All Righteousness Fulfilled

The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of
the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Matthew 3:13 Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to
John, to be baptized by him. 14 But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I
have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” 15 But Jesus
answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting
for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him. 16 And after
being baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water; and behold,
the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a
dove, and coming upon Him, 17 and behold, a voice out of the heavens,
saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” (NASB)
We live in the day wherein a large number of people in the visible church
have a very distorted view of the Christian Faith and whose work is most essential
in the church. Focusing on our works, our good intentions, our obedience to the
law, and on what we think God wants us to be and do has always been a problem
in the church. It is our natural tendency to over value our deeds and contributions
to the church, while under valuing God’s work toward us through the Word and
Sacrament Ministry.
While many denominations have a theology that lends itself toward this
problem, there is no excuse for it in a Lutheran church. Take for example the
Talent Inventory Sheet that many Lutheran congregations and bureaucrats employ
as part of the interviewing process for potential employees and pastors.
A pastor friend of mine was once being considered for a call to a particular
congregation. As part of the paperwork, the congregation sent a talent inventory
survey to each of the candidates. This particular pastor filled out some of the
forms and provided some of the requested material, but returned his inventory
sheet blank. The inventory survey had all the typical list of desired attributes that
laity want to see these days. Good at Fund Raising, Public Relations,
Organization, Administration, Public Speaking, Charismatic Personality,
Mentoring, and so on.
When the pastor was brought to town to meet with the search committee, the
chairman noted that the pastor had failed to fill out the inventory and asked if he
had missed the form in the stack. The pastor told the committee it had not been an
oversight. He had left it blank intentionally. The chairman asked “why.” The
pastor responded that as he looked over the list, he didn’t think he was particularly
good or exceptional at any of the attributes on the list. He didn’t think he had
anything particularly special to offer the church.
One of the committee members probably thinking the pastor was suffering
from self-esteem issues replied, “Surely pastor, you must be good at some of these
things. God gives gifts to everyone.” The pastor perked up and replied, “Well, yes
there is at least one thing I do really well.” “What is it?” she asked. “I baptize
really well. It works every single time I do it.” No he did not get the call and the
congregation missed the opportunity to have had one of the best Lutheran pastors
and theologians in this generation.
This morning we celebrate the Jesus’s baptism and our own. All four
Gospels record the Baptism of Jesus. It was and remains fundamental to Christ’s
saving work, both at the time He set His face toward Jerusalem and Good Friday
and to His work of creating children for His heavenly Father through the work of
the church.
So important was this event in the life of Jesus and in the life of the Church,
when the apostles met to chose a replacement for Judas, St. Peter set down this
qualification. “Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied
us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us— beginning with
the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us—one of these
must become a witness with us of His resurrection.” (Acts 1:21–22)
This morning we consider Matthew’s account of Jesus’ baptism. St.
Matthew gives us a couple of details that are not included in the other Gospel
records. These details give us a look into the John’s understanding of Jesus, of
baptism, and of John himself.
“Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized
by him [John].” This act confused John the Baptism. John understood three
things. He understood that he had been given a mission to preach a baptism of
repentance for the remissions of sins as the way to prepare the way for the coming
Messiah. John understood that “his” baptism was for sinner and had been given to
wash sinners clean from sin. Second, John understood that the Messiah promised
in the scrolls of the Old Testament was without sin, holy and blameless and did
not need to be baptized to have His sin washed away. John understood that the
promised Messiah was the spotless Lamb of God who came into the world to take
away the sin of the world. Third, John understood that he [John] was not the
Messiah and that of the two he was indeed the sinner in need of absolution.
Thus “John tried to prevent [Jesus], saying, ‘I have need to be baptized by
You, and do You come to me?’” See, John the Baptist knows that the baptism he
has been given to administer does something, namely it remits sins. It is no mere
simple of one’s obedience. It is not an outward symbol of some inward reality. He
came preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins because that is
what it was and what it did.
Not only did John recognize his own need to be baptized for the forgiveness
of sins, he thought it was out of place for Jesus to request baptism. As John stood
in the River Jordan face-to-face with his Lord and Savior, John’s theology proved
itself to be a little deficient at the moment.
