Epiphany 3 - Jonah 3:1-5. 10 - A Sermon Against Abortion

This past week, the entire nation was gathered in celebration at the historic inauguration of our great nation's first black president. Barack Hussein Obama was sworn into office as the 44^th president of the United States of America. People of all ethnicities, but especially African Americans were joyful at the turning of a page in American History. For many there is suddenly a feeling of hope for change in America.

And change is the order of the day. President Obama ran under the banner of Change, promising to bring a new dawn to American politics and a new dawn to the American way of life. He toured throughout the country promising change – change in an unpopular foreign policy, change in a failed economic policy, change in environmental policy, and change in a strictly partisan approach to politics. President Obama has promised to bring that change and through his policies to bring an end to the bickering and infighting and deliver a new dawn of unity and hope in the United States of America.

President Obama is not the first to preach the message of change.

Jonah, the prophet of the Lord spent only three days walking through Nineveh, a major city of the Assyrian Empire with a similar sort of message. Jonah called for change. God called Jonah, and commanded him to go to the City of Nineveh.

We all know Jonah. He is most famous for his three night's lodging in the belly of a large fish. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh. Jonah knew God was merciful and he knew that if he went to preach to them and they repented God might spare them. Jonah wanted them to perish. So he went off in the opposite direction. He tried to get away from the Lord by stowing away on a ship. But, as we know, God caused the storm to blow up, the sailors discovered Jonah was the cause of the storm. Jonah was thrown overboard, swallowed by the fish and then vomited out of the fish's mouth after 3 days and 3 nights onto the shores of the Assyrian empire.

Jonah repented of his sin and made his way to Nineveh to preach the message that God gave him to preach.

God sent Jonah to Nineveh. There are a few important things for us to know about the city of Nineveh. The first time God spoke to Jonah he said this: "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me."

According to God's own description, Nineveh was a “great city”.

Nineveh was large. It took Jonah 3 days to make it all the way through the city.

History and archeology teach us that Nineveh was a magnificent city, with palaces and gardens, and city squares, carvings and statues.

Nineveh was a beautiful city. It's beauty was the result of their wealth, their success in military exploits, in commerce and trade and all of these things were gifts given by God. (Although during the time of Jonah, Nineveh had experienced some economic hardship) But, had it not been for God's blessing, had it not been for the fact that God is a good God who gives good gifts even to the wicked, Nineveh would have never achieved the greatness that is acknowledge here even by God in the book of Jonah.

But not only was Nineveh a great city. Nineveh was an evil city. They had committed a great many sins. Sins that were so great that their evil stood out before God.

Nineveh was known for its worship of false gods, especially the goddess Ishtar. The worship of Ishtar involved all kinds of sexual perversion and her temples employed prostitutes.

Nineveh was known for its violence. The Old Testament Prophet Nahum condemns Nineveh for its violence, claiming that Nineveh has piled up the bodies of her dead and so that they stumbled over them in the streets. Nineveh, in her lust for power and wealth, lost her conscience, she lost her regard for human life as a good and sacred gift of God. And Nineveh became exceptionally evil.

Does any of this sound familiar to you? Are there any modern day parallels that compare to the “great city” of Nineveh? Can you see rampant sexual perversion and a careless disrespect of human life accompanied by great God-given prosperity and success anywhere in today's world?

This past week, while the nation was looking ahead to the presidency of Barack Obama, there were also those who were looking back to that fateful day in 1973 when the US Supreme Court decided in favor of legalizing abortion in the famous court case Roe vs. Wade. Since the court decided in favor of abortion, there have been over 50 million abortions in the United States alone, with an average of about 3,000 abortions occurring every day. The United States, a modern day “great city” is guilty of killing her children, her babies are being murdered at alarming rates. If God was angered and outraged at the sins of the people of Nineveh for piling up the bodies of their dead and treating them with shame and contempt by running over them in the streets, we have treated our own children at least as badly if not worse!. Every day, thousands of baby boys and girls are dying. They are being killed, treated like trash; their little hands and feet are dumped into paper buckets and they are thrown into the dumpster.

