Isaiah 42:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:23-31; St Matthew 3:13-17
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
When Dr Luther wrote the Small Catechism in 1529 he also composed hymns to accompany the blessed doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. Six Chief Parts. Six hymns. One for each.
They ought to be rather obvious: These Are the Holy Ten Commands (LSB 581) for the Ten Commandments, We All Believe in One True God (LSB 954) for the Apostles’ Creed, Our Father Who from Heaven Above (LSB 766) for the Lord’s Prayer, From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee (LSB 608) for Confession and Absolution, and O Lord, We Praise Thee (LSB 617) for the Sacrament of the Altar. These hymns confess in song what we believe in word and truth. Learn them. Commit them to memory. Teach them to your children and grandchildren. Bind them on your hearts and have them in your lips, for the devil flees at saving doctrine set to good music.
This hymn, To Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord (LSB 406) is the catechetical hymn for the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Notice the allusions to Matthew 28 and Mark 16 in stanzas five and six. Though these two texts are prominent in the Small Catechism for the institution of holy baptism and the great benefits therein, the foundation of Christian baptism does not begin in them. Rather, the establishment of Holy Baptism begins here, with the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ by the Forerunner, St John, in the Jordan River. It is not necessarily helpful to do theology by proof text, but to have a complete hermeneutic with which you read Holy Scripture. That hermeneutic is the very question Jesus asked the Pharisees, What do you think about the Christ? Who is He?
purpose to Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord.
A. The hymn sings, “To do His Father’s pleasure” - comes to fulfill the Law To take His place among sinners, not only in solidarity with them, but as Substitute for them. For this reason the Father is pleased, His soul delights in Christ who shall take the place of all mankind
B. The OT lesson from Isaiah says He is Anointed - put My Spirit upon Him - and receives His scepter, to bring forth justice for the nations, that is, for the Gentiles. For here the covenant is established between the Father and His people. Jesus is Israel reduced to One, who brings the reign and rule of the kingdom of heaven with Him as He goes from His baptism to the wilderness to battle the devil, then to the dungeons to release the prisoners and to the darkness to shine His saving Light. This is His epiphany. As you chanted in the Introit: Behold the Lord, the Ruler has come and the kingdom and the power and the glory are in His hand
C. The Introit also said, I will make Him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth
1. Elsewhere Jesus is called the firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18; Rev 1:5). St Paul asks, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? You died and were raised with Him in that selfsame salvific bath.
Jesus puts Himself in baptism for you. So that when you are brought up from the baptismal waters you bring Christ up with you. Or rather, He brings you up with Him. For you are Jacob to His Esau, clutching His devil-stomping heal as you are pulled out of the natal waters of the womb of your Baptism. You put on His garments, clothed in His skin, as He wore yours, so as to be presented to His Father. And the Father looks upon you in love as His own beloved Son, and blesses you in His place with the blessing of the first born.
Only this is not a deception or a lie. This is the truth and reality of your baptism. The heavens were opened to Him, means the heavens are opened to you. The Holy Spirit descended upon Him and remains with Him and in Him, means the Holy Spirit descends upon you from above by the Father through the Word (that is, Jesus Christ) and remains in and with you. The Voice from heaven says, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” means that the Father beholds you and says of you, “You are My beloved Child, with you I am well pleased on account of faith in, and the faithful obedience of, My sole-begotten Son.”
You are adopted. But an adopted son is no less a son. You are given the right to call God Father, for you are His dear children.
This is how He brings justice to the nations, by satisfying the just decrees of the Law, fulfilling all righteousness in your place. To Jordan came the Christ, our Lord. The King is anointed and inaugurated in His baptism in the Jordan and is then enthroned and crowned at His Crucifixion.
Is water as we pour it.
Before the eye of faith unfolds
The pow’r of Jesus’ merit.
For here is sees the crimson flood
To all our ills bring healing;
The wonders of His precious blood
The love of God revealing.
Assuring His own pardon.
Consider your callings, brothers, your vocations. Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife or worker? Have you been hot-tempered, rude or quarrelsome? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful or lazy? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent, wasteful, or harmful? Repent. Return to your baptism. Return to your Jesus who loves you, washes you, cleanses you anew an grants you His Spirit and the favor of His Father. A bruised reed He will not break. A faintly burning wick He will not quench. He will bestow once more the wonders of His precious blood.
For in your flesh you cannot boast before man, nor stand before God. But you are baptized into Christ. Clothed with His righteousness like a heavenly garment. He is your righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Boast in Him. Boast in His Cross by which the world has been crucified to you and you to the world. And come forward and receive the fruits of His Cross, the fulness of His faithfulness and righteousness, fulfilled for you, and given to you now in His blessed Sacrament. He takes you by the hand and leads you across the Jordan as your new Joshua, into the promised land of His eternal kingdom, established forever by His baptism, fasting and temptation, agony and bloody sweat, cross and passion, death and burial, resurrection and ascension. Behold the Lord, the Ruler has come and the kingdom and the power and the glory are in His hand, which is open to you to bestow His gift of forgiveness of all your sins, life and salvation.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
When Dr Luther wrote the Small Catechism in 1529 he also composed hymns to accompany the blessed doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. Six Chief Parts. Six hymns. One for each.
They ought to be rather obvious: These Are the Holy Ten Commands (LSB 581) for the Ten Commandments, We All Believe in One True God (LSB 954) for the Apostles’ Creed, Our Father Who from Heaven Above (LSB 766) for the Lord’s Prayer, From Depths of Woe I Cry to Thee (LSB 608) for Confession and Absolution, and O Lord, We Praise Thee (LSB 617) for the Sacrament of the Altar. These hymns confess in song what we believe in word and truth. Learn them. Commit them to memory. Teach them to your children and grandchildren. Bind them on your hearts and have them in your lips, for the devil flees at saving doctrine set to good music.
