Baptism of Jesus

January 12, 2025, St Barnabas Lutheran Church, Howard Beach, Queens, N.Y.

Can you remember your baptism?  Who was there? Who said, “I baptize thee…”? What was done later to celebrate your new membership in the family of Christ?

Certainly the majority of Lutherans were infants when they were baptized by the sprinkling of water on their tiny heads. If this was your experience you probably don’t remember your baptism. Some Lutherans, of course, are baptized later in life and, for them, the memory is a blessing.

As a former Baptist, the very idea of baptism tingles all my chords of memory.

Back when I thought Baptists had first dibs on the Kingdom of Heaven, I was convinced that the baptism of Jesus offered a model of what baptism should be.

He was as believing adult.

He was dunked fully in the river. (We have no real evidence of that, of course, but I challenge you to find a Baptist who doesn’t believe it.

In fact, we can even surmise that all the people who came to John’s baptistry to repent their sins were adults.

That’s about all the evidence Baptists need to declare baptism should be for believing adults who knew they were born again. Years ago, I remember the general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, the late Gerhard Claas – a German who somehow missed being a Lutheran – declare, “I see no infants baptized in my bible!” That’s debatable, of course, because scripture tells us of whole families being baptized. But Baptists held firm to their beliefs, including the notion that Jesus turned water into grape juice.

There are other groups who believe in adult baptism, and it should be noted that this position was not taken lightly. Henry VIII burned anabaptists at the stake. Believers risked their lives to dunk.

Martha and I were both born into infant baptizing churches. Martha was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church in Havana, Cuba, and I was baptized by Presbyterians in Morrisville, N.Y. But as adults we fell among Baptists and thought it good to be re-baptized. 

Over the years as an American Baptist pastor, Martha baptized scores of adults, fully dunking them in church baptistries. One skill she has that you may never witness is her ability to stand facing abnormally tall people, lean them over backwards into the water, and return them to a standing position. It’s a marvel of physics. And a miracle that she never drowned anyone.

Needless to say, our views of Christian baptism have evolved. And I must say that the first time I saw Martha baptize an infant and carry the baby up the church aisles to present her to a Lutheran congregation, I was deeply moved.

Too, we now recognize that the Holy Spirit was powerfully present when we were baptized as infants and there was no need to be re-baptized.

As a member of the World Council of Churches staff I attended a meeting with Latin American Pentecostals in Costa Rica. An intensely evangelical group, Pentecostals have been aggressive in bringing lapsed Catholics into their fold. But a Pentecostal pastor reported that his church does not re-baptize converts who were baptized as infants in Catholic parishes. “The presence of the Holy Spirit is for all time,” he said. “The Holy Spirit does not expire."

For Martin Luther, baptism was an essential step to salvation. We’ve read his words in his Small Catechism: “Baptism works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.”

How can water do such great things?

“Certainly not just water,” Luther wrote, “but the word of God in and with the water does these things, along with the faith which trusts this word of God in the water. For without God’s word the water is plain water and no Baptism. But with the word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul says in Titus, chapter three: “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying.” (Titus 3:5–8)

Luther declares, “St. Paul writes in Romans chapter six: ‘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’” (Rom. 6:4)

The importance of baptism is founded on the fact that Jesus, who was without sin, demonstrated its importance by being baptized himself.

We know the familiar paintings that depict this scene: John standing awkwardly before Jesus protesting he was not worthy to baptize him; Jesus insisting that he do it anyway.

It’s worth noting, then, that John is strangely missing from Luke’s account. Why? 

Karoline Lewis, Professor and the Marbury E. Anderson Chair of Biblical Preaching at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, says the answer is hidden is verses 3:18-20 that the lectionary omits. John is in jail. He has spoken truth to power and King Herod doesn’t like it. So he throws the Baptist into a dark hole and throws away the key.

So if John didn’t baptize Jesus, who did?

Of course it was John. The three other Gospels state this explicitly. Mark, the writer of the oldest Gospel, writes, “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

That’s the old, old story we know so well.

But Professor Lewis believes it is important that we acknowledge John’s absence in this passage in Luke. 

“While John had a major role in the first chapters of the Gospel, including“ the story of his mother and father, his birth, his relationship to Jesus,” she writes, “now that Jesus will be baptized, it’s just Jesus, and there will be no confusing the two … John’s baptism is just with water. But Jesus? Well, that’s with the Holy Spirit and with fire (think Acts 2).

Professor Mitzi J. Smith, J. Davison Philips Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, also sees hidden meanings in Luke’s version of the story.

“Before Jesus has done anything,” she writes, “before he begins his public ministry in Luke, the voice from heaven publicly announces, ‘I am well pleased with you’ (3:22b). The only thing Jesus has done so far is to humble himself by submitting to be baptized by a man who describes himself as unworthy to untie Jesus’ sandals and who has lived in the margins of society.

Perhaps this demonstrates God giving value to the lowliest in a society where wealth is concentrated in the top 1–2 percent. Maybe this God gives value, purpose, belonging, and a sense of dignity and worth to persons born into social statuses relegated to the bottom of a society. This divine affirmation and confirmation will allow Jesus to unapologetically speak truth to power, to stand in the midst of hostile crowds, and to stand firm before religious and political leaders.”

Thus Jesus’ earthly ministry begins on a high note, with God placing him among the most common people of his time while instilling him with a power and authority that will change the world forever.

And it all begins in water, that is, “a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit.”

As preachers all over the world are admonishing each of us today, 

“Remember your baptism.”

Come on in. The waters are fine.