“The Great Exchange”
Original sermon given on January 12, 2025, written and delivered by Pastor Jeff Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Watch the sermon live.
“The Great Exchange”
Luke 3.15-17, 21-22
Luke 3.15-17, 21-22
In the name of the Living God and the Christ who has appeared to us. Amen.
On your first day at work, you want to make a good impression. An actor’s Broadway debut is supposed to be brilliant. In a pitcher’s first big league start, he’s supposed to mow them down. And if you’re a teacher, the first day in a new classroom you want everything to be exciting and engaging.
In Luke 3 we witness Jesus’ inauguration into his public ministry — his first day at work, we might say. But it begins not with a big bang, but with a subtle splash: he’s standing in line with everyone else to be baptized by John. Oh, for sure it’s a dramatic moment: Heaven is opened up; the Holy Spirit descends like a dove; the Father thunders affirmation from heaven. But the Holy, Eternal Trinity punctuates the beginning of Jesus public ministry NOT because of any earthly greatness in Jesus. He has won no election, been victorious in no battle, scored no TDs in a playoff game. Jesus’ first public act is a submersion into our full humanity, standing in the muddy Jordan River, baptized like a stinking sinner. That’s God with us.
His crazy cousin John caught the irony and didn’t like it one bit, as the other gospel accounts make clear. John says he is not worthy even to take off Jesus’ shoes, a task only fit for a gentile slave. We know that John initially refuses to baptize Jesus: the student could never be above the Lord and master, Jesus. But Jesus insists because it is to fulfill all righteousness. This would be something like Yoda insisting that Luke trains him in the ways of the Force; or Dumbledore asking Harry Potter to lecture him!
But Jesus’ inauguration will be different. He will be a ruler of another kind. Jesus will walk with us in solidarity and walk for us as our substitute to the cross.
It’s so important that we see here in Luke 3 that Jesus begins his earthly ministry with us. With us in every way that this can be. Not like Arthur pulling out the sword from the stone; or Constantine winning a mighty victory; or Patrick Maholmes doing what no one else can at QB. In the muddy Jordan stands Jesus, in line with everyone else.
And not just with “everyone else”. With you, too. You see, this is the kind of hero we really need, even if we might not always know it or admit it. When the devil seems to be winning; when the sinful flesh won’t relent; when you can’t pull the sword out of the stone and are exhausted trying; when sickness, pain, defeat, and death draw near. You need the Jesus right there in the water with you: baptized by John as a sinner, though not one; worthy of all honor, power, and glory but stooping down and untying our stinky sandals.
The beginning of Jesus’ public ministry sets the tone all the way to the cross. The cross was an instrument of Roman torture, subjection, and oppression, and yet that’s where God is to be found, with Jesus hanging there. This is precisely why the early church grows and expands among the lowest of the low in the first three centuries; and why today it is shrinking and lethargic in the free and wealthy west but flourishing under poverty and persecution throughout the world. Because the tortured, subjugated, and oppressed need God standing in the muddy Jordan with them and hanging naked in shame for them, and finally raised from the dead and reigning forever over them. This the only God who will not leave us: from the Jordan to the cross; from his baptism to his Ascension; in failure and exhaustion; in darkness, defeat, and death, this God, and this God alone, will bring ultimate victory for us.
St. Augustine, the 4th century North African Bishop, is considered by many to have been one of the greatest Christian thinkers who’s ever lived. Those of you who know me, know that I’ve got a theological man-crush on this scholar. But what really made Augustine great was not his dazzling intellect or great rhetorical skills, but his understanding of Grace. (He is called the Doctor of Grace.) Through many rebellious turns — personally and intellectually — Augustine came to understand that the Almighty God could see every sin and failing in his pathetic little, rebellious life, and yet this God would still descend upon him in forgiveness and grace. He says that the grace of God defeated him
I want you to hear what this greatest thinker, who considered himself the great sinner, said about Jesus standing with him in solidarity and for him as substitute:
Man’s Maker was made man, that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breasts. That He, the Bread, might be hungry. That He, the Fountain, might thirst. That He, the Light, might sleep. That He, the Way, might be tired from the journey. That He who is the Truth might be accused by false witnesses. That He, the Judge of the living and the dead, might be judged by a mortal judge. That He who is Justice itself might be sentenced by the unjust. That He, the Vine, might be crowned with thorns. That He, the Foundation [of all that is], might be suspended on [on a tree] wood. That He who is Strength might be made weak. That the healer might be wounded. That Life itself might die. (Augustine, Christmas sermon #9, ACW)
That’s our God, standing in the Jordan with us. Walking our way with us, taking our place for us.
Come soon Lord Jesus. Amen.