It seems the senior President Bush was touring a nursing
home. As he walked down the hall with his entourage of aides and reporters, he
came upon one old man who was slowly making his way in the opposite
direction. The president reached out,
took the patient’s hand, and asked gently, “Sir, do you know who I am?” The man stared back blankly for a moment;
then his eyes focused. Slowly he shook his head from side to side. “No,” he
admitted, “I don’t know who you are. But if you ask the nurses, they can tell
you.”
When the voice from heaven spoke no one had to guess who
Jesus might be. The Holy One of Heaven said “You are my Son, the beloved; with
you I am well pleased.” That statement
demands a personal reflection for followers of Jesus Christ: If the life of
Jesus was lived in a way that pleased the Heavenly Father, it ought to be our
goal in life to live as He did. And so, we ask the question: What kind of life pleases God? There are many words with which we could
frame an answer to that question. In the body of Christ we have a kind of
shorthand that covers it…we could say that following Jesus in a way that is
pleasing to God is living out our baptism. It is like the old saying, if you’re
going to talk the talk, you’d better walk the walk. These shorthand statements
are another way of saying that our life in Christ demands faithfulness; it’s
the kind of faithfulness that’s 24hour/7day/52weeks a year kind of
faithfulness, to the promises of our baptism.
The baptismal covenant of our church contains those promises
that you and I made at our confirmation or adult baptism.
These are some of the identifying marks of a baptism
lived-out. These are what separate the way God’s people live from those who
live the unexamined life. This morning
let’s examine these a little deeper. They can be separated into two pictures – the Servant of Christ and the Soldier of
the Cross.
The
Servant of Christ-Paul used this term to describe himself when he
wrote to the church of Galatia (or Asia Minor, Turkey) and also the Christians
at Colossae ; all believers are servants of Christ. You can tell the servant by
the distinguishing marks of service:
HUMBLE
SERVANT
Jesus exhibited the life of a humble servant. Living-out our
baptism as a servant calls for humility, just as the Master was humble. There
is not a task too great or small that we should not be willing to attempt in
His name.
OBEDIENT
SERVANT
Obedience is certainly a characteristic of humility, but in
Mark’s gospel there is a special significance. In verse 10 it says that as
Jesus came up from the water of his baptism the heavens were “torn apart”. The
word means a violent “rip”. The only other time Mark used the word was the
crucifixion scene where the temple veil is “torn” from top to bottom at
Christ’s death.
It is entirely possible that here Jesus sees the end of his
mission, the cross; it’s not a pretty sight for Jesus as we imagine this
inspiring scene to be. As we joke about Thanksgiving that it’s a wonderful
meal, except for the one who provided the drumsticks, Jesus knows what’s ahead.
The Father says words in heaven that have been spoken before in the Son’s
presence:
Isaiah
42:1-(NRSVA) 1 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.
Above everyone in
attendance that day, Jesus knew justice could only come with the shedding of blood
– his blood – for man’s sins. Only by obedience, in sacrifice, would Jesus
continue to delight the Father.
It is that way for us. Baptism is a matter of obedience, but
if it ends at the baptismal font, with no ongoing obedience, where is the
servant-hood? The Servant of Christ living-out his baptism is humble and
obedient to his Master.
A second identifying mark of Christian baptism being
lived-out is:
The
Soldier of the Cross
In Disney’s “The Lion King” Timone and Pumba stumble across
young Simba the lion who has a guilty conscience. They teach him their life’s
“problem-free philosophy”, “Akuna matatta”. For Timone it meant (according to
fantasyland language) “no responsibility, no work, no worry”. It is safe to say
that if you want a lifetime of bliss and easy living, you’d better plan on
living in Disneyworld’s cartoon studio, because in the real world, it just
ain’t so! Baptism is not the beginning of irresponsibility; it is an enlistment
in the army of the LORD!
Why an army? (I’m glad you asked!)
1. Because there’s temptation ahead
When Jesus came out of the baptismal waters the Spirit led
him right into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days. There’s not much
room for “acuna matatta” when you’re doing hand-to-hand combat with Satan.
