INJ Dear Daniel, family and friends of the newly baptized, Dear friends of Jesus, "And [Jesus] took him aside from the multitude, and put His fingers in his ears, and He spat and touched His tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed, and said to him, 'Ephphatha,' that is, 'Be opened.' Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly." [7:33-35] It seems that Jesus spits on But this all seems a bit strange, doesn't it, the spit on the finger, and that as strange at this seems, here's something that seems even stranger. This text was taken up by the church in the ancient baptismal liturgies. Before entering the church, the pastor would take the candidate for baptism, baby or adult, touch his finger to his tongue and then his tongue to the candidate's ear and quote Jesus' words. Here's how it say it in Luther's Order of Baptism from 1523, "Then the priest shall take spittle with his finger, touch the right ear therewith and say: Ephphatha, that is, Be thou opened." [Luther, American Edition, 53.99] What, then, does this text, the healing of the deaf mute, have to do with baptism? First, it reminds us of the mystery that God uses means, physical elements, to do His work. Daniel, today the Lord has used the humble means of waters to heal you of your sin and rescue you and save you. By the means of water connected to His Word and promise you have been forgiven and called God's own child. You are the child of the heavenly Father, the brother of Jesus. As your earthly father, I have handed on to you sin and death. You have inherited from me what I inherited from my father, and he from his all the way back to Adam, namely death. But today your heavenly Father, though the means of this water and His word, adopts you as His child, and gives you His inheritance: life, eternal life and salvation in the forgiveness of all of your sins. So St Paul will preach to the Church in Corinth, and to us, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things are made new." [2 Corinthians 5:17] What does Paul mean when he says, "new creation"? "New" does not mean "young." The way we think of old and new is youth and elderly. Daniel is new; my dad is old, but this is not what Paul means here. Old has to do with creation sunk in sin and death. When God created the earth in six days it was young, new, and good. There was no sin and no death. But when Adam ate the fruit forbidden by God's Word all of creation was filled with the darkness of sin and death, all things became old. This then, is how we are made new, by Jesus' death destroying and sin forgiving death. It is in the resurrection, when Jesus returns, that He will finally and completely make manifest the destruction of sin and death. Then the deaf and mute man who was healed, and who died, will live forever. Then Lazarus, who was dead, and then alive, and then dead again, will be alive, completely and perfectly alive, no longer to die. Then, in the resurrection, you and I will be freed of every sickness and illness and weakness as this mortal body of death is stripped away and we are clothed with immortality. Then will be the new heaven and the new earth, as Jesus says at the close of the Scriptures, "Behold, I make all things new." [Revelation 21:5] But what does this have to do with baptism? Often times in a furniture store you notice a sign on the back of a chair that says, "Purchased, customer will pick up later." This is how it is in our baptism. The Lord Jesus has redeemed us, purchased and won us with His holy, precious blood, and He has, in our baptism, marked us as His own, and He is coming back to claim us as His own. In our baptism we are given the Holy Spirit, and sealed for the resurrection. By the sign of the cross on our forehead and our chest we are marked as one redeemed by Christ. It is a sign that says, "Purchased by the Lord Jesus, He will come back to pick up later." Paul comforts us with these words, "In Him [that is, Christ Jesus] you also trusted, after you heard the word of salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory." [Ephesians 1:13-14] Daniel, you are the Lord Jesus', you are His purchased possession, you belong to Him, and today He has filled you with His Holy Spirit as a sign and seal that you are His, and that He is coming for you. On that day all of your sickness and death will be stripped away, for the Lord Jesus, who does all things well, has done this for you today, the day of May the Lord Jesus send us all His Holy Spirit, that we to would be comforted in the midst of our sin and death, that in our baptism He has forgiven all of our sins and sealed us for the great day of the resurrection. Amen. Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller |
This is an archive from Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller |