What is baptism? This sacrament, this rite, has been central to Christian teaching and practice since the very beginning. And yet, there is very little uniformity to it throughout the various Christian traditions; it is often the cause of much division between our brothers and sisters in Christ. Some baptize infants as we Lutherans do. Others, it is for adults only, or at least those of some predetermined age of responsibility. Some merely pour a little water on the head, others it is full immersion. But behind all this, what does it really mean? What’s it about?

Luther teaches that (quote Small Catechism here and point to its location in ELW.) In other words, water and word come together to give us something tangible to point to so that we recognize and remember an intangible reality. That reality is simply this: God chooses us as his children, chooses us for salvation. It’s not magic. This is not some sort of spell that I as a pastor cast and poof, a Christian of deep faith. God is the actor, God makes the choice. The water and word merely point to what he has done.

But Scripture provides another possibility, one that coincides with our tradition. The stories of Baptism in the Bible center primarily on the character of John, Jesus’ cousin. John the baptizer appeared^* in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, so summarizes the Evangelist Mark. Repentance, forgiveness, these are important elements to baptism as well. But what are they? Forgiveness, that’s easy to answer. You do something wrong and instead of receiving punishment, you receive pardon, mercy, forgiveness. Repentance is a little more complicated. Simply put, repentance is a turning. You turn away from a life, behaviors, patterns, attitudes of vice, selfishness, and sin, and turn towards a life of justice, virtue, and righteousness. It’s a turning, a change of attitude and perspective.

And it was to pledge themselves to such a change that people came to John. John’s audience, his congregation, were all Jews of reasonably good standing. This is was not a pledge of faith for them, but a statement about how they were going to live their lives from henceforth. Turning away from sin and selfishness and turning towards justice and selflessness.

But there’s a bit of a complication when Jesus shows up, waist deep in the River Jordan. This is Jesus Christ, the Messiah. You know, God incarnate, word made flesh, Immanuel, God is with us, all that. Surely here is one for whom baptism is unnecessary. It’s not like he doesn’t know who and what he is. He might have missed the angels, shepherds, and wise men around his birth, but he did know. Luke tells us that story about how he teaches the elders in the temple at age 12. No confusion here. He’s the son of God, and needs no reminder that he is God’s child and chosen by him.

Neither does he need repentance. We get no stories of Jesus’ childhood and early adulthood outside of that episode in the temple, but it’s probably safe to say that he wasn’t exactly a teenage ruffian. He’s the one who’s come to be perfectly obedient to God’s will, sinless, blameless. He has nothing to repent from, nothing to turn away from. John knows this and he confronts Jesus outright in Matthew’s version of the story.

“What are you doing, cousin? I should be baptized by you, not the other way around.” Jesus gives a cryptic response, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.” What’s he talking about? What does that mean?

I think we have this tendency as believers living quite a few centuries later and looking back on these stories that we forget really who Jesus is. You see, it’s not just about word-made-flesh, God incarnate, and all that. That’s certainly true, but he’s also the son of Mary, flesh and blood, truly human as our newly reworded Nicene Creed puts it. He’s a human being like us, and also like us, he has free will. He has a choice. He always has a choice. We tend to look upon these stories of his life as something predestined, that from he was born, Jesus merely followed a script from manger to cross to empty tomb, but that is not so.

Scholars have long suggested this truth, although we so often miss it. There’s a reason why the very next story in every Gospel account after this episode at the Jordan is Jesus in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. The devil knows Jesus has a choice, that at any moment, he could renounce his holy cause, choose instead a life of whatever he wants. The devil tempts him with power and prestige, but I also can’t imagine that it didn’t enter into Jesus’ mind more than once how nice it might be to just live a normal life, settle down, marry someone, have lots of babies, run a business, do stuff that normal people do throughout their lives. That temptation is always there, because that choice is always before him. In Gethsemene, he prays to his father what is essentially “do I really have to do this?” He already knows the answer. No, he doesn’t, but he chooses to anyway. Not my will, but thine be done. That’s a choice, a choice to do what God wants him to do.

His kneeling in the Jordan before John is also a choice. He chooses in that moment to dedicate himself to his holy cause. He knows who he is. He knows why God sent him, and now he chooses to embrace all that. He chooses to be the man he was born to be, the Christ, the Savior. He chooses the road that will lead to the cross. He chooses to save all of us by the giving of his life and then rising again on the third day. It’s a choice he makes time and time again in the months and years to come, but here in the presence of his herald, John the Baptizer and all of John’s disciples, he makes that pledge openly and publicly for all to see.

Is there not perhaps a third meaning for us regarding baptism in his choice of Jesus? Can we not take what happened to each of us at this font as our pledge, our choice? Before Christmas, I talked about how the vision of Isaiah’s peaceable kingdom comes about not just by God’s action, but that we also as his followers have a part to play. In this new year, what choice will you make? A choice for justice? For peace? For mercy? For love of neighbor, mercy for the afflicted, and aid for the poor? Baptism is a reminder for us that we are God’s chosen, that we are saved by God’s grace through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Now what? We have the years of our lives ahead of us still, some more than others admittedly, but what are we going to do with them? What are the choices we make? What will the pledge of our baptism be? Amen.