+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. +
Text: Luke 3:15
Theme: A Sign of the Christ
Dear baptized in the Lord,
People are always looking for signs and by them they seek to order their lives. Some have wide impact. Is the drought breaking? Are the financial markets recovering? Is the world ending? Others are much narrower in scope but correspondingly more personal. Is my boss happy with my performance? Is my spouse becoming less sensitive to my needs? Have my children forgotten the Fourth Commandment? The possibilities are endless.
The Season of Epiphany involves a series of “signposts” pointing the world to the incarnate Christ. His baptism today is a sign of faithfulness to His mission. It begs the question, “How many signs of God’s faithfulness do we need?” Think of the Israelites at the time of the Exodus. The ten plagues weren’t enough. The pillars of cloud and fire weren’t enough. The parting of the Red Sea wasn’t enough. And the manna and quail and water from the rock still didn’t suffice for many of the Israelites to trust that God would provide.
Is human nature any different today? Are we any less skeptical? Are our memories of His provision any longer than those of the Israelites? Or when the challenges mount do we quickly forget His promises too? Do we search frantically for signs for what to do next, who to follow or what to believe? Though we might not find it hard to see that we are more easily tempted to sin when traveling down this path, the reality is we are already sinning. Loss of confidence in God- in any measure- is a sin and no one is exempt from it.
What kind of sign was Jesus’ baptism? There He served notice that the plan of salvation which the prophets foretold would be fully embraced; and it was fully backed by an epiphany of the triune God. The Father’s voice reverberates from heaven. The Holy Spirit is manifested in the form of a dove. God again lived among His people. Jesus’ baptism was part of His substitutionary work. In His baptism He stood in solidarity with humanity. For Him it was not a baptism of repentance nor did He need the forgiveness of sins. But He went to the river Jordan as the beloved Son of God to redeem the children of men. All of the activities of Christ were more than signs. They were the events that secured our redemption. Distinctions are important.
Your faith should never be grounded in a subjective reading of “signs” from God. If your trust is based on how you perceive God’s attentiveness and care you will quickly find that is misguided. If our response continually changes based on how we assess God’s action in our lives then our trust isn’t based on the unwavering faithfulness of God. It may be relatively easy to trust God when things in life are humming along smoothly. Relationships are in tact, money is available, career is satisfying, and health is not a concern. But one’s willingness to give thanks to God in the midst of crisis, trial, or suffering is a truer measure of properly grounded faith.
You see, God is not a -more or less- equal partner with whom we can come to some negotiation or consensus. If you think you can satisfactorily proscribe God from certain areas of your life while allowing Him His limited domain in other areas, you are only deceiving yourself. He can be ignored but He can’t be controlled. We can try to blame Him but we’ll get no sense of satisfaction trying to get even with Him. And the spitefulness and deceit by which others intend to hurt us God uses for our good. You know the pain and disappointment that causes resentment, fear, and loss of hope in the goodness of others. Only God, in His wisdom, can turn these for good purpose. Remember Joseph’s words to his fearful brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”1
A sudden hardship or “misfortune” can jar us severely. What has gone wrong? What is God thinking? Then we easily cry foul. Has God changed His mind, forgotten, or overlooked? How important it is to understand the comfort found in the doctrine of God’s immutability. The unchanging character of God is not a stoic but irrelevant quality to us mortals. God’s unchangeableness doesn’t make Him obsolete, out-of-touch, or detached from human need. Rather it means that His commitment to us is unwavering and unassailable. He will not reconsider the value or fact of Christ’s sacrifice. He will not demand something more from us to atone for sin. He will never ignore the plea of the penitent or turn a deaf ear to the cry of the humble. O yes, He will indeed chastise us for our own discipline. He will seek to drive from us our self-righteousness. He will endeavor always to part us from our idols, free us from our addictions, rescue us from our delusions, and awaken us to that which holds us in deception. The Holy Spirit works tirelessly through the word to accomplish these things. He will never cease to pursue those means which draw us near to Him.
The events of the Season of Epiphany are pregnant with the implication that what Christ does in time- things which radically reverse, turn upside-down, and change the wisdom and status of the fallen world- prepare for us a world that will not change in eternity. Christian life is about the Spirit preparing us for that unchanging existence. The greatest epiphany we can have is to see that the true nature of God is revealed on the cross. His death brings life. And though Satan works constantly to drop the blinds, pull the curtains and advance the darkness to obscure this indispensable truth of how we are justified before God, the light of Christ still pierces the darkness. We experience an epiphany every time repentance and faith takes us back to our baptism where Christ is revealed to be our Saviour. For Jesus baptism was a sign of His unity with us, but for us baptism is also the means of our unity with Him. The Scripture says, “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.”2
And this new life means daily bearing His name under the crosses particular to our lives. Christ did not come for a life of indulgence, comfort or ease. He did not come to merely show us how to be responsible, or frugal, or friendly- any number of others could do that. Christ came to do what could be done by no one else and in no other way- a complete self-giving. He knew a poverty that no other human being will ever know. Not a total lack of food, drink or housing, but divine desertion. At the hour of His crucifixion He, and He alone, experienced the unique event of complete destitution. The sun went dark in horror. The earth shook in terror. The witnesses cried out in confusion. The beloved Son was abandoned. The wayward children were embraced. Blood was spilled so life could endure. The New Adam redeemed the old- and all his prodigy. Death swallowed Him, ugly and dark; that for us life would not be forfeited, but spring forth with new beauty and light.
Consider again the words of Isaiah spoken so many centuries before Jesus was born. “Since you are precious and honored in My sight, and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you…Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”3 Dear friends, don’t search in futility for signs that God’s grace is really true. Don’t position the pendulum to swing this way or that according to the next “good fortune” or “crisis” that comes your way. Rather believe that Christ’s words of forgiveness are for you. Trust that in baptism you were clothed with His righteousness. Receive His body and blood in the bread and wine for your nourishment, life, and salvation. On Good Friday the cross was occupied but on Easter morning the tomb was empty. We need no other signs until we see Him face to face. Amen.
1 Genesis 50:20
2 Romans 6:4
3 Isaiah 43:4-5, 1
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