The One Who Stands with Sinners
Rev. Richard A. Bolland

Matthew 3:13-17
(January 9, 2005 Sermon Transcript)

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        Grace mercy and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

        From a parallel Gospel text for this morning’s Gospel of Matthew, the 13th chapter beginning at the 13th verse, this account of the baptism of our Lord. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

        I remember when I was a little kid in elementary school, one particular year in which there was one of my classmates, much larger than I, who decided it was going to be his particular calling to make my life miserable. And he bullied me for about three weeks. Every day he would chase me down after school and he would hit me. And being smart enough to get away as fast as I could, knowing I couldn’t stand up in a contest with him, I got out of there.

        But finally, I had to tell somebody. So I told my older brother, David. And he was upset. And my big brother decided that he would meet me after school and walk me home the next day. And I appreciated it. And sure enough, not knowing who that guy was who was with me, up came the bullying perpetrator, and he began to make threatening signs at me. And my brother leveled him with a stare and said, "I want you to know. If you ever touch this brother of mine again, you’re going to have to deal with me!"

        I liked it!

        And I wasn’t bothered again. You know, it’s really good to have somebody stand up for you when you are engaged in a fight you can’t win. And I want you to know that it’s good to have someone, who is our Lord Jesus Christ, who, in today’s commemoration of His baptism, we remember that He stands up for us. He stands in the place of sinners. And He comes to us, from the very beginning, standing up for us, taking our place against sin, even in those baptismal waters.

        And so, we find quite a wonderful blessing of our elder brother Jesus Christ, even from the beginning of His ministry.

        Let us remember, as He steps into the waters to be baptized by John, He chooses to stand with us. He needs no baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. But He insists on being baptized anyway, so that all righteousness might be fulfilled.

        Jesus Christ of Nazareth stands with us.

        As He steps into the baptismal waters, Jesus identifies very clearly with us. On the one hand, it should be pointed out, He is not qualified at all to be baptized. After all, baptism was precisely for people who needed their sins washed away. It was a baptism of repentance, John’s baptism was, for the remission of sins, Scripture tells us.

        And so, John objects. He says,"I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" "I’m the one who needs the repentance!," John says. "Not you! You are the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." And John is absolutely right. This is the spotless Lamb of God, who has come to redeem us. This is the one, born of a virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit, who was divine and who cannot and will not sin!

        And what’s more, this is the very Son of God who has taken on human flesh, and is fully and completely divine in every respect. And He is the last person in the world that needs to be baptized.

        The one before this, this strangely dressed baptizer, is now the only one who will ever come to him, or has ever come to the fount of Holy Baptism, who was truly, in Himself, a righteous person. Indeed, it is the very unrighteousness of men that is the very issue. It is precisely for us, and precisely to solve our problem with sin for which He has come. For which He has assumed human flesh, and for which He now steps into those baptismal waters.

        It is our sinful nature, resulting in unrighteousness, that is the problem which Jesus has come specifically to address. If righteousness is to be obtained by fallen humanity, Jesus must now stand with those who now bear the right and proper label, "sinners." And He does.

        On the other hand, He is perfectly qualified to be baptized. For He now steps into those waters on behalf of sinners. Immediately He begins to act as our substitute. Now He does what He does not need to do for our sakes. And it won’t be the last time that He does it. After all, on behalf of sinners, He is baptized for the remission of sins He does not have.

        And also, on behalf of sinners, He suffers the betrayal of the religious leaders of the day, and also of His own apostles and others, although He deserves absolutely nothing but perfect loyalty. On behalf of sinners, He suffers the penalty of sin, which is death, and hell, even though He has no sin of His own and is not deserving of the penalty.

        On behalf of sinners, He is laid as a dead man into a cave, and knows the reality of death itself, even though this is the Eternal One, who should, and normally would never, die. Jesus Christ’s baptism is the beginning of all that He will do as He stands in our place, the place of sinners.

        Stepping into those baptismal waters, not only does He identify with sinners, but He also, and please understand this, He makes Himself the target of the evil one, and everything that he will bring. Of all of Satan’s plans to devour people, please understand that this one, this new Adam, this second Adam comes. And if He falters in any possible way, there is no hope for us. There is no savior. There is no redemption, and there will be no heaven.

        So obviously, this evil one will spare no effort, and take every opportunity, to do everything within his considerable power to bring to naught the plans of Jesus Christ. Listen to the words of St. John in his Revelation concerning this one. It goes back to the beginning and then updates us to the present. In Revelation chapter 12, verse 7. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down-- that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

        Dear friends, please remember that immediately, and I mean immediately, following His baptism, He was violently torn out of that place and tossed into the wilderness for forty days of temptation by Satan. It was not just the three times that Satan came to Him, but rather it was the entire period of time in which Satan began to tempt Him, culminating in those three questions and answers which our Lord gives. It was the beginning of the evil one’s work to destroy this one who now begins His public ministry on behalf of us all.

