The Baptism of Our Lord January 11-12, 2025
“Your Ordination” Luke 3:15-22
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
I look at the day when Jesus was baptized as the day of His ordination. Listen to this, “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. As he 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 Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.’ Now Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.” (Luke 3:21-23)
We know so little about the early life of Jesus. There are no words about the life of Jesus from the time that He was 12 until He was 30. But that all changed here. His calling, His purpose, His ministry began at that moment of baptism. This was the day of His ordination.
On Father’s Day in 1983 I was ordained. June 19th. I still remember it. I guess Alzheimer’s hasn’t hit me too hard – yet. Do you know what I remember most about that day? I remember how overwhelmed I felt. I’m a pastor? Me? I’m supposed to preach? I’m supposed to teach? I’m the person that someone would come to to receive counsel and guidance and direction? Me? You’ve got to be kidding. I was only 26 years old, and I knew I wasn’t ready.
I had that same feeling the day I got married – just 4 years before that. I was happy to have met and married Marilyn, but this whole thing of marriage was a bit much. I was responsible for another person. I had to grow up. I had to become dependable. Was I up to it? Could this thing succeed?
Marriage can bring with it a few fears and apprehension. And so does ordination. Talk to any pastor or priest. Have you been ordained? Maybe you have not been called into public ministry, but you have been ordained into daily ministry to others by the gift of your baptism. Baptism is God’s gift to you. It is His voice that says to you at that moment, “Fear not, I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1) We hear the same thing that Jesus heard, “You are my son, you are my daughter, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” Sins are washed away. You have been adopted as God’s own child. His command to you is to make other disciples of Jesus.
You are ordained now to serve Him and to serve others. You have a ministry. Maybe not in preaching or teaching or telling people what football team they should cheer for, (like I do) but you have a ministry. You have a holy calling. You have a divine purpose and it came at your baptism. There is a historic prayer used by many churches on this Sunday, it reads, “Father in heaven, at the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River You proclaimed Him Your beloved Son and anointed Him with the Holy Spirit. Make all who are baptized in His name faithful in their calling as Your children and inheritors with Him of everlasting life.” (Collect for the Baptism of our Lord) God ordained you to make a difference in the life of others. Be the man that God wants you to be. Be the woman that God wants you to be. Be the teenager or the young adult that God is calling you to be.
Not long ago I had one of our folks who came up to me and made a confession. “Pastor, I’m not much of a Christian.” I don’t know what led them to say that to me at that moment. But they wanted me to know of their struggles to do what they knew God was calling them to do. This calling, which all began in baptism, demands all of us, all of our life. St. Paul says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” (I Corinthians 6:19-20)
What do you need to live in this holy and good calling? The Holy Spirit. Lots of Him. Just like Jesus. “As he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.” The affirming word from His Father was spoken, “You are my Son, whom I love, with you I am well pleased.”
Do you get overwhelmed with what you know God wants you to do in life? Do you find it hard to live up to your calling, to do the right thing, to walk on the path that you know God wants you to take? What do you need? The Holy Spirit. Lots of Him. Earlier in this chapter the question of who John was and if he was the Christ came up. To explain the difference between what he was doing and what Jesus would do, he read this, “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’” (Luke 3:15-16)
In your baptism you were drenched with the Holy Spirit. I see it. You make a bold confession that you trust in Jesus, you claim His righteousness as your own. You know Jesus to be the Lord and leader of your life. This faith and change of life didn’t come by you and your will but by Him and His Spirit. “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Fire? Purification. Forming you, shaping you to be His own. The Bible says, “All of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.” (Galatians 3:27) It is doing what John the Baptist was demanding, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” (Matthew 3:8)
It is a good thing that God gave us four writers for the biography of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. We get some of our questions answered when we read each of them. What happened to Jesus following His ordination into ministry? Do you know? Matthew tells us something important here. After those words, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased”, we read, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.” (Matthew 4:1) His ministry began by facing the devil and his lies and temptations for the next six weeks. His ministry began with the question from the devil, “If you are Son of God, make these stones bread…throw yourself down from the height of the temple…bow your knee to me.” Toward the end of His ministry the devil is still saying, “If you are Son of God” – “If you are the Son of God come down from the cross and we will believe in you.” (See Matthew 27:40-44)
Being baptized, receiving a call to live with a godly and holy purpose, brought the assault from the devil. And it is the same way for us, all of us.
Do you think that Jesus drew on the power of His baptism? Do you think He remembered it often? I think He did. When Jesus was transfigured, when the deity on the inside of Him showed itself in His flesh on the outside and His face shone like the sun, the same words that were spoken at His baptism are spoken again, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.” (Matthew 17:5) He was heading to a bloody baptism at the cross, He had spoken to Moses and Elijah on that mountain about His impending crucifixion, and He remembers His baptism, His ordination, His call into ministry so we would be His forever.
I have a piece of paper from our church body that says I was ordained in 1983. But I have a better piece of paper that says I was ordained in 1957. That piece of paper is my Baptismal Certificate. Most of you have one of those too. Treasure it. You were ordained into a life of faith and service. You were called His own and you were directed to live as His own. You were promised that the Holy Spirit would give you God’s power to live in faith and a great purpose.
The baptism of our Lord Jesus was the day of His ordination. Our baptism is the day when we received holy orders of salvation and a life of service to God and others. Amen!!
