Jesus’ baptism ushers in more than only His own life of ministry, the reign of God come near. It opens the power of the baptism He received from God, the power of the Spirit with fire, to all the baptized.
This is the epistle reading for the Baptism of Jesus in every year of the three-year lectionary, and rightly so. That said, there are challenges to approaching a “classic” text like Romans 6, especially when its themes are so central to Christian theology. This is not least because its familiarity can sometimes keep us from seeing how all the parts work together to make a whole.
As the Apostle Paul explicates what it means to be “baptized into Christ Jesus,” united into “a death like his” and “a resurrections like his,” he is undoubtedly thinking about the cross and the empty tomb. Those are the events which make all this ground-breaking work possible. But the means which make the event transcend time and bodies is in the baptizing, mine and yours. Martin Franzmann summarizes, as only he can, how this renewed life overflows from the “new status” Paul spelled out in chapter five:
“The creative force of the Gospel as God’s power for man’s salvation is not exhausted in creating a new status for man; it creates a new life in man... That death and resurrection embraced us all and ushers us into a wholly new kind of life, the resurrection-life of Christ... Our present life gets its character, direction, and purpose from the fact that we shall live with Him who now lives a life beyond death; a life lived wholly to God, now that He has died an atoning death, once for all, to sin.”[1]
So far, so good. What kicks things up a notch is the occasion. Paul is thinking of the cross and empty tomb, but the liturgical calendar places us at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, not the end, where He is standing waist deep in the Jordan River, with John the Baptizer beside Him pouring water over His brow. Yet, the juxtaposition only intensifies the association.
Reading this text for the Baptism of our Lord inevitably recalls for me the imagery of Martin Luther’s “happy exchange.” It is not just that Christ exchanges my sin for His righteousness. Rather, all of Him becomes mine, and vice versa. So, when the water of the Jordan runs down His face, dripping from His chin, He is baptizing my baptism. I am waist deep in the Jordan River. I look up to the skies and see the heavens open above me. The Holy Spirit descends upon my baptism just as it descended upon Jesus of Nazareth. And because of Him, the same voice speaks in my ear, “You are My child. Beloved. With you I am well pleased.”
It is not just that Christ exchanges my sin for His righteousness. Rather, all of Him becomes mine, and vice versa.
The prophet Isaiah, in today’s first reading, signals as much in his declaration: “Everyone who is called by My name... whom I formed and made” (43:7). Jesus’ baptism ushers in more than only His own life of ministry, the reign of God come near. It opens the power of the baptism He received from God, the power of the Spirit with fire, to all the baptized into the “resurrection-life” of God in Christ, freed from anything which might ever enslave us again.
In a recent conversation, my good friend James Wetzstein, who is campus pastor at Valparaiso University, remarked how, of all the gospels, Luke opens like a musical. Think of the songs by Elizabeth, Mary, Zechariah, the angels, Simeon, and Anna. And now, perhaps, it is God’s turn to sing: “You are My Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased” (verse 21). The Father sings to His child as only a parent can, but because of the life Christ lived, died, and rose again, the song is sung for you and me too, just as it will be for every child on Earth who will be baptized this day.
Now (and only now) united with Christ from death to life, does Paul gives us his first imperative: λογίζεσθε (logizesthe), “reckon,” “consider,” “think,” “see” (verse 11). According to Danker, it is a verb of “numerical calculation” and “computational imagery.”[2] I prefer the New International Version rendering, for two reasons. First, it maintains a more direct imperative tone: “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (compare to the stilted “you must” of “So, you also must consider yourselves...” in the English Standard Version and New Revised Standard Version. Second, the verb “count” concretizes the “calculation” of the original. We could easily put such counting into forensic terms, but considering the Gospel of Luke, I wonder if we might just as much be counting out the four-beat rhythm of God’s song, the rhyme and refrain of grace in Christ.
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out 1517’s resources on Romans 6:1-11.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you preaching Romans 6:1-11.
Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Romans 6:1-11.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
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[1] Franzmann, Martin. Romans: Concordia Self-Study Commentary. St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1971. 131.
[2] Gingrich, Wilbur and Danker, Frederick. The Concise Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2009. 216.
