Our Lord, once He becomes flesh, is amazing in the way He replays the life of the Israelites, especially their early days as a nation. He replays them perfectly, but with one major catch, He is the obedient Son. What happened to them, happens to Him, so that what happens to Him, counts for them.

At the New Years Eve service, I kept repeating the phrase, "Israel reduced to one." I described it as if you were to pour all of the faithful Israelites of the Old Testament into a funnel, out would pop just one person, Jesus. This way, we could say everything that happens to this one, counts for everyone in the funnel. What happens to Him, as though it happened to them. For New Year's Eve the point was, when He was circumcised, all their circumcisions now could count for something. Without His, they would be nothing.

This goes for us as well. When He lives the perfect life, His life counts for us because we are also poured into that funnel. He stand for us. We became a part of Him, incorporated into Him when we were baptized. This way, when He dies, taking the penalty for sin, it counts for us. When He rises again, it counts for us. Because we are in Him, what happens to Him counts as though it were to us. His perfect life, counted to us. This is what it means Israel reduced to one.

Last week, the second Sunday after Christmas, we saw Jesus going into Egypt and then being called out of it again. Herod's murderous threats drove Him into Egypt to find safety. When the threat was gone, it was safe for Him to be called out again. Israel was also called out of Egypt. They had been living in Canaan, but the famine drove the brothers, the sons of Israel, to seek help from Joseph who was now second to Pharaoh in Egypt. They stayed in Egypt for 430 years and then were called out of it. Thus was fulfilled what the prophet Amos had said, "Out of Egypt I called my Son."

Now, we see the obedient Son, the obedient Israel, at the Jordan River. We had seen the first one, the nation of Israel, in the Old-Testament lesson. Joshua stands in front of them as their leader. After wandering for 40 years in the wilderness, it was time to stop pitching tents and start building houses. They stand on the east side of the Jordan River, looking at the river. It's at flood stage, and impossible to cross.

They had been here before--not at the Jordan River but at the Red Sea. With the Egyptian armies bearing down on them, their hopes of being free seemed to drown in the Red Sea. They stood on its coast to throw all their dreams into the choppy waters. But the Lord tells Moses to stretch out His staff. He does so, and the Lord separates the waters, with a wall of water on the right and a wall of water on the left and they pass through on dry ground. They leave the land of slavery and cross over into freedom, but into a land of wandering, of 40 years of homelessness.

Now, they leave the land of wandering to settle into their own land. The land promised to them would soon be theirs. They just needed to cross the Jordan. They stand on the east side, looking west, seeing their new home. They need the Lord to do another miracle. So He does. The people, once again, walk across on dry ground. The water heaps up way upstream and the river keeps flowing until all the water has flowed to the Dead Sea. Soon, there is no more water. In fact, the ground is not even wet. They step across on firm, solid dry ground.

The scene is not quite the same for our reading today. John has been baptizing in the Jordan River on the East side. That's where he carried out his calling of teaching, preaching and baptizing. The River is flowing again. When John baptizes the waters don't stop. Instead, the people walk into the water and walk back out again, wetter than they were before they went in, but still wet.

Now, the obedient son, Israel reduced to one, stands on the east bank, looking west, like the first Israel had done a couple thousand years earlier. His baptism won't be done as easily as those who came before Him. John was eager to baptize those who came to Him, but Jesus needs to convince John that He ought to be baptized. John knows who Jesus is--the sinless Son of God. Why should the sinless Son of God, the perfectly obedient one need to be baptized? John can't wrap his head around this one.

But Jesus makes it clear, this must happen for the sake of all. He is Israel reduced to One. His baptism will make all baptisms count. His stepping into the Jordan will make all waters used for baptism like the waters of the Jordan. Now, ordinary water used in every Baptism from here on, will have cleansing power because He has done this to the Jordan. Because He has done this, all of our sins are washed off of us in our baptism, and transferred to the Jordan River where He picks them up. Baptism looks so ordinary. Yet, it is so glorious. All of our sins are dumped into the water, and miraculously all of it is transferred to Him.

Rejoice, Christian. This is what has happened to you. Your sins were transferred to Him. They are no longer yours. They are His. He takes them on. He will be punished for them. When Jesus is on the cross and His Father turns His head, because the moral ugliness of His Son is so detestable to Him, you can see this was what was done for you. It is yours and my ugliness that He bore. He was rejected so we could be accepted.

This is what His baptism is all about. This is what your baptism is all about. He identifies so closely with you, that He is seen as the sinner, and you are seen as the righteous One--not just a righteous one, but the righteous One. You are clothed in Christ, having put Him on in your baptism.

