken on the sin of the world. “The death he died he died to sin, once for all.”
And right there, at that moment, there’s some new news. The women were the first to hear it when they showed up to finish embalming the body – because they believed once dead always dead. But the angels said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” What does this new news mean? It means your sin is forgiven or as Saint Paul says, “Christ died to sin.” Christ’s death rendered sin ineffective. Sin no longer has the power to kill and demand your life. The proof of sin being disarmed and disable is that Jesus rose from the dead – the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
Where there is sin – it’s the same old, same old – shame, guilt, suffering, brokenness, disappointment, sadness, sickness, death, cemetery, hell. Where there is Jesus there’s something new, and in the waters of baptism the Holy Spirit delivered the new news to you. When you are baptized the Holy Spirit unites you to Christ’s death – the two of you become One in baptism. In baptism you are buried into Christ’s death. His death becomes your death for sin and then, the very same thing that happened to Him becomes yours and it’s an entirely new life.
The resurrection that happened on September 13 of last year was a baptism. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. Baptism is the promise of the resurrection, the certainty and downpayment of the resurrection. The full, bodily resurrection comes on the last day, but it’s as certain for you as the fact of your baptism which has united you to the fact that Christ Jesus died to sin and now lives to God. That’s why almost everything in the Divine Service is accompanied with the sign of the cross – to bring you back to the waters of your baptism and proclaim to you that God is your Father, you are forgiven, you are living forever, and He will deliver you from evil and you can depart, not only the Lord’s table and the Divine service in peace, but you can depart this life in peace with God’s blessing, because you have the death and resurrection of Christ from your baptism.
The new news of baptism into Christ’s death also makes for a new you. Our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. And that makes for a new life – baptized Christians no longer love the old way. We no longer love sin, because sin leads to death, and we have died to sin. Why would we put ourselves back under that old master sin and let him drive us to death? Dr. Luther teaches us this new way of life in the catechism when he asks, “What does such baptizing with water indicate? It indicates that the old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”
Christians have a new heart toward sin – we hate it. When we sin we confess it. When we see sin, we call it what it is, even in our own lives. When we are a tempted by it we cry to the Lord for strength to fight it. We don’t celebrate it, brush it aside, or treat it lightly – after all Christ Jesus died to sin. We aren’t reasonable when it comes to sin – thinking “God likes to forgive. I like to sin. It’s the perfect arrangement – I’ll go on sinning so that God’s grace can abound.” May that never be says Paul – for that isn’t the new way of life, that’s the old way of death. That’ is not Christ’s way, that is Satan’s way.
So there is something new for you this Epiphany season – you are baptized into Christ’s death and therefore you will certainly rise from the dead. You now walk in the newness of life – in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
9 January 2016 anno Domini