The doctrine of Holy Baptism does that. It more than any other doctrine on
the New Testament reveals deficiencies in theology and often even more– vestiges
of self-righteousness and good “deedism.” The former was John’s problem, not the
later. John didn’t understand. He was confused.
Jesus was and remained without sin. Hebrews 4:15 teaches that Jesus was
“One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Jesus had
no sin of His own. As such, He was the perfect Lamb of God who came to take
away the sin of the world.
He doesn’t understand why the sinful one is baptizing the sinless One,
Jesus. So Jesus schools John in New Testament theology 101. He says, “‘Permit
it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then
he [John] permitted Him.”
The entire Bible is fundamentally about sin and righteousness. It’s about the
contrast between our brokenness and God’s holiness. It is about the fact that we
constantly sin in thought, word, and deed, breaking our promises and the Law,
while the Lord God proves Himself to be true and faithful to His Word and
rescuing us from ourselves.
Fifteen times in his Gospel St. Matthew says this thing or that thing
happened or Jesus did this or that to fulfill what had been written by a prophet or
to fulfill the law. But here Jesus uses a unique phrase, “in this way it is fitting for
us to fulfill all righteousness” to describe the work that will be accomplished in
His baptism.
It is much easer for us to understand what is meant when St. Matthew says
Jesus did this or that to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah had written or when Jesus
says He came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.
But Jesus was baptized by John “to fulfill all righteousness.” This is where
Martin Luther’s famous discovery of the New Testament’s use of the use of the
word “righteousness” in the book of Romans is help. Remember, Luther had been
taught that the righteousness of God had only one meaning. He had been taught a
righteousness of the Law. God’s righteousness was the result of the Law, which
meant that God must judge and punish sin. A righteous God judges the sinner and
punishes accordingly.
Luther discovered that the word “righteousness” in the New Testament has a
twofold meaning, one born in the Law. The other meaning born in the Gospel.
Righteous as it pertains to the Gospel is that which God gives away, freely to the
sinner. The righteousness of God causes God to give His righteousness, His
holiness to the sinner.
A person who is outside Christ is judged as a sinner. The person who is
inside Christ is declared a saint. God imputed the baptized one with His Son’s
holiness, righteousness.
Therefore when John baptizes Jesus, all that is both kinds of righteousness
are fulfilled. In His baptism the sins of the world, your sin and mine were laid
upon Jesus Christ. That is why He was be punished on the cross of Good Friday.
That is what it meant to be the Sacrificial Lamb Who died for the sins of the
world. That is the kind of righteousness dished out according to the Law of God.
John’s baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and all subsequent
baptisms performed in the Word and Sacrament ministry of the church are
connected to the baptism of Jesus. All Christian baptisms are connected to the
baptism, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
In this way Jesus’s baptism was the opposite of your baptism. His baptism
was one of the Law. It was a baptism into sin and death and judgment. Jesus’s
baptism places the sins of the world onto the Lamb, Who carries them to the cross.
In Luke 12:50, Jesus summarizes His perfect life and His death as His baptism. “I
have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!”
Paul wrote that God “made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf,
so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” 2 Cor. 5:21.
Your baptism is one of the Gospel. In your baptism, God took away your
sin, declared you righteous, wrapped you in the righteous robe of Jesus Christ, and
created a new and holy nature.
Jesus is baptized by John to fulfill both kinds of righteousness. He was
placed as a sinner under the righteous of the Law and when you were baptized into
Him, He placed the righteousness of God over you.
St. Paul summarized the whole thing in the Epistle lesson assigned for this
morning. Roman 6. This text shows that baptism is a work of God wherein He
does it all and gives you the entire person and work of Jesus Christ.
You have been baptized into Christ Jesus. You have been baptized into His
death. You have been baptized into His life. You have been baptized into His
resurrection. You not only were baptized; you are baptized.
Throughout your Christian life, no matter how many times you stumble (and
you will stumble), know this God the Father made you His own in the Word and
Sacrament Ministry. He gave you His Son’s holy and perfect life of obedience and
love. “So consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
In Christ you are now the Father’s beloved child whom He is well pleased.
AMEN
May the Peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.