The stench of Nineveh's evil had risen up before God and he was angry. This city and these people had committed this horrible sin against people He had created and against people He loved. In His justice he could have destroyed them right then and there. But He did not. God is a merciful God and He loved even the people of Nineveh, in spite of their violence and their crimes against humanity. God in His mercy called His prophet Jonah and sent him to Nineveh to preach to that people so that they turn away from their sin, so that they repent, so that they stop their violence and their sin and so that they turn and receive God's forgiveness.

And so Jonah, in spite of his reluctance, in spite of the fact that he did all he could to run away from God and to run away from Nineveh found himself making his way through that great and grand city, through that violent and evil city.

Just like Jonah, Christians today have been given that same duty. Just like Nineveh was a great city that had been blessed and beloved by God we live in a great city. The United States of America is great. There is no mistaking that fact. God has given our nation great power, great wealth. Our nation, our cities are beautiful. Our people are resourceful, hard working, possessing great ingenuity and a will to “get the job done”. But we are also a wicked nation, an evil nation. We have tolerated and condoned great evil. We have committed great sins and we have piled up the bodies of our dead, even the bodies of our own children. The Church today must proclaim the message of repentance. We must urge our leaders to stop this evil and barbaric practice.

The theme of today's orators has been “change”. We have heard that sermon preached to us over and over again. America needs change. Whether the answer was “Change we can believe in” or the “Change America needs”. we were told that America needed to change.

That same theme was preached by Jonah. If you go to Barack Obama's website, you will see the top banner reads “Change is coming”. That was the same message preached by Jonah. The message God gave to Jonah as he made his way throughout the city of Nineveh was by no means complicated or complex, it was really quite simple - “Yet 40 days and Nineveh is about to be changed.” If you check your text, you will notice that the ESV reads that Nineveh will be “overthrown”. That is only half the intended meaning. But the Lord had a double meaning in mind when he gave this sermon – Nineveh will be changed.

There are two ways to take it – it could mean what our ESV text says, it could mean that Nineveh will be overthrown. That would certainly be a change. Things would be different. But there is also a gospel based hint of possibility in that message. There is the hint that maybe Nineveh will respond to Jonah's preaching with “real Change”, with the “Change that Nineveh needed”; there was the hint that Nineveh would repent. That she would turn from her great sin and beg the Lord for mercy.

That was the message of Jonah's sermon. Not complicated. Not hard to understand. God has judged Nineveh and she needs to change. One way or another Nineveh will be changed. That is the same message for abortion friendly culture. Murder does not need to be “safe, legal, or rare”. Murder, the murder of our babied needs to be stopped. There needs to be change.

But part of that message, part of that change needs to be God's message of forgiveness.

Allow me to read an expert from a letter written by a woman who had an abortion:

"Let me tell you about that day. I was 17 years old and very scared. My boyfriend and I skipped school and we drove to Chicago. When we got there, the first thing they asked for was money. Then they asked for my name. I was taken to a large room with many other girls and given a gown. A woman stood in the front and told us we would feel some discomfort but `not much more than a female exam'. We were then lined up in single file. I remember feeling like I was a cow being led to a slaughterhouse, but I quashed those feelings.

"Then we were taken, one by one, into a small room where the abortion would take place. The abortionist was cold. Never said a word. Just put me in the position. The sound was horrible, as was the pain. Let me tell you, it was many years before a vacuum cleaner didn't bother me because of this sound. After it was over, I was taken back to the small cubicle where I had left my clothes. I was not told anything about the mental anguish and the physical pain I would feel for so many years.

"Finally we drove home, and on the way I fell asleep (I guess maybe that was my way out). We arrived at my house. My boyfriend awakened me with sort of a slap. He said, `You're home.' That's all he said. My seven-week-old baby was gone.

