1st Sunday after Epiphany January 9, 2022
Pastor Tim Patoka Anointing Uncovered Who is the Christ? Luke 3:15-17, 21, 22
1) God Decreed Jesus to be His Anointed One 2) God and Christians are Well Pleased with Jesus One of the things I find enjoyable in a story is when you have a high-ranking official go incognito among the people they lead. If you’ve watched CBS’ TV show Undercover Boss, then you’re already familiar with this. As told by the name, Undercover Boss documents what happens when a high-ranking boss goes undercover in their company as an entry-level worker. After spending some time among the rank-and-file, they then have the big reveal where the disguised boss uncovers their true identity and usually compensate their hoodwinked employees in some way. CBS was not the first to do this. Authors like Shakespeare have long portrayed nobility figures dressing up and mingling among their lowly subjects. Movies in all different genres have also done this. No matter where you find this idea happening, the high-ranking official always has some difficulty in convincing the lowly people about their uncovered identity. Perhaps they need a picture ID to match the company website. Maybe they need to whip out the royal heirloom or show the unique birthmark. Possibly they’ll have to rely on a group of reliable witnesses to back up what they’re saying. But what would it take for someone to see a person as the Christ, the Anointed One whom God decreed to be the Savior of the world? It’s that answer we’re looking at this morning in light of Luke chapter 3. The crowds of people along the Jordan River were asking amongst themselves if John the Baptist might be the Christ himself. But once Jesus was baptized, it became clear who alone could be the Christ – it’s Jesus as declared by the Triune God. And as Jesus began his public work to be our Promised Savior, we would see why God the Father and all Christians are well pleased in him in light of our own baptisms. 1) God Decreed Jesus to be His Anointed One The idea of anointing was a big deal in Bible times. In Old Testament times, you would often anoint someone or something with aromatic oil to publicly appoint them for a specialized task. We heard in our First Reading how Samuel anointed David to be the next King of Israel. In New Testament times, we find the significance of anointing in the Christ which literally means “the Anointed One.” 1
Pastor Tim Patoka Anointing Uncovered
1st Sunday after Epiphany January 9, 2022
To be the Christ, that is, God’s Anointed One, meant that you were the Promised Savior that God decreed for his people since the Garden of Eden. John the Baptist knew that he was not the Christ. Why in comparison to the Christ, John was not even worthy enough to do the lowly work of a slave like untying the straps of dusty sandals. And John made sure to tell the crowds that he was not the Christ. While John baptized people with water for the forgiveness of their sins, the Christ would baptize people with fire and the Holy Spirit as what happened at Pentecost. While John called people to repent, the Christ would act on it by eternally separating believers from unbelievers as a farmer forever separates the wheat from chaff in winnowing his threshing floor. John had no intentions to be the Christ. Instead, John knew that his appointed task from God was to be the Christ’s forerunner – to prepare the people for his coming with his baptism of repentance and, once the Christ was uncovered, to point people to him so they could be saved from their sins. And what an entrance Jesus made when he entered he scene with the heavens opening at his baptism! We see God the Son in the person of Jesus, freshly baptized and in the middle of praying. We have God the Holy Spirit taking on the form of a dove and landing upon Jesus. We have God the Father speaking from heaven, “You are my Son, whom I love. I am well pleased with you.” (Luke 3:22 EHV) It’s here we see our Triune God making his appearance to uncover what God decreed long ago – it is Jesus, and Jesus alone, who is the Christ, the Anointed One to be our Savior. But is it really that clear that Jesus alone is the Christ? Prior to Jesus’ baptism, the crowds were certainly right to wonder if John might be the Christ. After all, he looked the part with his God-first message and Bible-aligned life. Though Jesus was baptized nearly 2,000 years ago, might we too look for someone else who better look the part of the Christ? Someone who has the life we wish was ours or who embodies what we strive for? Someone who walked this world more recently than Jesus did 2,000 some years ago? If we do this, we not only place our hope and trust in the wrong person. We can also forget what the Christ was anointed to do – to save us from our sins, not to make our lives easier or to make our coffers richer. Yet even 2,000 some years later, God doesn’t leave any questions about his Anointed One is. That’s because God has not left us in the dark. In the Old 2
