Who Are You, Really? A sermon by The Rev. Dr. Douglas E. Nagel Sunday, January 12, 2014 TEXTS: Isaiah 42: 1-9 and Matthew 3:13-17 Isaiah 42: 1-9 Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. 2 He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; 3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. 4 He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching. 5 Thus says God, the LORD, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: 6 I am the LORD, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, * a light to the nations, 7 to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. 8 I am the LORD, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. 9 See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Matthew 3:13-17 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? 15 But Jesus answered him, Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness. Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, This is my Son, the Beloved, * with whom I am well pleased. I love heroes and superheroes! I had my share of comic books as a kid. I faithfully watched Adam West and George Reeves on the Batman and Superman television series. I faithfully watched the fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty hi ho Silver! Okay, so we knew who these heroes were... even their secret identities. I am fascinated by the idea that Bruce Wayne, millionaire philanthropist can fight crime in Gotham City and be known to only two individuals... his ward, Dick Grayson, also known as Robin, and his faithful butler, Albert. Superman can hold down a mundane job as Clark Kent, reporter for the Daily Planet, and no one... no one... not even Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen ever have an inkling who he is! When the Lone Ranger comes to town, no one ever seems to know who that Masked Man was, only that he left a silver bullet. Strider, the great Ranger of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, just happens to be King Aragorn II, heir to the thrones of Arnor and Gondor. How did we miss that? Hardly anyone knows who they are and those who know aren t telling! That s the key! The public at large does not know their true identity. Their very anonymity makes their crime-fighting career possible. The fact that no one knows his true self allows the superhero to move effortlessly through the world to fight crime and destroy evil. Many episodes, stories, and entire films revolve around the villains who threaten to expose the true identity of the hero. What then? Will the superhero be scorned? Will he or she cease to be effective? Will that be the end of their crime-fighting career? Who is he, really? Matthew introduces us to the good news about Jesus, the Messiah. Beginning in verse one, we find, as we read, that Jesus is of the royal line of the house of King David. Next we discover that Jesus is a son of Abraham. That means that Jesus is a Jew. Next there comes a long genealogy that Matthew includes precisely to make this point: Jesus is Jewish. Jesus is Jewish royalty. Jesus is the Messiah, the King of the Jews. We hurry through the birth story. He will be named Jesus, because he will save people from their sins. He will be called Emmanuel, meaning God is with us. Wise men from the East recognize the importance of his birth and come to call, bringing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The family escapes to Egypt because King Herod is threatened by the birth of this child. Infants are massacred in Judea. The family returns when the threat comes to an end and they return to Nazareth. Joseph and Mary set up housekeeping, Joseph goes back to carpentry, and Jesus, apparently, grows up.
Repeatedly, Matthew makes a point of saying, This happened that it might be fulfilled what had been spoken or what had been written by the prophet... Matthew now skips about thirty years. We know nothing of Jesus childhood. We hear nothing about him growing up in Nazareth. No miracles are recorded. Nothing he has said in his youth or adolescence is recorded. It is almost as if this Gospel about Jesus suddenly isn t about Jesus anymore. Then a new character appears on the scene. The new character is John the Baptist. He, too, comes in fulfillment of prophecy. He is the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John cryptically refers to someone who will come after him, whose way he has come to prepare. In preparation for this coming one, John calls people to repentance. He baptizes them in the Jordan River as a sign of their repentance and the forgiveness of their sins. Huge crowds come out to hear him. John keeps referring to the one who will come after him. We do not know who this someone is. His identity is hidden from us, and then... Then... Jesus shows up at the Jordan River. We previously knew Jesus only as a baby. That s how Matthew tells the story. The Gospel writer Luke tells us that John knows Jesus only as his cousin. Now, here they are face-to-face. I can almost imagine the moment. John is busy baptizing those who have come to the river. He is not really paying attention because he is intent on the crowd and the number of people who are entering the water. He turns and looks up. It is Jesus. You? John asks. Here? You want me to baptize you? Have you ever wondered why John says, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me? I believe that it is because John is fully aware of Jesus sinlessness and deity. Just like Peter in the boat, proximity to Jesus suddenly makes John aware of his own sin. I need to be baptized by you. In verse 14, the Greek language gives the sense that John kept repeatedly trying to prevent Jesus from being baptized. Why? It is because John s baptism was a
baptism of repentance for sin. If Jesus is sinless, he needs no baptism, especially from one who knows that he, himself, is a sinner, like John. Jesus replies, Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus submits himself at this time. He does so as an example to us. In doing so, he stands with us. John MacArthur, in commenting on this verse writes, Jesus baptism also represented the willing identification of the sinless Son of God with the sinful people He came to save. That was the first act of His ministry, the first step in the redemptive plan that He came to fulfill. He who had no sin took His place among those who had no righteousness. He who was without sin submitted to a baptism for sinners. In this act the Savior of the world took His place among the sinners of the world. The sinless Friend of sinners was sent by the Father in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh (Rom. 8:3); and He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21; cf. Isa. 53:11). There was no other way to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus identifies with our plight. Back in 1995, I read the following news clip in a magazine, Last spring, Mr. Alter s fifth-grade class of Lake Elementary School in Oceanside, California, included fourteen boys who had no hair. Only one, however, had no choice in the matter. Ian O Gorman, undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma, faced the prospect of having his hair fall out in clumps. So he had his head shaved; but then, 13 of his classmates shaved their heads, so Ian wouldn t feel out of place. If everybody has his head shaved, sometimes people don t know who s who, said 11-year old Scott Sebelius in an Associated Press story (March 1994), They don t know who has cancer, and who just shaved their head. Ten year old Kyle Hanslik started it all. He talked to some other boys, and before long they all trekked to the barber shop. The last thing he would want is to not fit in, said Kyle. We just wanted to make him feel better. Ian s father, Shawn, choked back tears as he talked about what the boys had done. He said simply, It s hard to put words to. Jesus takes on our identity. If there were any head-shaving going on, Jesus would do it. That is why he goes down into the water. He doesn t need to. He doesn t have to. He just does it because, for Him, it is the right thing to do. It is in taking on our own identity, that Jesus true identity is revealed. John baptizes Jesus. Jesus emerges from the water. A dove descends and lands on Jesus. Then, a voice from heaven says, This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.
