The Baptism
of Our Lord (January 13, 2019)
“The Heavens Are Opened” (Luke
3:15-22)
Over the
centuries, mankind has had dreams of being able to fly high in the sky. In Greek mythology, there is the story of
Icarus, who flew into the sky with wings made of wax. His father Daedalus warned him not to fly too
high, or the sun would melt his wings.
That’s exactly what happened.
Icarus’ wings dissolved, and he fell into the sea and drowned.
In the
last two centuries, we’ve gone from the Wright Brothers’ first brief flight in
North Carolina to hundreds of jet airliners crisscrossing the skies across the
globe on a daily basis. And then, there
was the “Final Frontier” as Captain Kirk called it in Star Trek’s title
sequence. From Yuri Gagarin’s first
foray above the earth’s atmosphere to Neil Armstrong’s giant leap on the moon,
mankind continues to reach for the skies.
Probes have reached other planets but without astronauts. Maybe the next generation will see a human
being take the next giant leap on Mars and continue going “where no man has
gone before.”
But what
about beyond the reaches of the universe?
What is out there? Will we ever
be able to see distant stars up close without the aid of telescopes. And what about beyond this temporal dimension
itself? What is it like in the heavenly
realms, beyond what is possible for mortal man to see no matter how far we
travel in space? People dream of making
it there one day, too. But the
Scriptures have some things to say about this.
In 1 Timothy 6:16, St. Paul says that God “dwells in unapproachable
light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.”
Job’s friend Elihu told him, says “The Almighty is beyond our reach”
(Job 37:20). In Exodus 33:20, Yahweh
says, “You cannot see My face, for no one can see Me and live.” If you try to fly too high and reach the
heavens beyond what the eye can see, you’ll only end up like Icarus. The wax wings of your will and works will
melt in the unapproachable light of God, and you will drown in your sin.
We have
dreams of flying high, but we’re stuck down here in the fields, mired in the
muck and mud of our sinful existence, this corrupt world. God has created us and planted us in this
field, providing for us both physically and spiritually. And there is a harvest coming. Will you be the wheat that will be gathered
into the barn, or will you be the chaff that will be burned with unquenchable
fire?
John the
Baptist said that one mightier than he is coming. He is coming with his proverbial pitchfork,
and just as the farmer tosses that which he has gathered into the air so that
the desirable, heavier wheat falls to the ground and the undesirable, lighter
chaff is blown away, so also will God separate believers from unbelievers on
the Last Day. There will be an
unpleasant eternity for those who have rebelled against God, who have rejected
God’s purposes for them. Instead of
being baptized with the Holy Spirit, a baptism of fire awaits them.
John
the Baptist was the forerunner of Jesus.
He was the prophet sent to prepare the way for the appearance of the
Messiah promised in the Old Testament. He
preached in the wilderness to the east of Jerusalem. St. Luke says he was preaching “good news,”
although he wasn’t afraid to condemn sin, too, as was the case with Herod’s
sinful marriage to his sister-in-law.
But John was in the business of calling people to repentance. People went out to him to confess their sins
and would be baptized to begin a new life as they waited for the arrival of the
Messiah. Jesus had no sins to confess,
but he began his public ministry by acting as if he was a sinner, becoming our
substitute, standing in line with all those who came out to be baptized by John. In his baptism, Jesus shows that he is our
substitute, the sinless Son who came to bear our sins all the way to the cross.
Yes, God
dwells in unapproachable light. Yes, the
Almighty is beyond our reach. But
through Jesus, the heavens are opened to us … not outer space, but the heavenly
realm where God himself dwells. St. Luke
writes, “when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were
opened.” At the beginning of his public
ministry, Jesus receives baptism with the Holy Spirit. At the end of his public ministry, he
receives baptism with fire … the wrath of God over our sin at the cross. He suffered all for us, and heaven is opened
to us. God also pictured that for us
when the curtain in the temple was torn on Good Friday, and when the stone was
rolled away on Easter Sunday. Through
Jesus death and resurrection there are no more barriers between us and
God. The gates are flung wide. The drawbridge is down. We have access to God, access to heaven,
access to resurrection and eternal life.
We have
access to heaven even now. Notice how
Luke mentions that Jesus was praying right before the heavens were opened. What was Jesus praying? Wouldn’t it be nice to know. Perhaps it had something to do with asking
for strength and courage from his Father in order to fulfill his mission as the
Messiah. If that was the case, then the
Father answered that prayer, by giving him the Holy Spirit and assuring him,
“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Our
prayers don’t open heaven to us; the heavens are already opened to us in Jesus. In his incarnation, Jesus came down from
heaven. In his baptism, we see the
heavens opened. And in our baptism, the
heavens are opened to us and the Spirit comes to us. There is no “knock knock knockin’ on heaven’s
door” as Bob Dylan sang, as if we need to keep on knocking until we hear the
Father’s voice from behind the door, saying, “Come in.” The door is already opened. We get to boldly walk through. God invites us to come into his presence, and
he promises to listen to us and hear us when we cry to him and bring our
petitions before his throne.
The Holy
Spirit also comes to us like a dove. Think
of Genesis 1. God’s perfect creation
began with the Spirit of God hovering over the waters. In Jesus, the new creation has begun,
completed at the cross and the empty tomb, continued today as we are made new
in the waters of Baptism where the Holy Spirit still hovers to enter in and
bless.
Think of
Noah and the flood. After the ark came
to rest on Ararat, the waters subsided, Noah sent out a dove, and the dove
returned with an olive branch in its beak.
Today, a dove carrying an olive branch is a sign of peace, yet world
peace is still elusive. But God’s peace
is not elusive. It’s a gift, as we are
plunged into the flood of our baptism.
Our old sinful nature is drowned, and we come forth refreshed, renewed,
and restored. The Holy Spirit delivers
God’s olive branch to us, and we are at peace with God.
Finally,
through our baptism into Christ, we become God’s beloved children. The Father’s voice declared Jesus to be God’s
beloved Son. In our baptism we are
publicly declared to be the same. All
that Jesus did for us in his perfect life, death, and resurrection is applied
to us in Holy Baptism, and God is well pleased with us.
We don’t
have to find some way to ascend into the heavens. In words and water and bread and wine, the
heavens have come to us. Amen.
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