Understanding the Mysteries We Have Experienced: Baptism

a sermon on Luke 3.15-22
by David C. Mauldin


When was the last time you thanked God for your baptism? Have you ever done so? If the Christian church is anywhere close to right, you really should. After all, your baptism is who you are: more than your race, more than your nationality, more than your gender, more than your socio-economic status, more than your profession, more than anything else—more than all the rest put together, your baptism makes you who you are. … if the Christian church is anywhere close to right.

Baptism is one of those religious things subject to more than one interpretation. Anyone, even an atheist, will recognize it as something Christians do, a rite of passage or initiation. We Christians obviously invest it with a lot more meaning than that. Even among Christians, however, interpretation varies.

How can we sort out the meaning of our baptism? In a way, it seems unlikely that being dunked under water or having water poured over you could be the defining moment of your life. It seems impossible that baptism could really make you a new person. Can it be true that Jesus gave us baptism as a source of grace? Does God—the God, creator of the universe, almighty, eternal, and holy—Does God actually do something to you when you are baptized?

Let me tell you what this sermon is not. It is not a polemic designed to get you to think the way I do about baptism. I am not going to argue to prove that our way is the best way or the only way. Instead, I am inviting you to give some thought to the meaning of your baptism. This will be a good sermon if … at the end of it you thank God for your baptism, and sometime in the days ahead, you draw strength from your knowledge that you are baptized. Or, in the case of someone who is not baptized, if you give serious thought to being baptized. It is not something to do lightly, without due consideration for what it means.

Today is Baptism of the Lord Sunday. The church calendar celebrates the life of Jesus. We started a new year with Advent and Christmas. Jesus was promised. Jesus was born. We now move quickly ahead to remember his baptism, and with it our own. This seems a good time to contemplate the meaning of baptism—without getting too abstract. That’s part of the beauty of baptism. We are not trying to think through some abstract problem. We are trying to find the practical, everyday meaning for something we have experienced. Most of us have been baptized—some as infants, some as children, some as adults. We have witnessed baptisms. At least a couple of us have baptized other people. This is part of our life, a very important part; and I believe that the better we understand this mystery that we have been part of, the stronger we will be as Christians.

My plan is simple: I will ask and answer three questions about baptism that might occur to anyone. If a stranger wandered in off the street and saw a baptism, he might ask these three questions. When a child witnesses a baptism in worship, she will probably ask these three questions. They are: (1) What does baptism mean? (2) Why do we do it the way we do? And (3) How does it work? We will return to our scripture reading as we answer these questions.

Let’s begin. Question number 1: What does baptism mean? Rather than attempt a long, academic answer—much less a comprehensive one—I want to offer two pictures drawn from common experience. They do not exhaust the meaning of baptism, but they point us toward the heart of the matter.

Do you remember being in school, at recess, lining up to choose teams to play games? Most people who remember that do not recall it fondly. No one wanted to be picked last. Even being picked near the last was bad. We all wanted to be picked, to be chosen, to be valued and appreciated. In the grand scheme of the cosmos, your skill at kickball as a third grader counts for practically nothing. But what a big deal it seemed at the time! What a relief when a captain pointed to you and called your name.

If you have trouble relating to this picture, imagine any situation in which you desperately wanted to be chosen: a job, a promotion, president of some social club, queen of the boll weevil festival, whatever. How does it feel to be chosen? It feels good. Being chosen combines feelings of relief, joy, excitement, and belonging. That is the experience of baptism. We say that God claims us in the water of baptism. Baptism is not as much about our choosing God as about God choosing us.

The gospel accounts of Jesus’ baptism are about as different from one another as any story in the Bible. I’ll talk about those differences in a moment, but first let’s look at the similarities. In all the versions, when Jesus is baptized, the heavens are opened, the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven says, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased”—although in Matthew, the voice addresses the crowd, not Jesus directly. What is going on here? Obviously this is about who Jesus is, something important to get straight early in his story. It is also about how he experienced his mission. Here, just before he begins preaching and teaching, he receives affirmation of his identity and calling. It will happen again at the transfiguration just before he heads toward Jerusalem and the cross.

Christians have also always taken this to say something about their own baptism. The heavens do not open; the Spirit descends, but not in a visible form; and no voice but the pastor’s is heard—but the message is the same: You are my beloved child; with you I am well pleased.