This hymn, To Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord (LSB 406) is the catechetical hymn for the Sacrament of Holy Baptism. Notice the allusions to Matthew 28 and Mark 16 in stanzas five and six. Though these two texts are prominent in the Small Catechism for the institution of holy baptism and the great benefits therein, the foundation of Christian baptism does not begin in them. Rather, the establishment of Holy Baptism begins here, with the baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ by the Forerunner, St John, in the Jordan River. It is not necessarily helpful to do theology by proof text, but to have a complete hermeneutic with which you read Holy Scripture. That hermeneutic is the very question Jesus asked the Pharisees, What do you think about the Christ? Who is He?
- Baptism is foreshadowed in the OT and fulfilled in Christ who fulfills the OT, as St Matthew makes plain
- Noah’s Flood
- 8 souls, 8 days
- St Peter makes this one pretty explicit (1 Pt 3:21) - Baptism, which corresponds to this [the flood], now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
- Christ is the Ark that ferries you across the raging, destructive flood waters of Holy Baptism in which your Old Adam is drowned and dies.
- Red Sea
- Israel crosses, Pharaoh and army drowned. Salvation and destruction
- You exodus the slavery of sin and death, that pharaoh the devil and all your sin are drown in the font.
- Namaan’s Washing
- It was in the Jordan!
- Cleansed of leprosy! Baptism cleanses the leprosy of your sin, not as a washing of the body, but as an appeal to God with a good conscience, having been sprinkled clean with the blood of Christ
- Noah’s Flood
purpose to Jordan Came the Christ, Our Lord.
A. The hymn sings, “To do His Father’s pleasure” - comes to fulfill the Law To take His place among sinners, not only in solidarity with them, but as Substitute for them. For this reason the Father is pleased, His soul delights in Christ who shall take the place of all mankind
B. The OT lesson from Isaiah says He is Anointed - put My Spirit upon Him - and receives His scepter, to bring forth justice for the nations, that is, for the Gentiles. For here the covenant is established between the Father and His people. Jesus is Israel reduced to One, who brings the reign and rule of the kingdom of heaven with Him as He goes from His baptism to the wilderness to battle the devil, then to the dungeons to release the prisoners and to the darkness to shine His saving Light. This is His epiphany. As you chanted in the Introit: Behold the Lord, the Ruler has come and the kingdom and the power and the glory are in His hand
C. The Introit also said, I will make Him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth
1. Elsewhere Jesus is called the firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18; Rev 1:5). St Paul asks, Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? You died and were raised with Him in that selfsame salvific bath.
Jesus puts Himself in baptism for you. So that when you are brought up from the baptismal waters you bring Christ up with you. Or rather, He brings you up with Him. For you are Jacob to His Esau, clutching His devil-stomping heal as you are pulled out of the natal waters of the womb of your Baptism. You put on His garments, clothed in His skin, as He wore yours, so as to be presented to His Father. And the Father looks upon you in love as His own beloved Son, and blesses you in His place with the blessing of the first born.
Only this is not a deception or a lie. This is the truth and reality of your baptism. The heavens were opened to Him, means the heavens are opened to you. The Holy Spirit descended upon Him and remains with Him and in Him, means the Holy Spirit descends upon you from above by the Father through the Word (that is, Jesus Christ) and remains in and with you. The Voice from heaven says, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” means that the Father beholds you and says of you, “You are My beloved Child, with you I am well pleased on account of faith in, and the faithful obedience of, My sole-begotten Son.”
You are adopted. But an adopted son is no less a son. You are given the right to call God Father, for you are His dear children.
This is how He brings justice to the nations, by satisfying the just decrees of the Law, fulfilling all righteousness in your place. To Jordan came the Christ, our Lord. The King is anointed and inaugurated in His baptism in the Jordan and is then enthroned and crowned at His Crucifixion.
- His Cross and Passion are His Baptism of Blood (Mk 10)
- Epistle - weak and foolish, things that are not to bring to nothing things that are.
- Foolishness of the Font
- Foolishness of the Absolution
- Foolishness of the Supper
- All grounded in the Foolishness of the Cross
Is water as we pour it.
Before the eye of faith unfolds
The pow’r of Jesus’ merit.
For here is sees the crimson flood
To all our ills bring healing;
The wonders of His precious blood
The love of God revealing.
Assuring His own pardon.
Consider your callings, brothers, your vocations. Are you a father, mother, son, daughter, husband, wife or worker? Have you been hot-tempered, rude or quarrelsome? Have you been disobedient, unfaithful or lazy? Have you hurt someone by your words or deeds? Have you stolen, been negligent, wasteful, or harmful? Repent. Return to your baptism. Return to your Jesus who loves you, washes you, cleanses you anew an grants you His Spirit and the favor of His Father. A bruised reed He will not break. A faintly burning wick He will not quench. He will bestow once more the wonders of His precious blood.
For in your flesh you cannot boast before man, nor stand before God. But you are baptized into Christ. Clothed with His righteousness like a heavenly garment. He is your righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Boast in Him. Boast in His Cross by which the world has been crucified to you and you to the world. And come forward and receive the fruits of His Cross, the fulness of His faithfulness and righteousness, fulfilled for you, and given to you now in His blessed Sacrament. He takes you by the hand and leads you across the Jordan as your new Joshua, into the promised land of His eternal kingdom, established forever by His baptism, fasting and temptation, agony and bloody sweat, cross and passion, death and burial, resurrection and ascension. Behold the Lord, the Ruler has come and the kingdom and the power and the glory are in His hand, which is open to you to bestow His gift of forgiveness of all your sins, life and salvation.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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