"Well, time goes on. But as a direct result of this abortion, I have lost five babies through miscarriages. Finally I had a little girl, and she was born with a heart problem. She has since undergone heart surgery and much pain, and, believe you me, I have been suffering more than she, but mine has been guilt. Mine has been pain and shame. And I stand here and say, `Abortion is wrong!'"

Abortion is wrong. It is murder. It is sin. Those who have committed that sin need to repent. But those who have committed that sin also and especially need to know that it is a sin that has been forgiven by God.

This woman knows what she did was wrong. Indeed, most women who have abortions believe that they are wrong, but they go through with the abortion because they feel trapped, they feel there is no way out and then they live with the guilt and the shame of what they have done like this woman here.

This woman needs to hear about Nineveh. The people of Nineveh were just as guilty as she. And more so. They had piled up the corpses of their slain. Yet when they heard God's message of repentance and change – they changed. They had a change of heart. They confessed their sin, they repented in sackcloth and ashes and God had mercy. He did not punish them.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus refers back to this city. Jesus says “The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.” (Matthew 12:41)

The wicked and murderous people of Nineveh repented of their sin and God forgave them, so that Jesus assures us that they will arise on the last day and that they will receive God's gift of eternal life in heaven. Their sins were washed away when they were changed by the preaching of Jonah.

If the preaching of Jonah changed the hearts of the people of Nineveh, so that they were forgiven, imagine the change that is available for this women and the millions like her through the preaching of Him who is greater than Jonah.

Jesus the Greater Prophet came preaching repentance and forgiveness of sins. And just like Jonah was reluctant to fulfill the destiny laid out for him by the Father, so also was Jesus reluctant. So reluctant that he begged for there to be another way. “Father, if it be your will take this cup of suffering from me.” But the Greater Prophet did not run away. He did not try to escape God's will but He willing went “like a sheep to the slaughter.”

And just as Jonah was in the belly of the beast for three days, Jesus was in hell . For three hours on the cross, Jesus endured hell. He suffered hell even while he was suffering from the nails and the thorns and the spear. And out of his wounds poured the blood that cleanses us from sin – the blood that cleanses us from our shame and our guilt – even the shame, the guilt, the sin of abortion. To those women who are the victims of abortion, to those women who are stained by the blood of their children, we need to proclaim to them that the blood of Jesus has washed away those stains so that there is forgiveness, so that they are set free and released from their guilt.

And what of that change? Jesus, the greater Jonah was also three days away. In the belly of the beast – in the belly of hell, but not as the victim, no longer the victim. The Jesus in hell was Jesus the victor, the Jesus who conquered sin and who was soon to conquer death. He was there to preach his victory to the sinners in hell so that Jesus is Lord every place. That means that Jesus is Lord of heaven. Jesus is Lord of earth. Jesus is Lord even in hell. And yes, Jesus is Lord even where hell seems reigns supreme: even at the abortion clinics, at Planned Parenthood, and at pro choice rallies. Jesus is Lord of Heaven and earth.

And Jesus has called us to call for change, the change America really needs. The change of repentance from the sin of abortion. The change of repentance from the murder of children and babies. But especially the change of heart that can only come through faith in the risen and ascended Lord of heaven and earth who has died to cleanse us from all sin. And that is Change America can believe in.

Amen.

Epiphany 2 - John 1:43-51

There have been those who have said that “seeing is believing”. Typically those words are spoken by skeptics – by those who do not believe in the supernatural, who don't believe that it is possible for a god to exist, let alone a god who is active in the universe, let alone a god who created the universe or who cares for his creation. In the minds of such people, even if there was a god we could not know him, because there is no way for us to measure and quantify him; therefore he cannot exist. Unless you see him, unless you reach out and touch him, unless you hear his voice and see his lips move then you simply cannot believe in him. After all, seeing is believing.

