When Heaven Was Opened
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The text for today is our Gospel,
Luke 3, especially verses 21-22: “Now when all
the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was
praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like
a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son; with You I am
well pleased.’” Here ends the text.
Grace
and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
“I
can’t believe how quickly time passes. It seems like it was only yesterday when
we brought our little boy home. Now he’s all grown up and has started his own
career.” I’m sure that many of you have already pondered or expressed similar
thoughts. As a father of four and a Papa of thirteen, I can assure you, that if
you haven’t yet, you probably will. And much sooner than you’d ever think. Time
flies. Children grow up so quickly. You turn around and they’re all grown up. And
so it seems with Jesus—at least according to St. Luke’s Gospel. One minute,
He’s a Baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And in the
next chapter, He’s suddenly a grown man.
Jesus
is like one of those soap opera children. He is conceived and born under
suspicious circumstances in one episode; and when He shows up the next time,
He’s all grown up, ready to take on a starring role in His own major plot line.
Baby Jesus is all grown up. Now He’s thirty—a fitting age for prophets (Ezekiel
1:1), priests (Numbers 4:3), and kings (2 Samuel 5:4) to begin.
So,
Jesus, what are You going to be now that You’ve grown up? What are You going to
do with the rest of Your life? Don’t you think it’s about time to choose a
career and make a difference in the world?
Yes,
indeed. More than you could ever imagine.
Grown-up Jesus comes to the Jordan
River from Nazareth. He’s come to preacher John’s church service for sinners. John’s
no respecter of persons—an equal opportunity preacher. Peasant, tax collector,
soldier, or king—all hear the same message: “Bear fruits in keeping with
repentance… The Mighty One is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit
and with fire.”
Our text says, “With many other
exhortations he preached Good News to the people.” But Herod wouldn’t think it
was such good news when John reproved him for divorcing his wife and taking his
brother’s wife to be his own. He’d lock John up in prison. Then in all caught
up in the revelry of his birthday celebration, he’d behead the meddling prophet
to keep a hasty oath.
John’s been blasting away at all
sinners in his camel hair vestments and desert pulpit, breaking every
seeker-sensitive rule in the book. “Brood of vipers,” he calls the
crowds who come to be baptized by him. “Even now the axe is laid to the root of
the trees,” he warns. “Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is
cut down and thrown into the fire.” John preaches real “hell-fire and
brimstone” sermons—“the coming wrath of God” and
“prepare the way of the Lord”
kind of sermons. “Bear fruits in keeping with repentance” kind of sermons.
Most of us probably wouldn’t give
John the time of day. We’d blow off John’s “old-fashioned rural congregation”
to go to Pastor Gabe’s hip and happening megachurch in the city, where
everything is permissible and nothing is forgiven. Our Old Adam would take a
happy clappy, come get your Starbucks, sit back, and enjoy the entertainment
kind of congregation any day over one that takes sin and the forgiveness of sin
seriously. After all, no one wants to be reminded of his shortcomings. It’s bad
for your self-esteem! Haven’t you listened to Oprah? All that negative talk
will only create negative energy. And as one prosperity preacher would say,
“You want to be a victor and not a victim.”
But evidently, Jesus hasn’t been
listening to those purpose-driven life coaches. He’s not looking for His best
life now. And so, lo and behold, grown-up Jesus shows up at John’s service! The
one for poor, miserable sinners, those who justly deserve God’s temporal and
eternal punishment. Sinners like you and me.
Has Jesus come to sit back and watch
John at work? To see what kinds of sorry losers gather to hear John’s message? To
evaluate John’s preaching? Observe how he baptizes—sprinkling or immersion? Perhaps
He wishes to teach John some people skills? No! Shock of all shockers! Jesus
has come to participate! To take part. To receive a Baptism for sinners from
John!
What’s that about? Jesus should
baptize John. Even John realizes that. But no, grown up Jesus comes to make a
difference in the world in a way we’d never have imagined. His career path was
chosen for Him centuries ago as the Suffering Servant prophesied in Isaiah 53:11.
“To make
many to be accounted righteous.” “To bear their iniquities.”
Jesus is baptized, not because He
needs it, but because we need it! The sinless Jesus comes to take on all
that is wrong with sinners here in a sinner’s Baptism. Jesus identifies Himself
with the people whom He came to save. The sinless One does not separate Himself
from sinners but becomes one with them in His own Baptism. And so, grown up
Jesus is baptized by John in the Jordan. Taking the world’s sin in His body in
the river. Absorbing it all like a sponge. He’s going to bear on Himself all
the way to the cross.
And there on the cross, as Jesus
suffers and dies, loaded down with the burden of our sin, what happens? He is
treated as a sinner! A cursed sinner! For “cursed is anyone who is hanged on a
tree” (Deuteronomy 21:23). As God the Father looks upon Jesus hanging on the
cross, He sees the worst sinner who ever walked the face of this earth. And He
pours out all His wrath upon Him.
Calvary! That’s what Jesus is going
to do with the rest of His life. He’s going to give it into death on the cross.
That is His purpose. That is His unique calling, His vocation—to be the sin-bearer.
To give His life as a ransom for many. For you! For me!
And what a difference He’ll make! He’s
the Savior. To save His people from their sins by taking them in His Body and
answering for them all with His death. To make every day a Good Friday for you!
To bear God’s fiery wrath. To suffer the eternal God-forsakenness of hell. To
be the sacrifice of atonement that covers all sin with His Blood. To ransom
Himself for your redemption!