        It is safe, I think, to say that there could not have been a day or an hour that went by of Christ’s earthly life in which the old serpent did not bring temptations in his path. If only Satan would succeed just once, just once, all of us would have been lost. And we would have be consigned to Satan’s keeping and his hell forever. Plain and simple.

        With every attempt then, not only of Satan himself but those who spoke on his behalf, we hear the echoes of Satan’s temptation uttered by them. To Jesus, Satan had said, as He was tempted in the wilderness, these words. "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Don’t depend on your Father to take care of you! (Which was essentially the same issue that was addressed to Adam and Eve regarding the fruit on the tree.) Instead, take care of it yourself! Seek our your own self-interest!

        And then, when the Pharisees saw the disciples of our Lord gleaning wheat from the fields, obtaining bread to eat, what did they say? They said the words of the devil himself. They said, "Look, your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath! How dare you?" They let Him know they were not pleased.

        And it’s the same temptation. To Jesus Satan had said, in the wilderness, "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: (and then he quotes Scripture! Isn’t amazing how well Satan knows the Holy Word of God!) "'He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

        And then, of all people, we hear Peter, who, after listening to our Lord describe once again that He will be delivered into the hands of the high priests, handed over to be crucified, and then rise again on the third day, calls the Lord aside. And in his own arrogance rebukes Him, the Lord of Life, the God of all heaven and earth. And the temptation was the same. To avoid the cross.

        Satan had said, "Look at all the kings of the world. If you would just bow down to me once, they are all yours!"

        Really! Let it be known, he would say, "You know Jesus, you don’t have to go through all this. You don’t have to go to the cross. You don’t have to suffer this betrayal. You don’t have to suffer this agony. You can have all of this without any of that!" And frankly, Peter said precisely the same thing. To which Jesus replied, "Get behind me, Satan."

        Until our Lord drew His last breath on Golgotha’s cross, He stood in our place. And He did so as the recipient of Satan’s undivided attention. He stood in the face of his unending temptations and his unabated hatred. He endured it for us, for us all. That overcoming the evil one’s temptations, that we too might overcome them through Him.

        Finally, Christ’s resistance to Satan’s evil temptations becomes our own resistance. Because our own resistance is simply not adequate. It is like going up against the biggest bully in town, who is Satan, and knowing you can’t win the fight. Yet knowing that there is someone who already has, and has done so on our behalf.

        In the book of Romans, St. Paul writes of that victory. He says, Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.

        God will prevail. The reign of Satan, while now limited, will finally end. And temptation will cease to be, because Jesus stood in our place as sinners.

        Stepping into the baptismal waters, the long-awaited plan of salvation was set in place for us all. And, since it was God who established it, it will not, and it cannot, fail.

        When Jesus was baptized, our salvation already became assured. How can that be?

        The revelation of the Father’s voice, the dove of the Holy Spirit and the presence of the Son bear testimony that this plan can’t fail. Why? Because this is the plan of the Almighty One, whose judgments and whose decisions and whose actions are always without flaw. They are always perfect. Whatever God wills will come to pass.

        And therefore, there is absolutely no doubt about the outcome, what the mission is that Christ has been sent to accomplish. There is no about about the redemption and the salvation for us, who have witnessed this act of baptism, and those of us who have been privileged also to see its completion through the cross and the empty tomb, know beyond any shadow of a doubt that is was completely effective and effectual. It’s done! As Jesus said, "It is finished!" It was a completed thing from the very beginning! Actually completed before the very foundations of the world were laid, when our names were then written in the Book of Life. And God has moved to bring the completion of His plan to fruition.

        Standing in our place. Obviously there is nothing here about us. There is nothing here about our merit. There is nothing here about our own self-righteousness. There is nothing here about the quality of our Christian obedience, even though God graciously works that in us.

        Rather, standing in our place, we have His merits. We have His good works. We have His righteousness. His righteousness, which is fulfilled, that all righteousness be fulfilled. And it was.

        And it is done without error. It is done without shortcoming. And it is utterly perfect.

        Therefore, our eternal destiny is not at all in doubt. Those who have received the sign of the Holy Cross on the forehead and on the heart, whose word was connected to the water of Holy Baptism, whose word connects us once again to Himself through His very body and blood as we receive it in the bread and the wine of the Lord’s Supper, as we shall in just a few moments, know that we have that same name.

        Did you ever stop to think that, at the baptism of Jesus, the same testimony was given that was given at your own? That the name of the Father, and the dove of the Spirit, and the person of the Son were placed on you. That God had spoken. And maybe it wasn’t an audible voice from heaven, but it was the audible voice of His servant who said, "I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." And that is the name that is inscribed on your heart, and is inscribed on your forehead.

        And it is His name we bear forever.

        It is a great and wonderful blessing to have a big brother who shows up when you need him. And who will fight a fight that you can’t fight. And, in this case, we can’t fight this one on our own. And so it is even more blessed to have Christ our Lord stand up for us. To stand in our place, and to defeat the one we cannot defeat. And by so doing, has defeated every accusation which the evil one, Satan, will ever bring against us. And our Lord will simply say, "This one bears my name. And he is innocent."

        In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.