Fortunately God’s people are too smart all that. God has given to us the wisdom to know better. We know that we can be confident of things we do not see and measure even if they are not right under our noses. We believe what God has told us, what He has revealed to us, regardless of what someone says they can or cannot measure in a laboratory somewhere.

Yet in spite of our God given wisdom and in spite of our faith inspired savvy, the fact remains that such people have taken away from people of faith something that God has very clearly given. People of faith, and even people of the Christian faith have been duped into believing that faith is little more than a blind leap, a simple matter of the heart. There is no relationship between faith and reason, between faith and knowledge, that Christians should turn off their faith when they step into the classroom, into the workplace, out into public because faith is even something that stands in the way of knowledge. Faith has been reduced to a blind leap - stepping out into nothing and believing that God will catch you. It help you make it through your day, it gets you through tough times, but that is all its good for. Faith is sort of like Dory the fish in Finding Nemo when Marlin asks her how does she know that she won't get hurt or that something bad won't happen. Dory replies, “I don't” and she just keeps swimming. Sadly many Christians have come to believe that is all they've got. Since seeing is believing in the real world, the Christian faith has no place.

Ironically for those who think that believing and seeing have nothing to do with one another, as John the disciple of Jesus and the Apostle of the Church writes our text that we have heard this morning, there is an awful lot of seeing that seems to be going on. If faith and seeing truly have nothing to do with one another, the Apostle John does not seem to have heard about it.
Look at the text:

John tells us that Jesus called Phillip – he sought him out found him and commanded him to follow. Philip obeyed the command of Christ (which is simply another way to say that Philip believed and had faith in Christ (Matthew 28:20, Romans 1:5)). And the very next thing that Philip did was go out and find his friend Nathaniel and tell him that he found the one that Moses and the Prophets had written about and his name was Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.

Suddenly faith had an address – it had an object. There was something solid that it was tied down to. You might even say that there was something you could measure. Philip did not say, “Nathaniel, you've just got to step out into nothing and let God take over, Close your eyes and let Jesus take the reigns.” What he did say, was Nathaniel, I found the Messiah. He is a man, flesh and blood, skin and bone and His name is Jesus. He comes from Nazareth. He has a father just like the rest of us and his father's name is Joseph.” Suddenly the promises given by God through Moses and the Prophets had a connection to something you could see and touch; a person who could even be measured in a laboratory. The promises all pointed to Jesus of Nazareth. And Philip invited Nathaniel to “come and see”.

Oh, but Nathaniel... he was a skeptic. We have them in our time, Philip seems to have had one on his hands as well. Someone who says “It can't be. It's too far from the truth to be real. I don't believe it.” Nathaniel was one who heard the Word of God about Jesus and he refused to believe that word.

You know the sort. We talked about the people who claim that seeing is believing. In order to believe in God I have to be able to see him. Usually what they really mean is that they want to see him do for them what they think he should do, what they want him to do. A plane crashes in the Hudson River and we claim its a miracle. A plane is steered into the World Trade Centers and we wonder where was God. It's not so much that they cant see God or see evidence of him or that God has not made himself known. The problem is that they want to see a god who performs tricks for them. God save me from illness, poverty, war, bloodshed, God give me fame, success, power, wealth, glory.” Then I will see for sure. Then I will believe. Seeing usually is not the problem when it comes to faith in God, usually the problem is whether or not God sees eye to eye with you.

Chances are, he does not.

When Nathaniel came to see Jesus, Jesus already knew him. Because Jesus had already seen him. “Nathaniel, Before Philip called you, while you were still under the fig tree, I saw you.” Where else had Nathaniel been that Jesus had seen him? Where have you been that Jesus has seen you? Have you been an Israelite in whom there is no deceit? Or have you been a scoundrel? Have you been a thief? Have you been an idolater, have you demanded from God that if He is to be your God he had better get things right. Jesus saw Nathaniel and Jesus has seen us and the things he has seen in us, in our hearts and in our minds and in our words and in our actions all have been sin. Jesus has seen us and Jesus has seen sin.

