Baptism of Baby Girl Grohn
Readings: Zechariah 9:9-12 | Romans 7:14-25a | Matthew 11:25-30
Text: Matthew 11:25-30
The question is sometimes asked: What’s the difference between Israel of old and the Christian Church? More to the point, what happened to Israel and all the things God promised them?
After all, God made a promise to bring them out of Egypt and give them the land of Canaan. He bore them up as on eagles’ wings, fed them in the wilderness, and brought them across the Jordan where they took possession of the land. He promised to protect them from their enemies and make their harvest abundant. He told them the land, the allotments, and the place for His Name to dwell were for everlasting generations.
The most important thing to consider is what happened to Israel from God’s perspective. Nehemiah, governor of Jerusalem after the Babylonian Exile writes,
“29And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules… and they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not obey. 30Many years you bore with them and warned them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not give ear. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.” (Nehemiah 9:29–30)
Israel lost God’s favor and blessing because of their unbelief.
As He approaches Jerusalem, when Jesus looks out over this city that should have been a burning beacon to God’s presence among His people, it brings Him to tears. What should be so awful that it would make God weep? That the people for whom He has done so much, the bride to whom He had been as a faithful and loving husband, would turn away after another god. Where this hurts the most is their rejection of God as their Savior.
To Israel He said,
“I am the Lord, your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, the house of slavery.” (Exodus 20:2)
But they preferred slavery. They longed for their old “easy” life under Pharaoh. They lusted after the gods and worship practices of their neighbors. They constantly denied the Lord’s intention despite His signs and His trustworthy words.
So Jesus weeps as He looks over Jerusalem, the place where God had set His Name in the Temple to dwell among them in mercy. He put His Name there to dwell with His people and bless them, but they refused to listen with their hearts.
“This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me,” said Isaiah (29:13).
To us He says, I have baptized you in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, rescued you from the house of Satan with sin and death your only companions. I have fed you with the rich food of my Word, nurtured you and given you my Holy Spirit to comfort and keep you in the faith. The Lord Jesus has fed you with His very own Body and Blood, the fruits of His glorious cross.
And how have you or I responded? Have you taken His mercy for granted, put Him to the test by going your own way and treating him like an estranged spouse? Have you forgotten the holy calling to which He has called you to turn away from every evil thing, and returned to slavery to your flesh? It’s not enough to wear Christ around your neck. Neither is His saving work to be something forgotten as a relic of the past.
We, just like Israel, have indeed taken our Lord God for granted. What we deserve because of this is what Israel of old got: overrun by enemies, exile, rejection. Such is mankind in our supposed time-honored wisdom. Remember how it offended Nicodemus when the Lord said he needed to be born again? (John 3:1-8) Why such a radical transformation? Hadn’t Nicodemus already proven himself by his years of dedication and learning? He was among the top teachers of Israel, and yet, with all seriousness, Jesus said,
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Man—each and everyone—is “of the flesh…that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.” (Romans 7:14, 18)
We should be alarmed at such a prospect! But listen to how Jesus takes this reality:
25“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”
It is His gracious will, not His just will. Israel was a picture of what our sin justly deserve, but in Jesus Christ, we receive the grace and mercy of God.
And a marvelous picture of that came today in the baptism of Nathan and Elizabeth’s third child. As parents, we know the hardships of raising children. Newborns are so soft and adorable, while the parents are pouring themselves into this child. We might think God would see what we do in how darling a baby girl is (when she’s sleeping). We might think that God prizes the arduous work of dedicated parents who give sleepless nights to their families.
Yet, this is not the problem that Christ addresses with Holy Baptism. It is the problem deeply rooted in every natural human—all together children of Adam. Sin cannot be “made up for” or “conveniently ignored.” The only answer is what is known to faith:
“27All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Baptism is not something one does for God. That’s an awful Israelite-like understanding that by your obedience you shine in God’s eyes. Neither is it to be confused with confessing one’s faith, as Jesus assures us that we will be called upon to do at the right time.
Today, we see this eight-day-old girl receive God’s promised rest in a tangible form. This is what she will be raised to know about. Her Savior delivered His precious salvation to her. He delivered it as a promise. God help us to keep this from happening! But, if she were to leave this promise behind, it would not change what the Father, Lord of heaven and earth, has done this day for her soul and body.
3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
(Romans 6:3-4)
In order to live in this newness of life, Jesus fills His Church richly with the things that make for peace—strong remedies against spiritual numbness and unbelief. He gives us the gift of confession and absolution. We confess to the pastor the ways we have departed from the Lord in thought, word, and deed. Then, the Lord’s servant brings us back to Baptism—not to our own improvement or promise to be better—to God’s work which is always trustworthy and endures forever. (John 20:19-23)
28Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
These are the things which give both you and this newborn girl the blood-wrought works of God for our salvation. May God the Holy Spirit ever keep you and me, and the whole Christian Church in the one true faith through all of our days to life everlasting.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
Leave a Reply