It’s what the Father always had in
mind for His only begotten Son—from before the foundations of creation. This is
where Jesus is supposed to be. At the
So when Jesus comes out of the water
all heaven breaks loose! The Holy Spirit comes down from heaven and descends on
Him in bodily form like a dove. And the Father speaks from heaven: “You
are My Beloved Son. With You I am well pleased.” Before
Jesus begins His public ministry, the Father puts His seal of approval upon Him.
Here is the Son of God, given by God to the world He so loved, that whoever
believes in Him might not perish, but have eternal life.
To read the Gospel simply as the
story about a man who set a great moral example and established a world
religion is an atrocity. But to read the Gospel as the story about a man who
dies on a cross is also to miss the point completely. It is not just a man—it
is the very Son of God who dies for sinners on that cross.
Again, all this is in fulfillment of
Isaiah’s prophecy: “Here is My servant, whom I uphold,
My chosen one in whom I delight. I will put My Spirit on Him and He will bring
justice to the nations” (Isaiah 42:1).
God’s promise through Isaiah is now
being done as Jesus takes on sin in a sinner’s Baptism. The Holy Spirit comes
to Jesus to equip Him with power for His ministry. The Spirit descends in bodily
form to provide the promised evidence to John that Jesus is indeed the Messiah,
the one whose way he was preparing.
With all that’s going on in this
text: the Baptism of the sinless Son of God, the approving voice of the Father
from heaven, and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, it’s
easy to miss the main action. Did you catch it?
Listen again: “When Jesus also had
been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened.” Did you hear
that now? Heaven was opened! The opened heaven and the Spirit’s descent in
bodily form highlight the Father’s words: “You are My beloved Son; with You I
am well pleased.”
The opening of heaven is a theme
throughout Luke’s Gospel, and it is highlighted at pivotal points in Jesus’
life. Heaven opens when the angels announce the Christ Child’s birth. Heaven opens
at Jesus’ Transfiguration as Moses and Elijah discuss Jesus’ upcoming exodus,
and God the Father acknowledges the divine and human nature of His
only-begotten Son with words similar to those at His Baptism. Heaven opens at
Jesus’ ascension, where He will be lifted up, taken into heaven, and seated at
God’s right hand until the Last Day when He returns in the same way, to bring
His people back to an open heaven.
The opening of heaven at Jesus’
Baptism is the beginning of the fulfillment of John’s prophecy: “I baptize you
with water, but … He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Here,
Jesus is baptized with the Holy Spirit. At His crucifixion, Christ will be
baptized with fire. As Jesus gives up His Spirit, the temple curtain separating
the Holy of Holies from the more earthly worship spaces will be torn in two,
opening the way into God’s holy presence. The opening of heaven at Jesus’
Baptism indicates that it will forever be opened to all humanity through the
flesh of Christ by His Spirit.
This is the most important event in
Jesus’ ministry outside of the crucifixion and the resurrection. (That is why
it is observed as a festival day.) And
it’s an important event for our individual salvation, too. I can safely say
that we don’t get to the blessings of our own Baptism without going through
Christ’s Baptism.
In His Baptism, Jesus Christ—true
God and true man—is anointed with the Holy Spirit and acknowledged by the
Father. Jesus, in His humanity, as well as His divine nature, is graced with
the Spirit and declared to be God’s Son, opening the way for fallen human
beings to be incorporated into Christ through Baptism and likewise to receive
the Spirit and to be adopted as children of God.
From this moment on, Jesus stands in
solidarity with sinful humanity. He, therefore, stands for us under the wrath
of God, wrath that will culminate in His crucifixion for the sins of the world.
But He also stands for us under the love
of God—love that is demonstrated by Christ’s willingness to lay down His life
for us, by the gift of the Holy Spirit, and by the Father’s raising His Son
back to life.
Christian Baptism is into Christ,
and it continues the pattern of Christ’s Baptism with water, the Spirit, and
fire. In the water of Holy Baptism, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and
are baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection. Like Christ’s own Baptism,
ours is Trinitarian. It unites us with Christ and gives us the Spirit, and so
what the Father said of Jesus, He also says of every person baptized into
Christ: “This is My beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.”
The Baptism of our Lord is an
“Epiphany” of the one true God in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ. In
divine mercy, Christ takes His place with sinners and takes our sin upon
Himself. “When all the people were baptized,” Jesus submitted Himself to a
Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:21). He had no sins
of His own, but He took the sins of the world upon Himself—yours and mine,
included—and so was baptized into His own death.
Grown-up Jesus joins us in our sin. He
takes it in His body and bears it to the cross. He moves from the
The Father is delighted in grown-up
Jesus doing just that—giving His life into death for you and your salvation. Into
Christ’s sin-forgiving death, you are baptized. You are united with Him. Into
Christ’s resurrection, you are baptized into eternal life. You are now clothed
with Christ and all His righteousness. That’s right, His righteousness. What’s
His is yours.
Therefore, “when you pass through
the waters,” He is with you (Isaiah 43:2). He created you for His glory, and He
has redeemed you with His blood, that you may be His own and live with Him in
His Kingdom (Isaiah 43:1,7). As you are baptized with a Baptism like His, so
also are you united with Him in His death and resurrection so that you “might
walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). For all who are baptized into Christ
Jesus receive His anointing of the Holy Spirit and are named by His Father as
beloved and well-pleasing sons and daughters.
Baptized into Christ, heaven is now
opened to you. You are God the Father’s beloved child. You can bring your
prayers to His throne. His Holy Spirit now dwells in you, giving you faith and
life. Christ is with you always. Through His means of grace—His holy Word and
Supper—He forgives you again and again. Indeed, you are forgiven for all your
sins.
In the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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