Jesus Goes to Work for Sinners
Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Savior of all sinners. His public inauguration ceremony proved it when, at his baptism in the Jordan River, he was approved by the Father and anointed by the Spirit. January 9, 2011.
It’s official and nobody can prevent it. Scott Walker is the governor of Wisconsin. His public inauguration ceremony proved it when, on Monday at 12:40 p.m., he was sworn into office. It’s official and nobody can prevent it. Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Savior of all sinners. His public inauguration ceremony proved it when, at his baptism in the Jordan River, he was approved by the Father and anointed by the Spirit.
God with him and he with us
In tones of an inauguration speech, the apostle Peter addressed a houseful of uncircumcised Gentiles who ate pork, worked up a sweat on the Sabbath, and didn’t go to church. But if they were like their host, Cornelius, they were “devout and God-fearing … [they] gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly” (Acts 10:2). They knew about God from Moses and the prophets, they worshiped God, and they were familiar with “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.”
Due to the fact that Peter preaches the resurrection of Jesus and the forgiveness of sins through Jesus later in his speech, and because here he mentions the baptism of Jesus, it seems that these Gentiles needed to grow in their faith. Their general acknowledgement of God needed a specific acquaintance with Jesus, his Son. Necati Aydin, a 35-year-old Christian pastor in Turkey, did more than acknowledge God. When five Turkish Muslims raided his office and demanded that he pray the Islamic prayer of conversion, “There is no God but Allah, and Muhammed is his prophet,” Necati refused. The taunting continued and the torture lasted an hour until they slit his throat to his martyr’s cry of, “Messiah! Messiah!” The Muslim cry, “God is great,” finds no comparison with the Christian confession that God became small in his Son, Jesus Christ. God humbled himself and became human so he needed God. That’s why Jesus was baptized. He (Jesus, born to a poor teenage couple from Nazareth) needed God (the Holy Spirit’s power, the Father’s partnership).
You can find a general acknowledgement of God in the sayings Starbucks prints on their cups, in the chatter on popular blogs or talk shows, even headlining our American currency. Cornelius and his Gentile friends didn’t know any better, so Peter introduced them to Jesus. We know better. We hold the New Testament in our hands with its prophecies fulfilled. We have seen the coming of Christ, who was crucified, risen, and ascended, and we long for his coming again. We eat and drink Christ in the sacrament. So how is it that our neighbors consider us no different than the mainstream religious Americans who worship the generic god? That’s why Jesus was baptized. He (God, eternal from everlasting and holy with no sin) came to be with us (humans, mortal with sin, guilt, and shame). Jesus put himself in our place as Substitute and Savior, so that in our baptism the power and holiness of God in the righteousness of Jesus washes our sins away. Our baptism was not a religious ceremony, like it introduced us to a new hobby so we go to church once in a while. Our baptism gave us a new identity! We are Christian, and have then chosen to be Lutheran, as followers of Jesus.
We with them and they with us
One of the campaign pledges of Scott Walker is to create 250,000 jobs in his 4-year term, more than wiping out the 180,000 jobs lost in the recession. At his baptism Jesus was put to work by his Father, and at our baptism we are put to work by Jesus.
Peter’s words offer some insight comparing the work of believers in Old Testament times to the work of believers in this New Testament era. “The message God sent to the people of Israel” reminds us that in the Old Testament God centralized his church in the nation of Israel and the temple. God reached out first to the Israelite sinners. His plan was to attract foreign sinners who would notice his acts of might and mercy among the theocracy of Israel and come to hear more and be saved. The path of salvation was like a funnel aimed at faithful Israel, whose work was to obey God and attract the attention of sinners everywhere to come and believe.
After his baptism, Jesus began to reverse that strategy for sinners to become acquainted with him. “He want around doing good and healing all” – both Jew and Gentile. At his ascension Jesus directed believers beyond Jerusalem, beyond Judea and Samaria, to all nations and the ends of the earth. Today our work as faithful believers is to obey God and go, go out, go around, go, go, go. We don’t just bring people to Christ by inviting them to church, that’s only half the job. We bring Christ to people by engaging in their lives. We take the funnel and we turn it around so that it becomes a bullhorn. As a church of saved sinners our evangelism efforts go beyond the centralized efforts of church programs that invite sinners to come and hear. We decentralize evangelism, encouraging and empowering each other as saved sinners to go out and be with other sinners so that they will believe and be saved and then be with us.
49% of Americans who made New Year’s resolutions in 2010 didn’t see the positive changes they had hoped for last year. Disappointing for them and not the best odds for resolvers in 2011. Hopefully Scott Walker’s percentage of success keeping campaign promises is higher than that, but his inauguration, for all its pomp and splendor, provides no guarantee. Jesus’ baptism was God’s resolution to him, and our baptism is Gods resolution to us, it assures us that God always keeps his promises. Amen.
Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on January 9, 2011
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