Grace, Mercy, and Peace be unto you from God our
Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
Amen
in those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by
John in the Jordan. 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. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am
well pleased.”
In the Name of Jesus
Water
is a very important part of our lives.
According to my research the world is made up of 70% water while our
bodies are made up of between 60-65% just one year after birth, down from 73%
at birth. In order to remain healthy, in
order to keep the in balance, there must be the right amount of hydrogen di
oxide. Too much in our bodies and we can
actually drown ourselves. Not enough,
and we run the risk of dehydration and causing our bodies to shut down. Looking at nature, add more water to our lakes and streams then
what should be there and you will see how quickly land will get saturated,
flood, and become a devastating mess.
Not enough water and you will see the effects on more than just land and
vegetation.
It
is plain to see, through our years on this earth, that the truth is this: Too much or not enough….WATER KILLS.
Don’t
believe me? Let’s first look at the
Israelites. Stuck in their brutal
slavery to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, they begged for release. God had hardened Pharaoh’s heart and caused
him not to grant their wish. After the
tenth plague, after the Angel of Death passed over, Pharaoh told them to get
out of town.
In
order to be saved they had to pass through…..water! They were cornered in certain death on the
banks of the Red Sea it was either death by Pharaoh’s army or death by water if
they tried to swim across. In faith
Moses followed the command of the Lord to stretch out his staff and the waters
would part. The Children of Israel went
into the midst of the sea, passing on dry ground. But as Pharaoh and his host went into the
midst of the same sea, the water swallowed them up, thus wiping out, wiping away
that when held them captive. By the word
of the Lord their chains were burst.
Noah,
living well before Moses, had to deal with sinful people. Not just sinful rulers, but an entire
population. It is recorded that the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great
in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the
earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have
created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and
birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
Strong words. This led to the destruction of the world by
the flood. Water consumed the world and
the only ones saved where the faithful, Noah and his family, saved in a vessel
commanded and blessed by God. The
wickedness, the sinfulness, was wiped out and the earth cleansed.
Back to Moses. In a situation, somewhat related to the
slaughter of the innocent boys in and around Bethlehem we remembered a few
weeks back, there was an attack on
young males in the Israelite camp in Egypt out of fear that they would be able
to overthrow the Egyptian powers. They
said Behold, the
people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if
war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the
land. And so it was decided, since their first command to the
midwives to kill the sons and leave the daughters was disobeyed, Every son that is born to
the Hebrews you shall cast into the
Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.
Water brought immediate death for those young
boys. But to Moses, one destined by God to do great things, he his saved in a basket, a vessel blessed by God.
In today’s world, water is still a sign of
danger. There was even a movie that
exclaimed “Don’t go near the water!” We
are ever aware of the dangers of water with the searching for missing planes, dramatic
rescues of individuals who fall through ice into fridge water. In a matter of seconds, water kills.
Yet it is simply amazing, throughout the Bible
water is used as a means of death. But
it never ends there, it doesn’t end with death.
The death brings about a cleansing.
And believe it or not, there is a proper way to
approach this death by water. Maybe you
caught it. Pharaoh and his host went
down into the basin of the Red Sea before being overcome by waters of death. For those outside of the ark, they stay down
in the waters as it rose all around them.
The poor innocent Hebrew boys who were thrown down into the water so
that the Egyptians would feel more secure about themselves before a Hebrew,
himself, rose in power in their land.
But to those marked by God, to those whom he has
chosen to save, the water was a means of salvation. While their oppressors died in the water, the
Children of Israel passed through on dry ground and they watched as their
pursuers died in the deeps of the water.
Noah saved in the same way as Moses.
In divinely inspired vessels. To
those who were forced into the deadly waters, our Lord brought them safely out
on the other side.
Even in out Gospel reading, where we get the
institution and blessing of baptism, we get the implication of the proper
movement regarding the death of water.
Mark records that in
those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was
baptized by John in the Jordan. 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. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased.”
Even our Lord went down into the waters of death
in order to be brought up. But why? This is something that we all have done. We have all passed through the waters, we
have all gone down, in order to be brought up.
But the question remains, why must we go down to death? Am I making a lot out of nothing this
morning? I guess I will let you be the
judge of that. Why must we go down in to
the waters?
In order of baptism to be lifesaving, our sin and
the punishment we rightfully deserve must be placed somewhere. It must be placed back on the one from whom
all sin came. Yes, Christ came and bore
the sins of the word, he bore the punishment upon his shoulders which was meant
or you and me, through the events of his life, he is eternally sticking it to
the serpent.
It is a three step process. First our Lord comes, descends into the water
and comes out for us. He lives his live
for us, perfect in every way. He goes to
the cross baring the weight of our sins, and dies for them. Secondly, our Lord rises from the dead and
proceeds to descend into hell to proclaim victory once and for all over sin,
death, and most importantly, the devil.
He goes to proclaim that the punishment given him in the Garden of Eden,
belongs to him alone. He has redeemed
His own. He has given his life so that
the sin we commit, is forgiven and we are seen in Christ’s perfection.
And the third step, he institutes Baptism, he
gives us this live saving miracle, so that we can go down into the water, so
that we can drown the Old Adam in us and leave it there. He literally goes into the water so that we
too can go into the water and DIE!
And we don’t get to just kill that Old Adam once,
we are urged to kill it daily! Martin
Luther writes, in answer to the question what
does such washing with water indicate that it indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and
repentance be drowned and die.
And what is even
better is what Paul encourages us with in his Epistle of the Romans. Words frequently heard and funerals because
they beings us great comfort in the face of sins ultimate curse, death. 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.
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. We know that 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. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will
also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die
again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Luther finishes his answer by stating after the
old Adam is drowned and die that a new
man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and
purity forever. Because we have gone
down into the waters with Christ into death then we will be raised with him as
well. It doesn’t get any better than
that. Yes water means death, death for
us all. But praise God that because we
have died, we will now live forever in paradise. 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.
Amen
+SDG+
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