God instructs us in Scripture to run from temptation the
minute you see it. The reason is that the Lord knows we’re not very good at
resisting it. You remember the account of the skinflint preacher who
reluctantly agreed to let his wife take the credit card shopping. He warned her
over and over to resist the temptation to buy things they couldn’t afford. She
promised, and left for town. She came back with a red dress by Belenciaga and a
charge slip for $2400. The husband hit the roof.
He yelled, “I told you to resist the temptation; you should
have turned and run from that old devil!”
She replied, “Dear, I did just as you said. I heard Lucifer
whispering in my ear how good that Belenciaga looked on me, and I turned and
ran.”
“But you still bought it!” whined the preacher.
“ I couldn’t help myself!” she cried, “When I turned around
to run he said, ‘sho’nuff looks good from this side too, darlin’’
The reason we are soldiers of the cross is that temptation
is a spiritual battle. And, also…
2. Because there’s opposition and loneliness ahead
All you have to do is read a few verses past our text and
you find that Jesus is not only tempted in the wilderness – his cousin, John
the Baptist is arrested and thrown in prison. Eventually he is beheaded for
preaching his message of repentance – the same message Jesus would later
preach. Opposition and isolation are the twins you will know well if you will
preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.
People join churches every year and eventually drop-out,
complaining that Christianity “doesn’t work” or isn’t worth the effort.
Soldiers understand opposition – they were taught to fight because their main
purpose is conflict. Many people join the church because they’re under the
impression it is a safe haven from trouble, and then they find out they’re
supposed to be a soldier in the middle of it; they go AWOL.
Friends, spiritual warfare is not for the faint-hearted.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, When Christ calls a man, He bids him to come and die.
Opposition and loneliness are genuinely part of the
Christian life, because that is what Christ experienced. Jesus said to his
disciples…
20Remember the word that I said to you, ‘Servants are not
greater than their master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you;
John 15:20=(NRSVA)=We’re soldiers because of temptation, opposition and
loneliness, and…(this is the good news)….
3. Because there’s a crown ahead
The words ringing in everyone’s ears that day, as they
watched Jesus emerge from the water, were “with you I am well-pleased”. It is
the same phrase in the teaching of Jesus’ parable, when he told about the
coming kingdom – well done, good and faithful servant.
Jesus encouraged us all in the words of John the Revelator
when he told the persecuted church at Smyrna to be faithful right up until
death, and there would be a crown of life waiting .
I was asked a question by a teacher when I was in grade
school. The question was: What are you going to do with your life? Now, like
any other child, I began to respond in terms of job or career; most of us identify
ourselves as that which we do, instead of who we’re called to be. He stopped me
dead in my tracks….No…not how you’ll earn a living – what are you going to do
with your LIFE?
That question haunted me until I made a decision about
servant and soldier. The right decision (according to Scripture) is to serve
God. But it’s much more than being baptized; much more than a ceremony. It’s
like marriage. People get married at a point in time. The parson says “will
you”? The couple says, “Yup”! And that’s it….right? Of course not; that was
just the marriage ceremony. The marriage then begins to unfold day-to-day,
week-to-week into decades (hopefully).
Marriage is much more than a ceremony on one given day.
Marriage is a journey of faithful living, giving and loving. There is
thoughtfulness and struggle, anger and joy. If it’s a Biblical marriage there’s
servanthood and soldiering. There are times of plenty and times of scarcity.
I don’t think in terms of the fact that I got married; after
nearly forty-two years it is today with my bride that Is on my mind – I am
married! I am living-out this covenant called marriage.
Marriage is the metaphor Jesus chose to identify the
relationship we have as baptized believers. We, the church, are the bride of
Christ. And it isn’t so much that we were baptized, it is more that we are
baptized.
So, like the question my
teacher posed, what are you going to do with your baptism? Have you messed it
up? You can re-enlist as a soldier,
come home as a servant. That’s what altars are for.
No comments:
Post a Comment