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Mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ to him who loves us and has washed us clean from our sins in his own blood and made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve God and his Father, to him be all glory, honor, and dominion forever and ever. Amen. In today's day and age, when it seems licentiousness and debauchery has become so prevalent in our culture, it has become even more important for us as the baptized believers in Christ to recognize who we are and what it means to bear the name of Christ on our own foreheads and our own hearts. More so, even that our identities in Christ are so completely grounded in our baptism. As modern Christians, we often feel so detached from our baptisms, something that we only participated in once upon a time, maybe even long ago. You might remember it, you might not. We often fail to realize that the earliest Christians felt so viscerally connected to their baptisms, an ancient church, especially, that they believed that the most fundamental protection that God gives us in this life against the atrocities of the world out there, the attacks of the devil, and yes, even the temptation of our own flesh are all founded in our baptism. We fail to realize why they held baptism with such great fervor, because we've allowed ourselves to be manipulated and changed by modern reason and the age of enlightenment, which has adjusted and reconstructed our beliefs. We fail to realize how our baptism impacts our daily lives. We fail to realize why Luther would exhort believers in his small catechism to remember their baptisms every morning and every night by making the sign of the cross and saying, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Likewise, we may even fail to understand why he would instruct Christians in his large catechism, which we subscribe to in our Lutheran confessions, that it is also useful that we form the habit of daily commending ourselves to God, and likewise children should continue to cross themselves when anything monstrous or terrible is seen or heard. Dear Christians, why would Luther say this? Because in that very moment we are compelled to remember that baptism now saves you. 1 Peter 3, 21. It's not a superstitious activity. But if we realize for a moment maybe what we've been given, if we realize the work that God has done in that miraculous event in our baptism, we might cling to it every waking moment, maybe even every breath of our life. There are a few things spoken of in Scripture that preach more comfort to the Christian than holy baptism. Nothing else proclaimed into your ears and hearts speaks more clearly and announces more grace than when you were bonded so securely to Christ himself than in your baptism. Our baptisms connect us to Jesus. Even more, it connects us to the living God, in whom we have a lavish flood, a washing away of all of our sins. In it we are connected to Christ's death on the cross and his resurrection from the tomb. Forever. Hear the words of Saint Paul. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death. This means in your baptism you were united with Christ so concretely, so inseparably, that you were put to death in his death. You were crucified in his crucifixion. But this also has an effect on your daily lives as well. How can we who died to sin still live in it? How can we, who have been sealed with the holy mark of the cross on our foreheads and on our hearts, who have been sealed with God's very name and spirit, still live in sin? The resounding answer is, as St. Paul says, we cannot. We must repent and be forgiven daily. We must constantly die to our old selves and be resurrected in Christ Jesus. Let St. Paul's words ring loudly in your ears. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. In your baptism, you're no longer a slave to sin. This is why, as true believers, we should never shun where the Lord grants his grace to us. And if we have been made part of his death, we most certainly will be made part of his life like he is. That's the secure promise of baptism. Do you hear it? And it's only given in baptism. St. Paul testifies to that. All scripture points to it. We should never scoff at where Christ attaches us to him through his gifts. And yet, our lack of understanding may be due in part to the lack of understanding our Lord's own baptism. In other words, if we understand Jesus' baptism and what took place right there, we might begin to understand our own. So then let's understand what God has bestowed upon his children by seeing what he has bestowed on his only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Old Testament text from Isaiah gives us insight to our Lord's baptism. All of his words speak about Jesus. All the prophetic word of God reveals the word made flesh. So from Isaiah we have God's perspective of things. Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud from the streets, a bruised reed he will not break, he will not grow faint till he has established justice in the earth. All of this text is about Jesus. And in it we also see his baptism most clearly. So what does our gospel say? Let's compare it and see what it says. Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, I need to be baptized by you. Do you come to me? But Jesus answered him, Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. It's good for us to know as we look at this that the term for righteousness spoken here and the term for justice come from the same word in Scripture. At the heart, they're the same. Christ indeed came to establish justice in the earth, or as St. Matthew's text says, to fulfill all righteousness. And when Jesus was baptized, he immediately went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Jesus, who is the Christ, is the servant whom Isaiah spoke about, whom the Father upholds through all temptation, through death. We see Jesus coming to John, standing in the River Jordan, submitting himself to John, to be baptized by him. And in this very submission, we, like John, are made to realize that Jesus is the Father's chosen one, in whom his soul delights. There in the Jordan, God in Trinity and unity makes himself known, three in one, one and three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There the Son stands, there the Holy Spirit rests on Jesus, and there the Father makes known his approval. And there is no doubt that in the Son, the Father has established justice and righteousness in all the earth, as Jesus takes his place to fulfill all righteousness that we, dear beloved, cannot. In his baptism, our Lord takes our place. Do you see it? He who knew no sin became sin by submitting himself to a baptism that was meant for the forgiveness of sins. In his baptism, all of our sins are placed onto the righteous one. In our baptism, we in turn take our Lord's place. His baptism foreshadows our baptism, so that when we are baptized into Christ, all of our sins are washed away, and he seals us with his Holy Spirit according to his word and promise. In his baptism, God the Father placed all of the sins of the world onto his son, so that our Lord Jesus Christ becomes the sin bearer, the scapegoat in our place. So that in our baptisms we would look like the spotless lamb without blemish. And when we are baptized into his name, the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all present at your baptism. And in that, your own life-changing moment, dear saints, the Father looks down on you and sees his beloved Son, and he says to you, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Dear baptized, behold, you are covered in Christ. In your baptism, you are his new creation, his new creation. Your robes are washed in the blood of the Lamb, and you have been set free from your sins. The Father no longer sees John or Jim or Joe or Jane. He sees Jesus. You want him to see Jesus. You are covered in the blood of Christ, and he paid for your sins before the Father. Your name is written in his palms. Both the sin you were born with and the sin you've committed since. A bruised reed I will not break. It doesn't get any more certain than that. Dear baptized. And in that identity, if you're willing to receive it, if you're willing to remember it daily, it's life-changing. Because in this identity, you're no longer confined to sin, to die eternally, but you're freed to live in God's gracious will. And the heavens, the heavens are open to you. Eternally. You no longer live in this life as though you have no hope. But all your hope is in the living Christ who reigns forever. Because he lives, you too will live. And even though we live in this valley of tears and sorrow, often watching our loved ones wither away, often witnessing suffering and war and disease and sin all around us, our hope is not in vain. It's not. Our hope is in something greater. Christ the crucified and living Lord. And we can trust our Lord's words when he says at the end of Mark's gospel: whoever believes and is baptized will be saved. But whoever does not believe will be condemned. Therefore, let us not live in fear, but seek the Lord's gifts of grace. When and where he places them, and cling to them all the more fervently and say, I am baptized into Christ. What can man do to me? Amen. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.