A few weeks ago our Gospel text was from Luke 2.22-40. Simeon who had been promised that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah came up to Mary and Joseph in the Temple, took the boy in his arms and said. “Lord, now let your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared before all people.” Simeon had faith in the promise of God and his faith was connected to what he saw. He saw Jesus. And Jesus, the baby carried in the arms of the poor mother and father was the salvation for the whole world. The baby was the God/man who had come into the world to die for the sins of the world.

God had seen the condition of the hearts of men. He had seen their sin and so he sent to them his salvation so that they could see it in the person of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God. And what did God permit us to see? God permitted us to see a man who was humble of appearance. A man of sorrows who had no beauty that we should look on him. (Isaiah 53:3) Who was looked down on and rejected so that men would hide their faces from him. When men did look at him it was to gloat over him and to make fun of him as hung naked and shamed on the cross. Men looked at him to pierce him (Psalm 22:16, Zech. 12:10, John 19:37), his hands and his feet, his side. To wag their heads and criticize. He saved others yet he can't even save himself.

And here we begin to see. Here we begin to understand. Scripture says that Faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the substance of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1) Scripture says that “We walk by faith and not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) because what we see is the cross. What we see is suffering. What we see isn't what we want to see; we don't see wealth or honor or fame or glory or power. Jesus doesn't always save us from getting cancer, he doesn't always steer our car out of harms way so that we wind up safely on the side of the road. He doesn't always keep us from insult or injury or harm. But what he does is what is most important. He saves us from sin. He died for our sin. He gives us salvation.

Salvation is seen in Jesus. God gave to us the account of the things that Jesus had done written by those who had seen him – eye witness accounts. People who were there, people who could testify in a court of law as to what they had seen and heard. People who saw him die. People who saw him rise. People who saw him ascend into heaven. Jesus the Son of God is not a myth or a legend. He is not comic book superhero. He is a flesh and blood man who really lived, a historical figure who accomplished our salvation through his death for us on the cross.

When Nathaniel marvels at the words of Jesus and says to him “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” It was because of what he had seen. He had seen Jesus. And because he had seen Jesus he believed. Jesus told him of the things that he was yet to see. He would see “heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” He would see salvation. He would see the sins of men paid for in full so that heaven would be open and so that access would be given to men. Because of what he had seen, Nathaniel was granted the hope of what he would see.

That same thing is true for us. Our hope is not for the things that we see. Our hope is not for an immediate fix to all of life's little problems. Our hope is not a genie-god who fulfills all our wants and desires. Our hope is that because of what God has done for us in Jesus we have the promise that we will see with our eyes what God has accomplished for us on the cross. Job says “I know that my Redeemer lives and in the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has thus been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see for myself and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me.” (Job 19:25-27)

We have that hope that after our skin has been destroyed, yet will we see God with our eyes because of the fact, because of the eye witness account of those who have seen it and written it down for us that Jesus our Redeemer Lives. He who was crucified has been raised from the dead and He is alive. And He will live forever. And He will stand on the earth and we will stand with him.

Yet like Job we are weak. Like Job, we suffer. Like Job our hearts are faint. And so God gives us salvation and forgiveness and strength that we can see.

On the night when he was betrayed Jesus took bread, he took a cup, he blessed it, he gave thanks and he gave it to his disciples saying to them “Take eat... This is my body... Take drink... This is my blood...” Jesus, who was soon to die and who was soon to rise and who was soon to ascend promised his disciples that he would still be with them, that they would still see his body and his blood and that they would see him as they tasted the bread and the wine and that just as certain as the bread and the wine was in their mouth he was with them and they were with him.

