The Baptism of Our Lord: Gospel, Luke 3:15-22                   

Luke 3:15-22

Our reading today answers a question. At least it attempts to answer a question swirling around the person of John the Baptist. “Could he be the Messiah,” the people were asking. He was a faithful preacher of all they knew from the Old Covenant and it seemed to many he had all the marks of the promised prophet from Deuteronomy. But then John himself speaks to the question directly, “As for me I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (3:16, NASB 1995).

Water fills an esteemed role in the work of God. From creation to exodus to provision in the wilderness, water is a saving and creative force in the hands of God. And more incidents, besides these. But part of the identification of the Messiah comes when John says of Him that it is not mere water that He will utilize when He baptizes. He will use the Holy Spirit. As in Holy Baptism practiced today, it is not mere water, but water and the Word which saves and sets apart. For it brings us into the very dying and rising of our Savior. (Romans 6:1-11) And the identification resulting is this: the one baptized is declared a Son.

As with Jesus, so with us. He by nature and we by adoption. The Father speaks of the One coming from the water, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased” (3:22). Baptism saves specifically because it identifies. It is not our work but His. As Father and Holy Spirit attended the baptism of Jesus, so the Triune God comes to us bringing to us “sonship” in the Son. As He declared Jesus to be His Son, so in Him we become sons and daughters. The work is His. The miracle is His. The joy is shared. It is Jesus who is the long-awaited Messiah.

It is He who has done the great work. For us.