The brief story from the book of Acts that serves as our second lesson today may seem to be a bit of an odd tale to tell. For Luke, and likely also for us, it highlights an otherwise forgotten element of the history of the early church. You see, we’re all familiar with the core group of Jesus’ disciples: Peter, Andrew, Matthew, and the women, Mary Madgelene. We have some familiarity with the outer tier of disciples, those who’ve come to believe but were not necessarily active in traveling with Jesus day-to-day. Folks like Joseph of Arimathea, whose tomb was given for Jesus’ body, or Mathias, the disciple appointed to succeed Judas, and the like.

But there is a third group of disciples that we don’t hear a whole lot about, and as a result, we don’t think all that much about them. These forgotten disciples are those Jesus “inherited” from John the Baptist. Followers of John who were told to await the coming Messiah. Many of these came to believe in Jesus, and it is such a group that Paul encounters in the city of Corinth.

What results is probably one of the first examples of ecumenism in the history of the church. Paul queries these disciples of John and discovers they have a different understanding of baptism than he does. Not really surprising. In the early church, there were a lot of different ideas about Jesus, who he was, what he was about, and what the practices and teachings he gave really meant.

The church hasn’t changed much. Even today, were you to put a Roman Catholic, a Lutheran, a Pentecostal, and a Baptist all in the same room together and ask them what communion means, or what the shape of worship should be, you’ll likely get 4 different answers.

But today is our commemoration of the baptism of Jesus and our focus is on baptism. What is it? What does it mean?

To answer that question, one option is to discern what it meant for the particulars in these stories given to us today. For the disciples in Corinth, their baptism was that of John the Baptist. And what sort of baptism was that? “John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.” Focus on the word repentance. Repentance is to turn around, to change course in one’s life. Thus, John’s baptism is a visible sign and deliberate statement that one is rededicating themselves to a life of virtue, dedicating themselves to live within the promises of God.

Paul, on the other hand, has a different view. His baptism is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, foretold by John, but only arriving after the wonder of the first Pentecost. With it come certain advantages, the speaking of tongues and prophecy, and of course, salvation and eternal life.

Our modern interpretations of Baptism include both these ideas. There is an element of repentance and/or dedication to our baptism. Those traditions that practice believer’s baptism see it as a repentance of sinful life, a turning around to live the life of Christ. In testimony, you might often hear a new believer talk about the life they led before and what they will now do as baptized disciples of Jesus Christ.

We, in the Lutheran tradition, baptize infants as a way of dedicating their lives to God, speaking for them in faith that God will do with them what he has done with us. These same children take those pledges and promises as their own through our rite of Confirmation, but the idea is largely the same. Dedication to the life of Jesus Christ.

We also include the element of Paul’s baptism, the reception of the Holy Spirit. Our own words in our baptismal rite, “You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the Cross of Christ forever” highlight that the Spirit is active in this rite, binding our lives to God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. By doing this, the Spirit grants us entrance into the kingdom of God and into life eternal with our creator. Humanity binds with the divine through the power of the Spirit.

That’s what Baptism means to us, but today is about Jesus’ baptism. And I have always struggled with what that must have meant to him. For one thing, Jesus is God incarnate, perfect, sinless. He has nothing to repent of, so the understand of John’s baptism doesn’t apply. And he is the king of God’s kingdom, the Holy Spirit is a part of him, so reception of that spirit and the salvation it brings also does not apply.

Or do they?

Jesus has nothing to repent of, but he does have a purpose in his life to dedicate himself to, that is to die on a cross and then rise again on the third day. It is said that in the River Jordan is when Jesus affirms that is indeed the destiny that he chooses. He dedicates his life to die for all of creation.

And the reception of the Spirit? Not really, but may be what’s happening here is in some ways the reverse of that. He’s not receiving God, since he is God, but perhaps he is receiving humanity. Becoming one with us, binding himself to our life, our mortality, our struggles. In his baptism, perhaps Christ is putting on us.

Putting on us so that he can carry all the burden of our sins and flaws to that cross. Putting on us so that he can die on that cross for us and for our salvation. Putting on us so that he can rise again on the third day and that we, through him, will rise also.

Jesus’ baptism is his way of saying, “I have come to be one of you to save all of you.” Thanks be to God. Amen.