Torn and On the Loose - The Baptism of our Lord
Author: Pastor Scott Schul
January 07, 2024
I’ve had the blessing three times now to visit the site along the Jordan River where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. It’s a very interesting place, situated where it is, on the border between Israel and Jordan. Soldiers with automatic rifles patrol the perimeter, but thankfully they usually keep a very low and peaceful profile. Though it’s a popular tourist destination, you can still imagine how it looked in the days of Jesus and John, because the Jordan is still very much a working river that farmers and families depend upon for irrigation and life itself. As such, it’s not the cleanest of rivers. We brought a few vials home that we’ll use for our granddaughter’s baptism, to symbolically link her baptism to that of Jesus. But rest assured that we will boil that water before it enters this font or touches her little head!
On my visit to the baptismal site last summer, I had the privilege of standing in the waters and pronouncing a blessing over every one of the pilgrims on our trip. It meant so much to me to dip my thumb in the river and trace a watery cross on each person’s forehead as I said, “Always remember that you have been baptized and are eternally beloved by Jesus.” I think the experience was meaningful for our pilgrims too. We were even joined by a man from South Korea. He saw what we were doing and asked if I would anoint and bless him, which of course I did.
It was hot and sunny that day in the River Jordan, perfect for taking photos to remember the occasion. But at one point a little bit of a stir started rumbling through our group as they were reviewing their digital photos. I started to get concerned that everyone seemed to be growing distracted by whatever they were seeing in those photos. And so as I stood there in the water, I asked a few of them what was going on. With wide and incredulous eyes, one of them said, “Pastor, we’re looking at these photos of you in the water and… it looks like you have a halo!”
Well, that was certainly news to me, and I admit it shook me up that anyone could say or think such a thing. I resumed my anointings, but I too had become distracted with this silliness. Fortunately, within a few minutes I was appropriately humbled when one of our group shouted out, “Hey pastor, you know that halo? It’s no halo. It’s just a reflection from the water.” So you see, my moments as a saint were short-lived. And quite rightly so. Merely standing in that water does not make anyone a saint.
The situation, however, was very different for Jesus that day in the Jordan. The entire Holy Trinity was on display at Jesus’s baptism. Jesus – God’s Son stood there in the water. The voice of God the Father rumbled forth from heaven, proclaiming Jesus’s true and full identity. And of course the Holy Spirit was there too, resembling a dove.
But as wonderful as all that was, it was just the tip of the iceberg of all that God revealed that day. Jesus’s baptism didn’t reveal just his identity; it also revealed the vastness of the impact his mission and ministry would have upon all of creation. It’s there in verse 10 of today’s Gospel lesson, which states, “just as [Jesus] was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart.”
I want us to focus on this notion of the heavens being torn apart. This is very different from merely opening the heavens. Think of it this way. Have you ever watched This Old House on PBS? I love that show. Sometimes the guys will do a small job, like installing a new electrical outlet. In those cases, they use great precision to cut open a small hole in the wall – just large enough to do the work, similar to what a surgeon might do – and then they patch it up so the repair is neat, tidy, and nearly invisible.
But at other times, the repair or remodel job is so extreme that the workers have to first demolish a part of the structure before they can remake it into something new and beautiful. The workers swing sledgehammers with reckless abandon, tearing great, gaping holes in the walls and foundation. The old is obliterated so the new can arise.
That’s the image Mark is very intentionally conveying in his use of a verb that means to tear apart or split. One highly respected New Testament scholar named Don Juel noted that this image of “tearing” in Mark is strong, even violent. Because “if the heavens are [merely] opened, then they may well close again. [But] if they are torn apart…then we may think of some permanent…rupture that cannot be repaired.” So think of it this way…What happened in the River Jordan that day marked a new era – a point at which God tore, ripped, and erupted into this world, a moment from which there would be no turning back, just like taking a sledgehammer to a wall.
The only other place where Mark’s Gospel uses this verb of “tearing open” is in Chapter 15, when the temple curtain was ripped in two, from top to bottom, at the moment of Jesus' death. That was also the start of a new era from which there would be no turning back.
But what exactly did the new era of Jesus’s baptism entail? Well, as the heavens were ripped apart, God proclaimed that no longer would God be confined to an idea in our heads, or a place like a temple. God would be on the loose in this world, repairing all that sin had destroyed, transforming all that had become corrupt, and bringing home all of us lost sheep. All of this would happen through Jesus. To the eyes of many he was just a man from an insignificant town in Galilee, but as God revealed that day, Jesus was also the Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ, our Savior, who would shatter the old order, right the old wrongs, and tear this world from the grip of the devil as part of a cosmic victory for us and for all creation, a victory that would bring about the death of sin and death itself.
Friends, this is why we talk about baptism so much. It’s a singular moment in our lives where we can see up close and very personally that God is on the loose, tearing into our existence, just as God tore into the world at the baptism of Jesus that day, long ago, in the River Jordan. And in that tearing, a new era began for each of us – a new birth, a fresh beginning, and a glorious redemption from which there would be no turning back. With ordinary water, God grants us extraordinary blessings.
What exactly are those blessings? Luther lays it out clearly in his Small Catechism. Baptism brings about forgiveness of sins, redeems from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe it. It is a grace-filled bath of new birth, and its significance is not confined to our baptismal date. Rather, every day it provides us with our true identity as God’s beloveds. And it reminds us that all of the forces that want to enslave our souls were drowned in baptism’s waters, so that each day, even when we stumble, we can repent and be clothed once more in Christ’s robes of righteousness. We need not fear anything, because in our baptism we have a lifeboat of hope in an ocean of despair.
Friends, just imagine! All of heaven has been torn open just so God can bless us. That’s worthy of remembering. And that’s worthy of celebrating, even if your halo, like mine, is just an optical illusion. May Christ grant each of us the grace to daily embrace our baptism in all its fullness… and arise each morning in the bold assurance that we are new people, chosen by God, living in God’s faithful promise, and bathed in God’s abundant grace. Thanks be to God! Amen.
Gospel: Mark 1:4-11
Note: Donald Juel quotes come from his book entitled A Master of Surprise: Mark Interpreted
Copyright Rev. Scott E. Schul, 2024 All rights reserved. May not be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission.
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