Isaiah 43:1-7

This Sunday is what is known as The Baptism of Our Lord Sunday. It is a day to remember both our own baptisms and the baptism of Christ in the Jordan River. Remembering our baptisms is usually pretty easy, even if we cannot actually recall our baptism per se. We can dip our fingers in the water and make the sign of the cross, signifying that we have been marked and seal for Christ as remembering our baptisms mean more than just cognitively being able to replay the event in our heads. Remembering our baptisms means actively living out our baptismal vows and taking time to re-affirm the seal that was marked over you that day when the pastor/priest declared “[Name], I baptize you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. [Name], you are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own for ever. Amen.” When we think about the baptism of Christ, though, it can be kind of confusing. What does it mean for Christ to be baptized?

I remember back in college there was a class session where we read about the baptism of Christ. I sat there and unintentionally spoke out loud the thought I was thinking “well why the heck was Christ baptized?!” Baptism was a sacrament that initiated us into full inclusion in the Church and marked us as being Christ’s own. So why did Jesus need to be baptized? Wasn’t Christ already Christ’s own forever? I believe our Old Testament lection for this Sunday can help us navigate these waters (pun intended) as we think about why Christ stepped into the waters to allow John to baptize him and why the Spirit descended in the form of a dove along while the voice of the Father was heard saying “”You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.” I think this verse is one of the keys to understanding the baptism of Christ. Christ is setting the waters so that we too can enter in through them. It is almost as if Christ through his baptism is baptizing the water. One can think of it in the way that when Christ touched the lepers, he himself did not become unclean, but rather he made the leper clean. Christ is setting the waters so that we might enter in. Like the Jewish mikvah (ritual cleansing), we are being cleansed in the baptismal waters, but more than just that is taking place because of what Christ has done. We are being baptized with Christ. We are being baptized into his life, death, and resurrection. We are being washed in the waters that he washed and being sealed in his life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We can look back to the story of the Exodus and see connections there. The Israelites passed through the waters of the sea, just as we pass through the waters of baptism. The Israelites came out the other side marked as the people, just as we come out of the baptismal waters and are then sealed as Christ’s own forever. The waters would be impossible to go through without God working through them, though. Had God not separated the waters, the Israelites could not have ventured through. Similarly, Christ makes it so that we can go through the waters that seal us forever into his life, death, and resurrection. The Father is well pleased with this. The Father and the Holy Spirit affirm this move on Jesus’ part, cleansing the waters for our sake, so that we might enter in. Christ is with us in the waters, so we can be with him forever.

There can be some fear involved with this. We are being called to die to ourselves; that’s what‘s happening in our baptisms – death. We are dying to our old selves and being raised to new life in Christ. We are entering into a new way of being, a new community, the Church. Isaiah does well to remind us of two things. One, that it can indeed be a scary thing to pass through the waters that we are called to. And two, that we need not fear for the Lord goes with us and has gone before us! Isaiah does a great job at reminding us today that Christ goes before us and with us. He reminds us that in our baptisms we die, but are raised to life with Christ. Isaiah also reminds us that all are called to this. All who are called by God’s name and all whom God created, made, and formed in God’s glory are called to go through these waters and come out fresh and made new on the other side.