Resolved for You :: Matthew 3:13-17
I can’t remember the last time I made a New Year’s resolution. Every year, though, I hear about others making them. They want a fresh start, a new outlook on life. They want to feel better about themselves ... to put away the past ... or even to forget 2020. They say their good resolutions will help them become the person they want to be.
They resolve to do what’s right.
The tradition of making New Year’s resolutions began during the reign of Caesar, who created the calendar we use today. Because the first month was named for a two-faced Roman god who supposedly looked backward and forward, people began using the first day of the new year to think about past mistakes so that they could resolve to do better, to be better. Christians ultimately took over this practice, even turning the practice into a worship.
Tell me, how have those resolutions worked out for you?
We all have good intentions. We might even make good resolutions. But studies have shown the extreme majority of our resolutions fail. Have you already slipped on your resolution to read the Bible in its entirety this year?
So in light of our Gospel reading, thank God today that we don’t have to rely only on our own resolutions.
THE RESOLUTION OF GOD IS INDEED FULFILLED IN CHRIST
1. God’s Word for us today in the Gospel of Matthew reveals Christ’s resolve to make all things new for us and in us.
This is fully realized, fulfilled ... resolved if you will ... in the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River.
Jesus, the Light of the World who has been attracting all people to himself from the moment he was born, begins his active ministry on earth by showing himself to John in the Jordan River, where he hears the Lord’s word being proclaimed faithfully.
In this magnificent moment, God does something remarkable. Our Triune God manifests himself to us by coming to us from Galilee, that good-for-nothing backwater land beyond the Jordan ... that land filled with Gentile sinners who had cast off God. He comes out of the darkness ... enters the water ... and unites himself with us.
It is a resolution fulfilled exactly in a way none of us expected.
Our God Incarnate chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. While the world tries to enter baptism to save itself, dedicating themselves to be better, to do better, God enters baptism to save the world. He resolves to make us whole.
In many respects, John the Baptizer immediately recognizes this fact, marveling that God would resolve to do this. Upon seeing the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world walking toward him, John declares: I need to be baptized by you Lord ... and you come to me?
That is to say ...
How can I baptize you, Lord? And why would I baptize you? You aren’t a sinner, Lord. I am. You have never sinned. But I have. You never will. But I continue to do so. You don’t need to be baptized! You are the light of life. In you there is no darkness.
Please, Lord, baptize me instead!
So Jesus replied ... let it be so now for it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
Jesus’ answer requires our most careful attention if we are to avoid some common misunderstandings of what he is doing and why he has resolved to do this great thing. God resolves to fulfill righteousness for us ... in us ... by washing us.
Note, first, that he said, Let it be so now ...
Jesus concedes that, at any other time, John’s argument might be valid. Jesus isn’t like you. He did not ... nor does he ever stand in need of having his sins washed away like you and me. Jesus is not a sinner who sins. Nor has he ever sinned and become a sinner, like Adam did to begin with. But Jesus says, he needs to do it now ... this one time ... to fulfill righteousness ... for you and me.
Jesus has come to receive the baptism of sinners in order that He might be our substitute and bear the judgment we deserve. This is how he alone can fulfill righteousness.
Through this one baptism, he will deliver true faith and the true hope of life.
Apart from it, we are like a brood of vipers
who ignore John’s preaching.
Who embrace the wisdom of the world that says we should instead resolve ourselves to rely on our own lives of holiness, thinking our good life will merit us a special place in heaven.
Who embrace the wisdom of the world that says we can receive the forgiveness of their sins too often ... that if we do it will lose its specialness.
Who embrace the wisdom of the world that says our good word about good living is good enough.
In the name of Jesus, repent, every one of you.
Return to your baptism, and receive the joy of the sacraments, as God gives himself fully to you ... delivering to you one faith, one hope, one baptism.
2. In his sacraments, God has made a covenant ... that is, a resolution ... to unite himself with you and make you whole.
By an act of his own love, he faithfully resolves to rescue you from the awful situation you have been found to be in. In the only act of true repentance, the Word of God Made Flesh turns away from all sin and shows us our savior.
As Matthew writes ...
When Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove, and coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my son, the beloved one, in whom I am well pleased.
Like Luther, it would not have surprised me if heaven and earth trembled in this moment as God spoke to us. But this voice is different that the one we heard just a few weeks ago at Mount Sinai where God also spoke. There, his voice was so terrible we trembled in fear. Here, his voice is full of grace and truth, we can hear nothing but the resolution of God's peace.
Now we know our savior. Now we see our savior. Jesus is our savior. We don't have to rely on our own resolutions to better ourselves.
3. In this sacrament, God resolves to fulfill all righteousness in you.
I am convinced today that there is not a clearer passage of scripture that argues this point better than Romans chapter 6.
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too, might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, Paul has revealed to us the truth of how both the cross and baptism are intimately connected in this moment from Matthew 3.
Jesus, the beloved sinless one, took our sins upon himself through baptism. Jesus, the beloved sinless one, lived a life of active righteousness. That is a life apart from sin. Jesus, the beloved, then silently carried your sins to the cross, where he suffered the full wrath of God for your sin. He died and was buried. He was delivered over to death and raised for our justification.
What a fantastic resolution God has made for you in Christ.
The Word made flesh has stepped into the waters of baptism to become like you. As the Word draws us to himself, he cleanses us of our sin, sanctifying us, and making us holy because he is holy.
So you can and should now join all the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven in celebrating today ... Because you are baptized are in Christ. In the baptism God poured out upon you, you died to sin, and were raised to new life (Rom 6:3-5). In baptism, God has delivered you from the domain of darkness and transferred you into the kingdom of light (Col 1:13)
Baptism gives these blessings to all who believe God’s saving promises. It fulfills all righteousness.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, who among us would despise the word of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Who among us would call the baptism of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit powerless?
God in all fullness, Father Son and Holy Spirit, has been manifested to us ... on this day ... in all graciousness. Each person of the Trinity has been clearly distinguished, so that everyone might know what to believe concerning God. For whoever holds to Christ, accepts his word, and trusts his work cannot be an enemy of God.
Here, we see peace flowing like a river.
Here, we who are baptized are now united with Christ.
Here, we are joined to his death and resurrection, which means we can walk in the newness of life.
Here, we can tell the world what he has done in baptism, how God unites himself to us and thus saves us.
Oh, how blessed we would be if we would accept this Good News and cling to it with our whole heart. You have been raised from the water of life into the light to life in Christ ... because when God makes a resolution, things really are new ... new life really is effective. He will never break his promise to you.
I am the Lord, he declares. I have called you in righteousness. I will take you by the hand and keep you. It is his resolution for you in Christ.