BY HIS BAPTISM AND TEMPTATION OUR GOOD LORD DELIVERS US
Prayer: By Your baptism, fasting, and temptation: Help us, good Lord. Amen.
Sermon Text, St. Mark 1:9-13. 9 It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. 11 Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 12 Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. 13 And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. Amen.
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ:
This is the story of Jesus’ baptism and His temptation. In church we don’t usually hear all of this at once. We’ll hear the story of Jesus’ baptism, and it’s just about that. On another Sunday, we’ll hear the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness after 40 days of fasting. But here in Mark 1, we get it all together. And really that’s how we live. Life isn’t cut up into parts so we neatly separate things. You have to move quickly, maybe too fast sometimes, from one thing into the other, and you have to juggle a lot of balls in the air.
Also, the other gospels have longer versions of these things. You get more details, more information perhaps. But while in Mark it’s more condensed and fast-moving, he also has tiny details, little things, that mean a lot. Such as, here he says when Jesus came to be baptized He came “from Nazareth.” There’s so much contained in those two words, “from Nazareth.”
Nazareth was a tiny town. This is where Jesus grew up. Here He learned carpentry and stone cutting from Joseph and was gently nurtured by Mary. If He was just coming from there, presumably He was living at home still at age 30. Nobody took notice of Nazareth. This speaks to everyone who grows up wanting a bigger stage in life. It also speaks to those who struggle to accept their life as it is, or who feel unnoticed and unappreciated.
At this point Jesus was unnoticed outside of Nazareth. He had no impact on the world that anyone could see. In one short sentence the world changes: “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” His Baptism is the beginning of His public ministry.
The gospels present Jesus’ baptism as being done without fanfare. Nobody saw it except John the Baptist. In John’s gospel, John the Baptist says: “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him” (1:32). Even God the Father’s voice was only heard by Jesus and John. In Mark and in Matthew it says Jesus saw heaven opened to Him. In Mark, the voice is spoken to Jesus: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.”
When the account goes on, once again nobody else was in the wilderness and saw Him being victorious over every temptation. Nobody saw Jesus face wild animals and remaining unhurt. Nobody saw the angels serving Him.
We would be impatient with all this. We would want credit. We’d want to be noticed and praised, or at least acknowledged. You want people to know how hard you work, what hardships you have, all that you do for others, what indignities you suffer. We can’t stand to have our worth hidden.
We may not talk that way. But we complain about all we suffer. We think we know if God gives us more than we can handle. Faith is to believe what you can’t see; but don’t we need to see somethingto keep our faith going? As for the world, God doesn’t seem in control. Where’s His power? As for our life, the temptations and trials are too much for us. We aren’t patient in suffering. We don’t conquer temptations as we wish. Where’s God’s power?
In other words, being a Christian doesn’t seem like a glorious existence.
In answer to this, first we have Jesus’ baptism. Many Christians mistakenly think Jesus’ baptism is mainly an example for us. They say His baptism at age 30 is a reason babies shouldn’t be baptized. They see baptism as our work. But even Jesus’ baptism isn’t a work of obedience. It wasn’t done to keep a law. He was baptized as our Substitute.
Jesus was not baptized for His own sins, of which He had none. He was baptized because He was bearing all the sin of the world. He went into the water with those sins to make baptism a water that washes away our sins.
What’s unique in Mark is that it literally says the heavens “were ripped open” at Jesus’ baptism. Then the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove. This is showing how glorious baptism is. Luther says in the Large Catechism: “You must honor Baptism and consider it glorious because of the Word. Do you think it was a joke that, when Christ was baptized, the heavens were opened?”
This tells you how glorious God has made you in your baptism. Heaven was ripped open to let you in! Just as the Holy Spirit descended from heaven in Jesus’ baptism, He came to you and has never left you. And like God the Father didn’t just say, “This is My beloved Son,” but very directly, “Youare My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased,” He speaks personally to you and says, “You are My beloved son/daughter, in you I’m well pleased, for Jesus’ sake.”
This is important in your daily life. We remember our baptism by making the sign of the cross daily. We’re remembering that after baptism you didn’t look different to anyone – and today you may not look special, your life might not look special to you – but you did look different to God, you do look different to Him, you’re His child, your life matters to Him.
When Jesus was baptized, He didn’t look special, His baptism looked no different than the others. That’s like your baptism. When you were baptized you didn’t look like a better baby, you weren’t more quiet or beautiful, you went home to the same house. But this ripping-open of heaven shows that in your baptism you did become more beautiful – your sins were washed away; you were quiet (in your conscience) and your conscience is quieted today – because your sins no longer shout at you; and your home is now heaven.
This is the thing to see, that in being baptized Jesus gave us a saving baptism. By this baptism He is able to help us today to have confidence in God.
Next we see that Jesus went from His baptism to be tempted by the devil. “Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan.”
The other gospels focus on the three big temptations. We also can focus on avoiding big sins. But the hard thing is the daily grind of being tempted. You can avoid the big sins and focus on not offending people, looking good outwardly. But it’s the constant temptations to give in to discouragement, to resent and be jealous, to be unthankful, take offense and indulge your anger, to put yourself first, all this taking place in your thoughts and in private.
So it’s important that Jesus was “tempted by Satan” throughout His “forty days in the wilderness.” He was saying no to every temptation for you – all the big and all the little ones. Your forgiveness is located in what Jesus did.
This was so important that Mark even says “immediately” after His baptism “the Spirit drove him” to the wilderness to be tempted. The Holy Spirit drove Jesus, pushed Him, toward where He would be tempted for us. And Jesus gladly went, He willingly was driven like this. We picture Him hurrying to where He would be tempted. He desperately wanted to win all the victories over temptation for you, so you could retain His victory and be sure and certain that when you repent, God forgives you for Jesus’ sake.
Now when you come to God with your sins, it is glorious. Instead of your sins losing all the glory and beauty God gave you in baptism, bringing your sins to Him actually brings you into an even greater glory and joy! As you are sorry for your sin, and look to Jesus, what’s happening? Satan is vanquished again, by Jesus. His victory is your victory. He gives it to you. And the angels in heaven rejoice when one sinner repents! (Lk 15:7, 10)
So then, one more thing: After Jesus’ victory over the temptations we see the angels, and also wild animals: “He was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.” The angels are there to strengthen Him after the battle. The angels are also there guarding you. The angels who rejoice over your forgiveness are there, unseen by you. They love your salvation!
So what about those “wild beasts?” Mark is the only one to tell us this. Remember, Mark is writing details that the apostle Peter told him, as Peter was in a Roman prison. Outside his prison Christians were being thrown to the lions. In his first epistle Peter writes that the devil is like “a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (5:8). So before we leave Jesus’ baptism and temptation, we see Him, there are wild animals, but He is not devoured.
This is also a picture of you, in Christ, surrounded by the wild beasts of whom the devil is the worst, yet in Christ you are not devoured. If we were having the Lord’s Supper today, it would teach us that we come and receive into our mouths the forgiveness that Jesus won for us, and we come away from His Supper “like lions breathing fire” (Chrysostom), fearing nothing and learning to use His power in us to boldly conquer our temptations.
We pray: By Your baptism, fasting and temptation, help us, good Lord!