Don't understand how this happens? Don't worry. You don't need to understand for it to happen. There are many things we don't understand, things in the natural world we may not be able to explain. I don't understand electricity, yet the light goes on when I flip the switch. My lack of knowledge doesn't keep this from happening. It is still so.

When it comes to our Lord, there are many things we can't comprehend. This is yet another. It doesn't make it not so. Rather, our Lord has told us this, He has given us this incomparable gift, and we rejoice that it is true.

And now, back to the Jordan River, where the obedient Son has waded out into the water, and has been baptized. Does He continue on, wading through the middle and coming out on the other side, on to the west side of the Jordan? It would seem He would do this, to fulfill His role as Israel reduced to one, just as Israel had done when they crossed over into the Promised Land, but unfortunately, neither Matthew nor any of the Gospel writers give us this detail. Again, it would fit our expectations. And we might even want it to be true. It would complete our image. Perhaps it is true. We don't know. The Lord did not see it fit to tell us.

But something remarkable happened immediately after He was baptized. In fact, this, the Lord did see it fit to tell us. And immediately--the word is clearly there--immediately He went up from the water and the heavens opened.

This is what has happened for you. Before your baptism, you were one thing. When you were done, you were something else. This all happened immediately, at that moment. Jesus did not dally in the water, but immediately went out, so He could begin His ministry of making citizens of heaven and children of God. The water was poured on you, and immediately you became a citizen of heaven and a child of God.

It's what happened to the Israelites being led by Joshua. The Israelites crossed into the middle of the Jordan, perhaps like Jesus, and then came out on the other side, a new people, a people who had a home. The promise made to them so long ago, to Abraham, and to Isaac, and to Jacob, was finally fulfilled. They crossed the midpoint of the river and they were transformed.

They didn't look any different. Whatever their faces were doing--beaming, weeping tears of joy, laughing that the day had finally come--when they stepped into where the river had been and stepped out again, their faces still looked the same. But they weren't the same. Now they were people who could claim a home. Their ancestors had only been sojourners, guests in that land. Now this was theirs.

An infant, a child, or even an adult looks no different from the time before the baptism to the time after. The only difference is going to be a wet head. That's it. But a change has taken place. When this happened to you, you became a citizen of heaven. You went in spiritually homeless; you came out with heaven as your home. You went in as a child of the devil, as we all are when we are born; you came out as a child of God. You went in, a sinner; you came out a saint.

And the heavens opened to Him. The Father spoke to the Son already on earth, and the Holy Spirit came down.

This is what has happened to you in your baptism. Because it happened to Him, it counts for you. But it is not a mere reckoning. It's not just a matter of bookkeeping. It's not Israel reduced to One, as though it doesn't actually happen.

Your baptism actually is your death and resurrection. Your Old Adam, your sinful nature, actually drowns in the Jordan River waters of your baptism. The New Man, Christ, actually rises to life in you, just as you were baptized into His death and resurrection.

And you actually experience heaven opened to you. Every Divine Service, the heavens are opened to you. It is your privilege as His baptized ones. The Father speaks, the Son is here, and the Holy Spirit comes down. The Father speaks the words of absolution. "I forgive you." The Son gives us Himself, gives us His body and blood in His Word and in the sacrament. The Holy Spirit feeds it to us. Why else do we start with a remembrance of our baptism at the beginning of the Divine Service? Where God places His name, there He is to bless, and He has placed His name on you. He comes to bless you. You were baptized into His name.

The privilege of Him coming to you to bless you comes with your baptism. Jesus' birth means heaven comes down. As I had said in the Sunday after Christmas, the angels sing praises to God here on earth, when they sing the Gloria in Excelsis, the Latin name for Glory to God in the Highest. They sing not only in heaven, but they sing on earth. Heaven comes down as the Triune God comes down and the angels come with Him, still praising Him. Christ comes as the heavens are opened. This is what you know happens as you come to receive His gifts as His baptized ones.

It is what we need, because we may be saints in His eyes, we may be saints as a result of our baptism, but we still struggle with the sinner in us. We may have experienced the resurrection of the New Man, Christ living in us, but the Old Man, the sinful nature, doesn't stay drowned. We need all the help we can get. We struggle all week, sinning against God and against our neighbor, struggling to keep the sinful nature down, and losing the battle. Trying to do the right thing, and failing again and again, we come here worn out and looking for exactly what we are given here--the heavens opened and the Triune God giving His gifts.

Now rise, faint hearts, be resolute; this man is Christ, our substitute! He was baptized in Jordan's stream, Proclaimed Redeemer, Lord supreme.

Yes, we lift our faint hearts, weary from our struggle, and sometimes not even aware of how weary we are. We lift them so our Triune God will bless them. We lift them up so that as heaven comes down, we will be given new life. This is your privilege as His baptized child; your privilege because He was baptized and because you have been baptized into His name.

AMEN