(December 8, 2002 sermon transcript)

Mark 1:1-8

        Dear friends, when we think about John the Baptist, our concepts of him are often clouded and shrouded in stereotypes. We think of him as loud, rather than thoughtful. We think of him as dressed funny, rather than dressed as a prophet. We think of him as eating rather unusual food, although he is not particularly noted for being concerned for his earthly well-being. And yet, when we think about him, we often think of him in caricaturized ways. In fact, it is not that way at all.

        When we listen to the words that our Lord Jesus Christ uses to describe him, we get a much different picture. In Matthew 11, our Lord says this of John. I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.....For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. He who has ears, let him hear.   Rather high praise for someone we think of in such stereotyped ways.

        Sometimes we think of him, and we think of the words he speaks, and we think that he is not really that important, that in fact it is the one who comes after him who is important. And indeed, John would say, "Amen. The one who comes after me must become greater while I must become lesser." And this text teaches us a great deal about the one whom he comes to tell about, and the one who has come to tell.

        John, you must first understand, was experiencing a stewardship of God’s perfect timing. since the very beginning of the human race, since Adam and Eve, the promise had been given, that the seed of the woman would finally come and that seed would finally crush the head of the serpent, and destroy the curse of sin and death. And so prophet after prophet after prophet was sent by God, to tend to the people of Israel and to bring them back to Him. To point them, not so much to the law, but to the one who fulfills the law, the one who was to come, the one who was known as the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. The perfect offering for sin. The perfect offering for you and for me because we are sinners. Here is the one who is like Elijah of old. Whose boldness and faithfulness in God stands as a hallmark for any who would worship the one triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

        It’s interesting, too, that though John was a sinner like all the rest of us because of us his birth into that condition as we have, please notice that not any other hero in all of the scriptures save Jesus Christ alone, is mentioned as being without an error. Indeed, we see the flaws of those great heroes of the faith pointed out to us.

        Abraham twice tried to pass off his wife as his sister, and she was a half-sister and only a half-sister, and twice he tried to serve himself in this guise of disguise, as it were, for his wife.

        Elijah convinced himself that God was not faithful to him, and that he was the only faithful one left in all of Israel, when in fact, God revealed to him that there was at least 7000 left in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.

        David, that great king, described as a man after God’s own heart, was also a sinner, an adulterer and a murderer. And so we see these men with all their flaws.

        Solomon had 600 wives, 300 concubines, and his problem was that even though God granted him the wisdom of the ages, he was led back into idolatry through the pagan wives that so surrounded him.

        But for John, we find not a single word of rebuke, not a single listing of sin, although he was a sinner, and not a single mistake. We see John, faithful from the beginning to his quite bitter end. Now, at the long end of this string of prophets, most of whom met a very violent and untimely death at the very hands of those they had come to call to repentance, comes John the Baptist. And he makes an announcement. And the announcement is clear and it is straightforward. Allow me to read it again. After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.

        You see, John, in his announcement, brought the people the very thing that, in fact, the one who was to come was to bring. That is repentance and forgiveness. Read again the first verse. And so John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

        Must have been quite a show. We are told in this text that The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to Him. We might ask, "why?" It wasn’t that there just wasn’t any NFL football back then, although that was undoubtably true. It was, in fact, that here was a man who spoke as a prophet. And when people speak the truth of God’s word, somehow God’s people know it. And he spoke with that prophetic authority that gained an audience and a hearing because it was the words of God that were spoken, and not merely the words of man. And so the people came, and they came in droves.

        The language of that baptismal stewardship and that stewardship of repentance is clear. A baptism for the remission of sins.

        Now think for a minute. On what basis can sins be forgiven? We know, that Old Testament and New, the only way that people can have their sins forgiven is either through faith in the promise of the Messiah who was to come (in the Old Testament) or faith in the Messiah who has come. Forgiveness is only available through Christ, regardless of the era, or epoch of time. And so if John is baptizing for the forgiveness of sins, he is baptizing on the basis of the promised Messiah. And in the forgiveness that He brings.

        Jesus Himself joins in to John’s baptism, we read in the scriptures. In this nice little paragraph, we read these words. The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John, although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. He was carrying on, and expanding the work of the Baptist himself, so in fact, John’s baptism is Jesus’s baptism too, and He adopts it. More than that, at our Lord’s baptism, Jesus Himself comes to be baptized. Not for remission of his sins, because He had none. But listen to the significance of that baptism. Jesus, in accepting the baptism of repentance, places Himself in identification with our sin. He allows Himself to be baptized because He is the one who will bear the sins of the people. And so baptized He is. And you remember what is said in the account. What is said, is that there was a voice from heaven and a dove, or something like a dove, descending on Him. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him, it was said.

        Later, Jesus directs that that baptism go on. And on, and on. And on. It is the same baptism. It does exactly the same thing as your baptism. And mine. The only real difference is that the first one was for the people of Israel. And then, it was expanded to include us all. And so we see that God is gracious to Jew and Gentile. And in that fountain of Holy Baptism, all of our sins are washed away.