This voice will not follow Jesus around for the rest of his ministry. No one is going to go around with him saying, This is God s beloved Son. It is enough that Jesus hears God s voice and that He knows it. He is the Beloved Son. From here on out, others will have to figure out his identity. He will even ask his disciples, Who do men say that I am? He will point-blank as them, And who do you say that I am? He will let his words and deeds speak to his identity. He will even ask Phillip in John 14, Have I been with you all this time, Phillip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. It is at the point of Jesus baptism that Jesus ministry begins. Jesus will be known by what he does. The clues will be there. Others will be able to figure it out if they try. He won t have to tell them. He will just live and his living will reveal his true identity. The same is true for us. Paul uses the imagery of death, burial, and resurrection when talking about baptism in Romans 6. In the waters of baptism, we die in Christ and are raised to new life in Christ. It is powerful, dramatic imagery. One of my favorite baptism scenes is from the movie, O Brother, Where Art Thou? [WATCH] Baptism is a line of demarcation. It clearly marks a before and an after. Baptism declares our true identity. We belong to God. We are marked with the sign of water. It is a moment of demarcation in time. The past is past, the future unfolds. No one else can see the sign of our true identity. It is invisible. It is the water of our baptism. It is the sign of God s grace, mercy, forgiveness, and ownership on our brow. We belong to God! Baptism declares Whose we are and thus, it identifies who we are. Baptism is also our introduction to God s-service. Since we no longer belong to ourselves, but to God, we are called to live for God. Our ministry begins. We belong to God. We go to serve in the world. The really neat thing is that we get to do so often unnoticed. We get to live and work among others bearing a sign no one else can see. We can be like superheroes. Our mission is clear. Our ministry is authorized by the God who claims and calls us. Yet, unless we are wearing our cross lapel pin, our Christian bumper sticker, our fish symbol, or Jesus T-shirt, no one will ever know our true identity unless we tell them or, more importantly, show them by our deeds. At his request, each morning three-year-old Ry's mother pinned a bath towel to the back shoulders of his size two T-shirt. Immediately in his young imaginative mind the towel became a brilliant magic blue and red cape. And he became Superman. Outfitted each day in his "cape," Ry's days were packed with adventure and daring escapades. He was Superman.
This fact was clearly pointed out last fall when his mother enrolled him in kindergarten class. During the course of the interview, the teacher asked Ry his name. "Superman," he answered politely and without pause. The teacher smiled forgivingly, cast an appreciative glance at his mother, and asked again, "Your real name, please." Again, Ry answered, "Superman." Realizing the situation demanded more authority, or maybe to hide amusement, the teacher closed her eyes for a moment, then in a voice quite stern, said, "I will have to have your real name for the records." Sensing he'd have to play straight with the teacher, Ry slid his eyes around the room, hunched closer to her, and patting a corner of frayed towel at his shoulder, answered in a voice hushed with conspiracy, "Clark Kent." (By Joyce Meier, from A Second Chicken Soup for the Woman's Soul, Copyright 1998 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen and Heather McNamara) Jesus was John s cousin. Jesus was Joseph and Mary s son. Jesus was the carpenter from Nazareth. However, at the Jordan River, when the dove descended and the voice from heaven spoke, his true identity was revealed. So who am I, really? I am LuAnn s husband. I am Merv and Shirley s son. I am David s brother. I am Beth and Andrew s dad. However, by the waters of baptism, I am a child of God, chosen, claimed, and commissioned for God s service in the world. That is my secret identity. That is my true identity. I never want to have to tell anyone who I really am. I walk among you as Doug Nagel, Pastor of First Presbyterian Church, but I m really a child of God by God s claim and sign upon me in baptism. That s who I really am. That s who I really get to be, each day by God s grace. And when I live for God and leave, I want them to say, Who was that man? And I want someone else to answer, I don t know, but he left this... the aroma of grace, mercy, compassion, and peace, and it smelled like Jesus! Soli Deo Gloria. To God alone be the glory. Amen.