Matthew 3:13-4:11 January 11, 2004
Clothed in Christ
Today is the day in the liturgical calendar celebrating Jesus’ baptism.
13Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. 14But John didn’t want to baptize him. "I am the one who needs to be baptized by you," he said, "so why are you coming to me?"
15But Jesus said, "It must be done, because we must do everything to fulfill all righteousness " So then John baptized him.
16As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
Wouldn’t you love to hear this? A voice from heaven saying this is my son, this is my daughter, whom I love, with him I am well pleased, with her I am well pleased?
Maybe you’d just like it if your own father or mother would say it, or your spouse, or any other human being…
We so need to hear that we are loved and that someone, especially our creator, our heavenly Father is pleased with us
But just hearing these words does not make everything easy and perfect – right after Jesus hears these words he his led by the Spirit out into the wilderness where he is tempted by Satan.
There are these three strange temptations
One, to make stones into bread
Matthew 4:1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread."
4Jesus answered, "It is written: ’Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[1] "
Two, to fain suicide and thus call the angels to save him
5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6"If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down. For it is written:
" ’He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[2] "
7Jesus answered him, "It is also written: ’Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[3] "
Three, to bow down to the devil and thus gain all the kingdoms of the world
8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9"All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
10Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ’Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’[4] "
11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
What holds all these temptations together is whether or not Jesus truly believes what he has been told at his baptism.
If you really are the Son of God, prove it!
The temptations have less to do with bread and suicide than they do with whom Jesus believes himself to be. Although Jesus is hungry, the great temptation is not to make bread, but to prove his power at the prompting of the devil. Throwing oneself off the temple isn’t much of a temptation at all – not many of us would say, ‘boy, I’ve always wanted to do this, now is my chance!” No the temptation is showing that divine power in a frivolous way, outside of the Father’s will.
The third temptation is about grasping at what would be his – the promise is that the Father would place all things under his feet, that he would be the King of kings. The Devil gives him a short cut – “don’t worry about the cross or obedience, just bow to me and I’ll give you all the kingdoms of the earth.”
You’ve just been told you are God’s Son whom He loves and in whom He is well pleased, do you really believe it?
So much of the temptations and the issues in our life surround this one theme, the theme of Identity. Who am I really?
I watched this movie a few months ago called “City By The Sea” It is the story of a cop played by Robert De Nero who’s father had killed a child in a botched kidnapping and received the death penalty for it, De Nero himself had once hit his wife who he was divorced from. His son had become a drug addict living on the street committing petty crime to support his habit. All the way through the movie these men reject the things they had done. De Nero says of his dad, “that wasn’t him, he wasn’t the kind of man who kidnapped or killed.” When talking about his past relationship and the violence he says, “that is not who I am, I don’t do that sort of thing.” His son says to him, “this is not who I am, a street addict.” They all reject the names that would condemn them, Kidnapper, Murderer, Wife Beater, Street Addict. “this is not who I am.”
In order to hide their Identity they all wore “clothes” or disguises to cover up – The son had a car that showed to himself that he was not just a bum, De Nero paints his father as a good father who loved him more than anything. He clothes himself as a closed off, tough, but tender cop who fights for the right.
I think that these men a kind of caricatures, or extreme examples of the human condition. We have all done things that we hate, or our outward appearance is not how we want to view ourselves, we want to better people than we are, we want to believe that no matter what we do, no matter what we have done, no matter who we appear to be, that is not us, at the core, we are good people we would like to think, so we clothe ourselves with different things to help us think that we are the person we want to be. We clothe ourselves with stories that show that we are good people, we clothe ourselves with education, or success in business…
Like Adam and Eve, we create elaborate fig leaf clothes to convince ourselves that we are okay or better than okay.
The problem is the clothes that we create are pretty lame – they don’t fool us, or the people around us, or God.
We live in denial, and in fear of being found out.
In the Garden, after Adam and Eve have sinned, and made their fig leaf clothes, God has a little conversation with them, they confess their sin, they are sent from the garden, and God gives them better clothes made from animal skins.
The same thing happens, but better when we come to Christ.
Galatians 3:27
26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
When Jesus was baptized, God comes and confirms his identity, in our baptism which is a symbol of what Jesus has done for us, we are clothed in Christ! Instead of these clothes that barely cover up our shame, we are clothed with Christ from head to foot. He has us covered. There is this amazing image in full immersion baptism, when we go fully under the water, the water washes away this old self like so much dirt, and we come out born again, with a new start, clothed in Christ – he covers all our sin, our inadequacies and our mistakes. And God says that he remembers them no more.
We are clothed in our baptism with the one who is affirmed in his identity at his baptism, and who proves it in the desert by defeating the devil. It is not that the physical waters of baptism do this, but they are a sign and a symbol of what God has done for us through Christ.
We are covered, clothed with Christ so when the Father sees us, he sees Jesus, so he can say about us This is my child, whom I love, in whom I am well pleased.
The way that we get clothed with Christ, the one who truly covers us is that we come before him uncovered.
We bare our lives to him. Instead of trying to cover up the things that we have done wrong, the names that we carry, our inadequacies and mistakes, we lay them out. We say I am a liar, I am not a good enough father, I am self -serving. And he takes these old clothes and burns them at the foot of the cross, and we are clothed with him, taking on his perfect identity over our broken one.
That is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
The way that we mark that change in our lives, is through being baptized. Just as rings are a symbol of marriage, baptism is a symbol of the new life, the new clothes that we have in Christ.
I think that the greatest temptation for those of us who have come to Christ to be clothed anew is to go back to those old clothes that covered us so poorly.
This is why Paul writes in Ephesians 4
22You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness
Read the story of the Ragman.
Do you want to come and be clothed by Christ, clothed in Christ?
Why not seal that desire in the waters of Baptism.