Pastor Tim Patoka Anointing Uncovered
1st Sunday after Epiphany January 9, 2022
Testament, God simply told his children to believe in his promise to send the Christ. But in our New Testament times, God has since uncovered the Christ to us. It’s Jesus as decreed long ago and declared by the Triune God at his baptism. It’s Jesus, and Jesus alone, who has been anointed to take our sins away. 2) God and Christians are Well Pleased with Jesus It is Jesus and what he did as the Christ that both God and Christians are well pleased with him. We heard God the Father say this at Jesus’ baptism. The reason why he was well pleased with Jesus was that Jesus was just beginning his public work as the Christ to fulfill what God had decreed long ago. And God, knowing all things, knew that this splash of a beginning would continue all the way to the bitter end as Jesus continued to fulfill everything decreed about the Christ. So God was well pleased because his plan for our salvation was all coming together. In the same way, we Christians are also well pleased with Jesus because of what he did for us as the Christ. He has accomplished our salvation and opened the door to heaven! And the way that many of us have benefited from this is through our baptism. We hear how baptism blesses us in Luther’s Small Catechism which should sound familiar to our communicant members. “The Blessings of Baptism: What does Baptism do for us? Baptism works forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare.” (Luther’s Small Catechism, Baptism #2) Forgiveness, deliverance, and salvation. That is what we get through baptism because of Jesus and what he did for us as the Christ. As such, we are indeed well pleased with him just as God the Father was. But for those who have been baptized, let me ask you this – do you still treasure what God did for you when that water and Word was applied to you? For those of us who don’t remember our baptism because it happened so long ago, I’m guessing we often don’t. We don’t remember how it felt to live as an enemy of God, so we take our baptismal blessings for granted. Or perhaps we simply forget about it! And good luck trying to treasure it then. Or if we are mindful of our baptismal blessings, how often do we misuse them? We stain our forgiven souls by indulging in sins we know we shouldn’t. Deceived by what other Christian churches falsely teach about this precious sacrament, we corrupt baptism from what God has done in us to something that we supposedly do for God. Baptism becomes about us, not about God. 3
1st Sunday after Epiphany January 9, 2022
Pastor Tim Patoka Anointing Uncovered
Instead, let baptism be what God says it is – a washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit so that we might become heirs of God’s blessings. And then, let us treasure what God gave to us through this sacrament of water and Word so that we always may be well pleased with Jesus. Because of what Jesus did as the Christ, forgiveness, deliverance, and salvation can now be ours. And we indeed received these in full when we were baptized in the name of our Triune God. Whether you were baptized decades ago or just last week, whether you remember the moment when water and Word came to you or need to rely on your baptismal certificate and witnesses/sponsors who were there, know that you were marked a child of God when you were baptized. Because of what Jesus did for you as the Christ, you now have the blessings that come through baptism – forgiveness of sins, deliverance from death and the death, and eternal salvation in heaven above. And that will never go away as long as your faith remains in Jesus who alone is the Christ. Concluding Encouragements When you watch a show like Undercover Boss or hear a certain kind of story, you’ll come across the idea of an incognito leader mingling with those below them. When the time comes for them to uncover their true identity, it can take some time and effort to convince people of what is already true. In the same way, God uncovers to us who the Christ is, the one anointed to save sinners from their sins. That person is Jesus alone as God decreed from long ago and publicly declared his baptism with his Triune presence. There need be no question about who to look to for our Savior. For it is Jesus alone who is our Promised Savior. As God was well pleased with Jesus as he began his public work to be the Christ, so are we Christians because he fulfilled that work in earnest and makes God’s blessings possible for us. But these blessings are more than a mere possibility. They are in fact ours as given to us in our baptism. No matter when our baptism was or how intact our memory of it is, we treasure our baptismal blessings of forgiveness, deliverance, and salvation. And as long as we answer the question “Who is the Christ?” by saying “It is Jesus my Savior” these blessings remain ours. Amen.
4