Some may not see this connection between Jesus’ baptism and our own, but I think it is legitimate, for this reason: Baptism unites us with Jesus Christ. It identifies us with him. This is what we think a person is doing who comes for baptism, or what parents are doing when they bring children. They are saying, “Jesus is for me, and I am for Jesus.” This is what we think the church is doing. By baptizing you we are making a bold statement about your relationship with Jesus Christ. And, this is what we think God does in baptism, unite you with Jesus. This is important, because in Christianity, you do not come to God on your own merits. You come through Christ. This is what he does for us. We ride in on Jesus’ coattails. He is the Son of God; we are adopted as children. He is the heir, who shares his inheritance with us. He is the one who is chosen, but because we belong to him, because we are united with him, we are chosen too. In baptism we experience this. We are chosen.

The other picture that points to the heart of baptism is wearing a brand new, super fashionable outfit that makes you look good. Remember how good that feels? I had a friend in seminary who was a Navy chaplain. I hope this never gets back to him, but he was, I thought, an ordinary looking guy. When he got his dress uniform, though, he was transformed. He looked great. One day he let me try on the jacket, and I looked great. I briefly contemplated enlistment jut to get to wear the uniform. I had a similar experience when I got my first three-button black suit. Now I don’t wear any other kind. You know the feeling. Baptism is the same way. You trade in an old way of life for a clean, new, beautiful way of life that makes you feel great.

I mentioned how the gospels all tell the story of Jesus’ baptism differently. Mark was the first to be written, and he lays it out in a brief, straightforward manner. “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan” [1.9]. Then he talks about the heavens, the dove, and the voice. Short, to the point, no commentary. The other gospel writers seem to have been uneasy having Jesus go to John for baptism. John the Baptist had preached judgment. He proclaimed and practiced “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” [Mk 1.4]. Why would Jesus need to go to someone else for baptism? Why be baptized at all if it was about repentance and forgiveness? Jesus had no sins to repent of or be forgiven. So Matthew shows John resisting initially. In Matthew, John claims he should be baptized by Jesus, not the other way around. Jesus convinces him because Jesus seeks baptism only “to fulfill all righteousness” [3.15]. Luke goes a different route. He never mentions who baptizes Jesus, and by the time he gets around to mentioning it, he has already raced ahead of himself and told how Herod put John in prison. He is not trying to imply someone else baptized Jesus; he is merely distancing Jesus from John’s message of repentance and forgiveness. The gospel of John does not tell us that Jesus was baptized. Instead, in that gospel, John the Baptist tells everybody who Jesus is.

Repentance and forgiveness are part of baptism. A person comes expecting God to do something powerful. You bring a desire for a holy life—or in the case of children, parents bring them with the desire for a holy life—and God honors that. Baptized people still sin. We dishonor our baptism. But God remains faithful and continues to work in us. As Romans 6.4 says: “We have been buried with [Christ] by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Baptism transforms us for a new way of living, and it looks and feels great.

We should move along to our second question about baptism: Why do we do it the way we do? This question has three parts: immersion versus pouring, what about infants, and our distinct Presbyterian obsession about baptism.

Some Christians are immersed in water when they are baptized; others have water poured onto their head. We Presbyterians generally pour, but we recognize both as valid. In fact, on occasion Presbyterians will immerse. Immersion powerfully symbolizes our dying and rising with Christ; pouring powerfully symbolizes the Holy Spirit coming into our lives. For us, how you are baptized does not affect its validity. To justify our practice, we turn to both the Bible and tradition. The word for baptism in the New Testament is baptidzo, and its non-religious meaning is “to dip.” Immersion is the dominant New Testament pattern, though it is difficult to see how this could have been done in some cases, water being a precious commodity in Palestine. In fact, the lack of a good place to immerse may have led to the practice of pouring, which became the far more common practice in the church. Because scripture never mandates the mode of baptism, we recognize and practice both pouring and immersion, though we generally pour.

Another divisive issue concerning baptism is who should be baptized. Baptists and some other churches will only baptize adults or children who are old enough to make a profession of their faith. This is because of the connection in scripture between faith and baptism. Most denominations, including Presbyterians, baptize infants, though for different reasons. Roman Catholics see it as the washing away of the sin with which we are born. Presbyterians do not think God will hold the sin of your ancestors, even Adam and Eve, against you; but we will baptize you when you are an infant because God’s claim upon your life has priority over all else, even your ability to respond.