        Now, in that baptism, come the blessings that are promised in the scriptures that are connected with baptism. There is one of the sweetest words in all of the Greek New Testament. In this particular verse, when it talks about the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The Greek word is afesin. What it means is that the sins are not just forgiven, they are "taken away" . Not only that, they are taken away in such a fashion, and to such a place, that not even God will find them on the day of judgment They are gone. That’s underlined in the Old Testament in the promises of the Messiah which was yet to come.

        The Psalmist writes, as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. And from Isaiah, I, even I am even He who blots out your transgressions for my own sake and remembers your transgressions no more. Then from the prophet Micah, You will again have compassion on us. You will tread our sins underfoot and you will hurl all of our iniquities into the depth of the sea.

        I don’t know how God can make it much clearer than He makes it. Through Christ, through His suffering, through His death, through His assuming our eternal punishment, through His resurrection from the dead, our sins are gone.

        And believe it or not, and this is the hard part for us sinners, so is the guilt. For you see, guilt always follows sin. And indeed if there is guilt and sin, punishment must ensue. But then, remember this. If the sins are sent away, if the sins are buried in the depths of the seas and forgotten by God, if they are indeed no longer present, neither is there need for guilt. And neither is there need for the punishment which should ensue. For the sin is gone.

        Now in Christ, we have a new life. Indeed, how could it otherwise, if our sins have been forgiven, and the Holy Spirit of God takes up residence within us, as promised with baptism? For in Acts chapter 2, verse 38 and 39 it says, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. How can we do business as usual, as the rest of the world does, if in fact we have become the temple of the Holy Spirit, something which St. Paul underlines in I Corinthians when he says, Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s spirit lives in you? Can there be business as usual? St. Paul would respond, and did respond in Romans 6 when he writes, What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?  By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with Him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with Him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

        Now, are you? How’s it been going so far today? By the giggles, I understand exactly what you mean. Been going that way for me too. And yet, it is so. We continue to struggle with sin. We continue to fight against the old Adam that fights within us. We did not get an "old-Adam-ectomy" at our baptisms. But we also have the gift of the Holy spirit, and the sins, even those which we continue to commit, have been washed away at the font of holy baptism through the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross.

        We are at the same time sinner and saint. Luther put it rightly when he said about baptism, "What does baptism with water signify? It signifies that the old Adam in us, should by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die with all sin and evil lusts, and again a new man daily come forth and arise who shall live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

        That old Adam is kind of like trying to hold a beach ball underwater. It keeps trying to surface. And Luther writes, "by Gods’ grace keep pushing it down and bringing for the the new man, who is in fact the holy spirit who lives in us through baptism. This is precisely what St. Paul is writing about when he struggles with sin. When he writes, "The good that I want to do, that thing that I don’t want to do is the very thing that I end up doing, and the very thing I want to do, that’s what I end up not doing. Oh, who will deliver me from this bondage of flesh?. He continues, Thanks be to Christ Jesus who redeems me and brings me to His own

        God in Christ has delivered us. And now we may live differently. Not by our own strength, but by the strength of God through his spirit in us, which comes to us and continues to nourish us through word and sacrament.

        Now, our bodies have become God’s own dwelling. Now, by god’s grace, we use our bodies in accord with his will rather than in accord with the flesh. Now, our possessions are no longer our own personal possessions, but rather are given in temporary trust for us, to use in the cause for his kingdom. To keep body and soul together and for enjoyment of life? Yes, of course, but not just that alone. We are sacred people, and we belong to the body of saints who are the church of which Christ is the head. The Psalmist writes it clearly enough. Some of you even say this for grace at your dinner tables. From Psalm 145, The LORD upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The eyes of all look to you, and you give them their food at the proper time. You open your hand and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

        We have nothing which belongs to us. Not the bodies that we occupy, not the bank accounts that we own, not the property that we enjoy. For all of it, all of it, belongs to the one who gave it, and He is pleased to let us use it for a time. But as it was for John the Baptist, the time was to run short. And as I get older the more I appreciate the shortness of time. And as I continue to look out and see more than a few gray hairs among us, I might remind you that as our days grow short, we must continually ask ourselves, how then shall we live? What use shall we make of those things which God has given, and how should we conduct our lives?

        And I would suggest that we live as baptized people of God. That we live as people redeemed by the grace of Christ. For in this season of Advent we celebrate our time of waiting for the return of Christ to bring this history of you and me and this world to an end. And then we live forever with Him.

        As we wait also for the arrival of the Christ-child, the commemoration of his birth and the celebration of that which begins the final assault on our sin, we remember as well, that we have but a passing moment to do so. And so we come to the manger, and we kneel there in that borrowed livestock trough, and we say to the one who occupies it, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

        Hear now the word of God. "I am a baptized and redeemed child of God. All that I am, and all that I have belongs to the one who has given his life for my salvation." May that prayer be yours, and may it be mine. May God grant us the courage and the spirit to live in accord with His will, as people who have been claimed by Him. In Jesus’s name, Amen.