Jesus is with us. He comes to us to be with us so that we can see him. We see him in with and under the bread and the wine. We see the salvation that he has prepared for us on the cross and delivered to us in the means of grace, in the mechanism that he has chosen as the means for the delivery of that forgiveness that he earned for us on the cross. He comes to be with us in his bodily presences on the altar so that with our eyes we can see the salvation that he has prepared for us in the presence of all people.

Some people say that seeing is believing. I say that believing is seeing. Seeing what God has done for us in Jesus on the cross. Seeing what God has done for us in seeking us out and calling us to faith, just as he called Philip. Just as he called Nathaniel. Seeing what God has done for us to strengthen our faint hearts here on the altar in His sacrament. Believing is seeing. Believing is seeing Jesus. And He is a sight for sore eyes.
Amen.

Baptism of Our Lord - Mark 1:4-11

And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opening and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. [11] And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."

Any father can attest to the pride that one feels at the relationship that he forms with his son. Fathers invest so much of themselves into their sons, teaching them the things that they have learned through the years about what it means to be a man; things like how to throw a football or hit a baseball, helping him to learn the appropriate collegiate athletic team to root for (even when you happen to find yourself living in an area where most people root for the wrong team), teaching him to ride a bicycle, having him work with you on projects while you teach him how to use and handle tools, and then, especially teaching him the more important aspects of manhood – things like honesty and integrity, service and self sacrifice, responsibility, and what it means to show love and to put the needs of others before your own.
And then to see your son in action – to see when he takes the lessons you have taught him and he puts them into practice; to see him doing those things out of love and out of a desire to please you and out of obedience to you – as a father that is a source of immeasurable pride. Words simply cannot express the joy that brings.
The words spoken by God the Father in our text are an expression of that same sense of pride and joy and satisfaction at the obedience and devotion displayed by His Son. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, begotten of the Father from eternity willingly carried out the plan for the salvation of the world established by His heavenly Father. Fully knowing the cost to himself personally, out of love and obedience he took on himself the burden of our sin so that he might carry out the will of His heavenly Father. Upon witnessing this event as it occurred on the banks of the Jordan River, the heavenly Father voiced his pleasure from heaven. “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.“ God expressed this pleasure because of Jesus' obedience. He expressed this pleasure because of what Jesus had done!
And what had Jesus done? He got baptized. He went down to the Jordan River where his cousin John, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, was preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Hundreds and thousands of people were lining up, coming in droves to hear this preacher and prophet; they were repenting of their sins and they were coming to him to be baptized and therefore receive through that baptism the forgiveness of sins. They were in need of that forgiveness. (But) Jesus, the only-begotten Son of God was perfect and sinless. He did not need repentance. He did not need forgiveness. He did not need baptism. But he was baptized regardless. Not for himself. He was baptized for us. Because God the Father, His heavenly Father, desired that it be done. Because His heavenly Father desired that He claim the life of a sinner for his own, despite the fact that those sins were not his own. Because his heavenly father desired to save sinners through the perfect sacrifice, through the perfect death of this Son Jesus.
As every father knows, there are instances where a father is not so proud of his son. There are times when the lessons learned are forgotten and are set aside. There are times when the son disobeys his father. Perhaps the son determines that he does not need to listen to the instruction of his father and ignores his will, resists the will of his father and even goes against the will of his father. Perhaps the son acts up in school, neglects his responsibilities at home, perhaps he does not show honor and respect to his authorities and the result is that father is disappointed. The father is saddened by the behavior of his son and expresses his disappointment. The father disciplines his son to help him to learn to behave differently.