Most of you know that I grew up Baptist. I was baptized when I was 7 years old. Because of my background, every Committee on the Ministry or Pastor Nominating Committee I have ever met has asked me to defend the practice of baptizing infants. Here is what I tell them: If baptism is something you do—if it is nothing more than your response to God—then we should only baptize adults. But, if God does something in baptism—if God does something for you that you cannot do for yourself, something your faith does not make happen, but at best can only ratify and embrace—then we may well baptize infants too. The thing God does in baptism is to unite you with Jesus Christ. And faith is important. How can your baptism change your life and give you your identity without faith on your part? But, I do not see why faith should have to precede baptism. Our practice of baptizing infants speaks forcefully of our belief that God reaches out to us long before we even think to reach out to God. God’s grace is first and primary. And despite my background, this has been my experience. I did state my faith in Jesus and ask to be baptized, but my faith and my understanding have grown tremendously since then. God was working in my life then, and God is still at work. So I say, baptism is the beginning of the Christian life, not its completion. As the Book of Order says, “Baptism calls for decision at every subsequent stage along life’s way” (W-2.3007).

Every denomination seems to have some obsession about baptism. Some obsess about how you were baptized. Others insist you much be baptized by their church. Ours is that you can only be baptized once. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” is our motto. If you want to join a Presbyterian church, and you have received Christian baptism, then we will not re-baptize you. It does not matter when you were baptized or in what church: Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, Baptist, non-denominational, whatever—as an infant, child, or adult. Surprisingly few churches are so ecumenical as we are on this issue. Our obsession grows out of our confidence that God does something in your baptism. If your baptism depended on your faith or faithfulness, you would need to be baptized on a daily basis. But your baptism depends on God and God’s faithfulness. For a Presbyterian, re-baptizing someone would be like telling God, “Your grace was not sufficient for this person.” And we would never do that.

Last big question: How does baptism work? Now we are dealing with holy mysteries, but I will do my best. We call baptism a sacrament, which means God does something in baptism. A sacrament is also the Word of God acted out. Here is how the Study Catechism explains it: “Take away the word of promise, and the water is merely water … But add water … to the word of promise, and it becomes a visible word. In this form it does what by grace the word always does: it brings the salvation it promises, and conveys to faith the real presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sacraments are visible words which uniquely assure and confirm that no matter how greatly I have sinned, Christ died also for me, and comes to live in me and with me” [Q. 69].

To understand how baptism works, we should look at who is doing what in baptism. There is both a human and a divine reality to it. On the human side, baptism is an act of faith, even if in the case of an infant that faith is held by the parents and church and only expected in the child. Baptism is also an act of repentance and submitting to God. In the case of an infant, it is the acknowledgement that this child desperately needs the grace of God. Finally, baptism boldly claims an affiliation with Jesus Christ. It is the way to say, “Jesus is for me, and I am for Jesus.” In some Asian countries, particularly India and Malaysia, becoming a Christian carries a high price. Families will disown Christians; and so, some young people, when they come to believe in Christ, delay their baptism until their parents have died. They can believe in Jesus. They can go to church every Sunday, and do all the usual things Christians do; but once they are baptized, they have crossed a line and can never go back. Baptism tells the world who you claim to be.

The human side is not the only side, however, for we believe God works in baptism. When you are baptized, God claims you. God identifies you forever with Jesus Christ. Early Christians compared it to minting a coin. Once struck, the coin forever bears the image of the ruler. Once baptized, a person forever bears the image of Christ. Finally, scripture associates the coming of the Holy Spirit with baptism. It is not as if the Spirit does not work in the lives of unbaptized people; rather, Jesus promises never to leave or forsake those who belong to him. The Holy Spirit is how he is present with us, and we can be confident that from our baptism the Holy Spirit lives in us.

Baptism, then, is both a promise and a calling. God’s promise sealed in baptism is certain, for God is faithful. And yet we can live up to our baptism, or we can dishonor it. Therefore cherish your baptism. Thank God for it. Draw comfort from it. More than anything else, more than everything else put together, your baptism makes you who you are. Every day is an opportunity to affirm and live out your baptism. Do that. You belong to Jesus Christ, and his Holy Spirit lives in you. Thanks be to God. Amen.