Heaven is opened

Matthew 3:13-17 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 15 Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."

Having four daughters, we have plenty of stuffed animals, ponies, dolls and Barbies in our home. But we also have … Batman. My two younger girls especially love Batman. They watch all the shows. They know all the characters. They even have the pajamas. In fact, just before Christmas two years ago, I took our youngest daughter, Belle, with me to Target to show her the Fisher Price Batcave. It was big. It was awesom. And she really wanted it!

Shortly after seeing her dream toy, Belle was on the phone with Shelley’s mom and was telling her all about the Batcave. You have to realize that Belle was only 3 then and she didn’t always speak very clearly. Over the phone she excitedly said, “Grandma, I want the Batcave. It has Batman and Robin and Joker and Penguin and Mr. Freeze and I really want it!” But Grandma said, “Belle, I don’t understand. What are you saying? I don’t think I can get it for you.” An exasperated Belle replied with a deep sigh and said, “Grandma, just give me the money. I buy it myself!”

Well you can imagine the look on Belle’s face on Christmas day as the last present to be opened was … the Batcave! And she didn’t have to buy it.
The delight on a young child’s face as she opens her big Christmas present. The joy on the face of a young woman as her boyfriend gets down on one knee and opens the ring box. The stunned look on the man’s face as he walks in on his surprise 40th birthday party. The relief on the couple’s faces when the locksmith opens their car door after the keys had been locked inside and they had been standing in 10 degree weather. Expressions of delight, joy, surprise and relief – just from opening something.

Today we find these same expressions on our faces at the opening of something else – at the opening of heaven.

Over the past few weeks we have knelt with the shepherds to worship the Infant in the manger. We’ve traveled with the Persian astrologers who followed the star to praise the Christ Child. Today we take a huge leap – 30 years later. We are on the banks of the Jordan River with John the Baptizer. Today is the Baptism of our Lord.

This is a big day. This is the Lord’s Epiphany. Thursday night was the Epiphany, the revealing, of the Savior to the Gentiles. Today is the Epiphany of the Lord’s ministry, His coming out party, His inauguration, His anointing with Spirit and power.

Until His baptism, Jesus was recognized and worshiped only by a handful of people. Shepherds at His birth. Simeon and Anna in the temple when He was 40 days old. Magi from the East when He was a toddler. The neighbors in Nazareth probably didn’t have a clue. To them, Jesus was the carpenter’s son, working in his father’s shop.

And then one day, He stood in the Jordan River, shoulder to shoulder with the people He came to save. What a day this is! Christmas joy becomes baptismal joy. No longer do we celebrate the birth of a baby, now we rejoice in His baptism. For on this day, Jesus was baptized in the water and heaven was opened to us.

As Jesus is standing in the water, God’s Son is standing in solidarity with sinners. God is standing in the river on the edge of the desert and He is not ashamed to be counted among the same people who rejected Him in the lush Garden, thus turning this world into a desert. Jesus is fulfilling all righteousness in this water, so we might be made righteous ones through that same water. Jesus is baptized in our sewer, to put our sins upon Him, so that with that same water, we might be cleansed. He takes the filth, stench and sewage upon Himself so we might be purified, rinsed and restored. That’s a pretty graphic picture. But pretty accurate. Our sin is the cesspool we are living in and wallowing in. And without hesitation, Jesus stepped in.

So, of course, John objects. Don’t step in this water, Jesus! It’s filthy! It’s full of sins! But Jesus steps right on in. It’s where He wants to be. It’s where He needs to be!

Jesus isn’t washing away any one specific sin. He is washing away all our many and varied sins. He washes away our inherant, inborn, natural sins. He cleanses us from our sins we commit knowingly and purposefully – the one drink too many, the angry word, the vengeful thought, the lustful glance, the covetous desire, the stress-filled impatience, the doubt-filled worry, the gossip-laden text, the profane post. He wipes away all the sins we try to defend as righteous anger or filling loneliness or “that’s the way I was born” or “everybody else is doing it” or “God wants me to be happy.” He even bathes us from all the sins we have forgotten or didn’t realize we committing – our apathy toward lost souls, our uncaring for the hurting, our indiffernce for the less fortunate, our stinginess with our money, our lack of prayers for God’s ministry.