Oh but also there are those times that the son is simply following the poor example set by the father – perhaps the son notices the hot temper of the father and reacts accordingly in similar situations. Perhaps the son notices the father's prolonged gaze at women not his wife. Perhaps the son hears and recognizes the dishonest explanations and excuses given by the father when he is caught in a bind and the son learns lessons of falsehood. Our sons have plenty of sins of their own to struggle against without learning from the poor examples we fathers set for them. Sometimes it is the poor examples set by the fathers that prove to be a stumbling block for our sons.
And so Jesus came. Imitating the perfect example of the Heavenly Father's righteousness, Jesus the Son of the Heavenly Father, the Only Begotten One was righteous. He was sinless. There was no falsehood, no lust, no anger, no pride found in his person. A man like no other man that had ever lived. He was always obedient to his heavenly father and even to his earthly father. Even from Joseph the husband of his mother Mary, the adopted father of the Lord, Jesus learned lessons of righteousness. From Joseph he followed the good examples and ignored the sinful ones. Jesus was always obedient. He always showed honor and respect. He always kept the Commandments – without exception. Not even one.
And this obedience led him to the Jordan River where John his cousin, his blood relative was baptizing repentant sinners. The sinless one stepped into the water to be baptized with a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Not for himself. Not for his own repentance. Not for his own sin. Jesus stepped into that water so that he might be one of us. Earthly sons. Fleshly sons. Earthly Fathers. Fleshly fathers. Given to anger and lust and dishonesty and pride. Guilty of breaking the commandments. Disobedient to our Heavenly Father. Poor examples to our earthly sons. Jesus became like us so that He could die for us.
And he did. Jesus came up out of the water and the very next thing he did was make his way out to the wilderness where he fasted and then was tempted by Satan. Satan came to him with every temptation we have every faced, ever temptation that we have been deceived by and fallen prey to – Jesus suffered this same torment and he successfully withstood it. And then he called his disciples. He taught the crowds. He preached the Word of God. He healed the sick. He confronted the sins of fathers and sons, of mothers and daughters, and they grew tired of his Word. The sinners arrested the sinless one and they tried him, not according to justice, but according to human falsehood and lies and they found him to be not one of them – yet what they should have been. They nailed him to a cross to kill him, to be rid of him, so that they could comfortably continue in their dishonesty, their lust, their greed, their pride, their sin.
Jesus died. He died for sinners. He died for you, for me, for your family and my family. He died for us all.
And so the Father was well pleased. He gave the Son this task – to become like the sinners so that he could die for the sinners. The Son began that task at his baptism and that son completed that task at the cross. The salvation for you and me was accomplished through the obedience of this son and through the death of the righteous Son of God!
Our text tells us that as Jesus came up out of the water he saw the heavens opening and the Spirit descending like a dove. We usually bypass those words quickly and think of them as rhetoric or symbolic language and don't often stop to consider the full importance of what Mark is telling us.
The heavens opened!
For you and me that is good news. Because for us the heavens have been closed. We could not get in. The doors were locked. We did not have the key. We did not have the ability to open the doors of heaven. They were shut tight to keep out those who do not belong – they were shut tight to keep out sinners.
Jesus was baptized and the heavens were opened! In light of the sacrifice that the son was going to make. In light of the work that he took upon himself to complete for us, the heavens were opened.
Little Anna Christina Headings was baptized today. She was born as daughter to Dennis and Rebekah. She was born sharing in the sinful nature that we all have a part in. She was born with the heavens shut to her because of her sin. But today she was baptized.
And just as the heavens opened when Jesus was baptized, the heavens were suddenly opened for Christy. The doors of heaven were flung wide open with the promise that God will never shut them to her. The doors of heaven will always be open. She will always have the key. She is a baptized child of God.
And the Spirit? When Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit came down from heaven like a dove and anointed Jesus. That same Holy Spirit has come down out of the opened heavens and anointed baby Christy. He has made his home in her heart and he there will live. Her heart will be his temple forever.
And the words from heaven. You and I may not have heard them, but they were spoken – God himself on his throne in heaven said of Anna Christina Headings, “You are my beloved daughter. With you I am well pleased.”
God our heavenly Father is well pleased with you. For the sake of Jesus and because of his obedience to his father. Because of His sacrifice on the cross, the Heavenly Father is your Father and He is well pleased with you.