The Thirteenth Sunday after
Pentecost
Synonyms
Grace, mercy and peace to
you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen. In today’s Gospel,
Jesus
speaks about His death on the cross when He says, “I have a baptism to be
baptized with, and how great is My distress
until it is accomplished!”
Dear Christian friends,
In our English language, we
frequently use synonyms. Synonyms are words with such close
meanings that they can be used interchangeably. For example, you could call that
asphalt strip near our sanctuary a street or you could call it a road. Either
way, everyone will understand what you mean. Street and road are synonyms. Car
and automobile are also synonymous, as are dinner and lunch,
photograph and picture, and so on. Synonyms do not share exact definitions, but
their meanings overlap one another.
I am reviewing English class
with you because Jesus uses a synonym in today’s Gospel, where He says, “I have
a baptism to be baptized with.” These Words do NOT refer to our Lord’s
entry into the Jordan River, which took place prior to today’s Gospel (Luke
3:21-22). Rather, Jesus uses the word baptism in today’s Gospel as a way of
describing His death on the cross. When Jesus
says today, “I have a baptism to be
baptized with,” He is telling you that baptism and cross are synonyms. Baptism
and cross have overlapping meanings and
essentially speak about the same thing. After all,
· What is Baptism?
Baptism is the removal of your sin (Acts 22:16).
· What is Jesus’
cross? Jesus’ cross is also the removal of your sin! (Romans 4:25)
Here is what happened prior
to today’s Gospel:
· First, Jesus
entered the Jordan River, where He gathered upon Himself all the sin that got
washed away from you at your Baptism. When John the Baptist poured water upon
our Lord’s head, your sin and my death were in that water; your sin and my
death landed upon our Lord’s head. At the Jordan, Jesus became our scapegoat,
according to God’s Old Testament promise: “The
scapegoat shall bear all their iniquities” (Leviticus 16:22).
· Next, after the
Jordan, Jesus entered the wilderness (Luke 4:1). As He experienced all our
temptations in that dry and deadly place, Jesus was also carrying all our sins
upon own His head, shoulders and back.
· After the
wilderness, Jesus traveled throughout the land, “bringing the Good News of the
kingdom of God” (Luke 8:1). As He
traveled, Jesus continued to carry the full load of your sins and mine. The
entire time, from the Jordan River to the cross, Jesus carried your sins and
mine.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims
what must finally happen to the burden He bears for us. Here Jesus speaks about
His cross as if it were a baptism. “I
have a baptism to be baptized with,” says the Lord, “and how great is My
distress until it is accomplished!” Jesus wants
you to know that what happened in Baptism—both yours and His—what happened in
Baptism is directly connected to what happened upon His cross. Jesus wants you
to know that baptism and cross have overlapping meanings and comparable
characteristics; baptism and cross have so much in common that they
can be used as synonyms. So Jesus describes
His crucifixion by saying, “I have a
baptism to be baptized with.”
Jesus’ overlap of baptism and cross is important for you. By making baptism and
cross synonymous,
Jesus is letting you know that He stands very near to you, and He intimately
understands
how you think and feel.
1. First, Jesus speaks
about the distress He feels under the load of His cross. As you heard Him say,
“I have a baptism to be baptized with, and
how great is My distress until it is accomplished!” With these Words, Jesus
is letting you know that He did not waltz through His life any more than you
waltz through yours. Jesus’ earthly days were filled with hardship and
distress, just as yours are. Jesus faithfully bore His hardship and His
distress, in order to give you grace and strength for your hardship and
distress. Take comfort in Jesus’ distress! Hold on to Jesus’ hardships like a
teddy
bear! Jesus’ distress has built up the highway for you (Isaiah 62:10), by which
you may now pass more easily through your distress. Jesus’ hardships have
removed the rocks in the pathway of your hardships, “lest you strike your foot
against a stone” (Psalm 91:12).
2. The Word “accomplished” in today’s Gospel is also
a good and blessed Word for you. “How
great is My distress,” says Jesus, “until
the baptism of My cross is accomplished.” Hang on to the Word “accomplished”
and take it to heart! When
Jesus uses the Word “accomplished,”
He means ACCOMPLISHED: finished, completed, resolved, paid in full, brought
about and got-it-done. The Word “accomplished”
announces the forgiveness of your sins and your eternal life. Jesus’ Word
“accomplished” indicates that there is
nothing for you to add. In today’s Gospel, Jesus longs for the time when His
scapegoat job of carrying your sin will be accomplished; later, on the cross,
Jesus announced, “It is accomplished”
(John 19:30). The carrying of your sin and death is over. “The scapegoat HAS
BORNEall YOURiniquities” (Leviticus 16:22). There is
nothing left for you to carry!
3. According today’s
Gospel, you
should anticipate and believe that your baptism will not always be a pleasant
experience for you. Jesus uses baptism as a synonym for His cross, not as a
synonym for an easy chair. Crosses are not nice things. Likewise,
Baptism will eventually bring into your life things that are not so nice. Jesus
even provides you with an example in today’s Gospel. After making a synonym
between baptismand cross, Jesus then drags you into
the mix:
I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great
is My distress until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give
peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one
house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They
will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against
daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law
and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.
With
these Words, Jesus is telling you that not everyone in your family will
appreciate your Baptism.
· Some will reject your faith in Baptism, which is really just faith in
Jesus’ cross.
· Others will point to your habitual sins and say that you do not look
very baptized; maybe the blessing of your Baptism did not stick on the first
try!
· Still other family members will simply look the other way. They may be
as polite as they are able, but neither Baptism nor Jesus’ cross contain any
significance
for them.
Jesus
gave you today’s Gospel so that you will not feel surprised when such things
happen. In today’s Gospel, Jesus wants you to know that He knows how it feels
when people fail to take Baptism seriously. People do not take His cross
seriously, either. He still rose from the dead, nonetheless.
4. There is yet another
gift Jesus is giving you in today’s Gospel, where He uses the Word baptism to
speak about His cross and
death. Your Lord’s synonyms of baptism and cross are important for you because
Jesus is going to say a very
frightening thing to you later in Luke’s Gospel. In chapter fourteen of Luke,
two chapters after today, Jesus will declare to you, “Whoever does not bear his
own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple”
(Luke 14:26). You will hear those particular Words of Jesus in a few weeks,
September
8, on the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost.
Use today’s Gospel to
defend yourself against those future Words that your Lord will say to you! When
Jesus says to you, “take up your cross,”
there will be no need for you to look around for a piece of wood to get nailed
or impaled upon. Just look at your Baptism. Point to the baptismal font and say
to your Lord, “Remember Your synonyms,
Lord! If You can use the Word baptism to speak about Your cross, then I
can use the Word cross to speak
about my baptism! You tell me to
take up my cross, so that I may be Your disciple. Baptism and cross mean
essentially the same thing. I am baptized. That means I have, indeed,
taken up my cross. Therefore, I am quite completely Your disciple and You are
nothing less than my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, and my Life.
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