The Spotless One was washed in Jordan’s baptismal water so you might be spotless in your baptismal water. Jesus’ work at the Jordan was not in power, but in weakness. Not by force but in love. Not by separating Himself, but by joining us in our cesspool.

And the Father is delighted with His Son’s work. In fact, He opens heaven just to speak to His Son and announce: “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” Just as Old Testament prophets, priests and kings were anointed with oil, so the Father sends the Holy Spirit to anoint the Son for His office as Prophet, Priest and King. Certainly the Father could communicate with His One and only Son without parting the clouds, so there’s something else happening here. Something more than the Father needing to say something and opening the heavens like you or I would open the car door window to speak to the drive-thru attendant.

“Heaven was opened.” Such a small sentence. Easy to miss. But do not take this phrase lightly. When this happened before “when the floodgates of the heavens were opened” (Genesis 7:11) God sent a flood to destroy the sinful humanity with whom He was displeased. He sent down judgment. He commissioned His wrath upon the world. He deluged the world with the waters of absolute annihiliation. But now He opens the portals of heaven to bring washed humanity to Himself. He sends down the Holy Spirit with power and peace. He commissions His love upon the world in the form of His Son. He deluges the world with the waters of pure grace. Heaven is opened so that the angels and archangels and all the company of heaven may see this wonder in the making.

Because Jesus stood in the water for you, the Father has opened heaven to you. Like a child opening her special present with joy on her face, so we look with joy that heaven is opened to us. Like the young woman with delight on her face at seeing the man she loves open the ring box, so we are delighted that the God-Man has opened heaven to us and made us His eternal bride. Like the couple who have relief on their faces that their vehicle doors have been unlocked and opened so they don’t have to suffer the frigid cold any longer, so we have relief on our faces that God has opened heaven and closed the gates of hell and the suffering of fire to us. Like the old man with a look of shock on his face at his surprise 40th birthday party, so we are shocked and surprised that God would ever open heaven to sinners like us.

Baptism is not a one time event that happened years ago for us. It is a life-changing occurance every day of our lives. For in our baptism we were and by faith remain, freed, claimed, cleansed, forgiven, heirs, born again, clothed in Christ, sealed by the Spirit and marked with the sign of the cross. As the Pachal candle beside the font, which is lit only for baptisms, funerals and the season of Easter, displays, we are buried with Christ in our baptism and raised to a new life in Him. Whether it is for Miranda’s baptism at the font today or for all of us as we look at the font in repenting of our sinsr, one hymn puts it beautifully: “Miracle each time it happnes As the door to heaven opens, And the Father beams, ‘Beloved, Heir of gifts a king would covet!” (CW: 300)

Martin Luther asked in his catechism, “How can water do such great things?” If it’s plain water, it can’t. It can only wash your body, but it cannot touch your soul. But if Jesus is in the water, it can. Because when Jesus stepped into that water, the water didn’t change Jesus, Jesus changed the water. “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). The Holy Spirit who leads you to Christ also joins you to Christ.

You need your baptism and you need to daily remember your baptism. For you need raising and strengthening. For you fall and sin beats you down. Your sin torments you. Satan plagues you. The world tempts you. Death is near you. You become weary of the fight. You may seem weak, helpless, hopeless, as if there is no reason to go on. Travel daily to the font. For your baptism releases a forgiving flood. Your baptism washes a guilty conscience. Your baptism gives you strength divine. Your baptism grants you life eternal.

When Jesus stepped into the Jordan River that day, everything was changed. Not for Him, but for you. Not for Him, because He came for this; but for you because He came for you. And still He comes to you in water and Word, and in your private and public confession and absolution. And when He does, everything is changed. You no longer live a life that will end in death, but you will die a death that will end in life. You no longer live a life under the condemnation of sin, but under the forgiveness of sin.

For in Jesus, in His baptismal river and your baptismal font, with Word and water, heaven has been opened to you … and it shall never be closed again. Amen.

1st Sunday after Epiphany, the Baptism of Our Lord, at Epiphany on January 9, 2011