Remember Who You Are

This sermon was preached by Pastor Ted Carnahan for the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord on Sunday, January 11, 2026.

Grace, mercy, and peace be with all of you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Here in our gospel lesson this morning, John the Baptist asks a good question. Why on earth does Jesus need to be baptized? Let's think about what Baptism is, especially the baptism proclaimed by John.

John was proclaiming a baptism of repentance. The beginning of his ministry, the very first thing he says is, "Repent, for the kingdom of God has come near."

To repent is to turn away, to do a 180-degree turn. You were once heading towards sin. It's time to turn around and go the other direction. It is to admit that you were wrong and God was right.

John's Reaction to Jesus

Jesus, who is sort of his cousin, understands that Jesus is in a different category here. Jesus is not merely another man coming for baptism. In fact, it doesn't even really make sense in John's mind that Jesus would show up looking for baptism because if baptism is just about repentance, just about changing your mind, then Jesus has no need of repentance and therefore has no need of baptism.

He doesn't need to repent, for he is the Sinless One. In fact, we as Christians just got done in the season of Christmas confessing that Jesus Christ has become a human being and in so doing, the whole of what it is to be human has been taken up into God except one piece, which is not really "what it means to be human."

He does not take up into him his sin because to sin is not what it is to be human. I know that we like to say all sorts of platitudes like, well, nobody's perfect. Or I once ran into a guy who would say, "well, nobody's perfect except me and Jesus."

No. Jesus is what it is to be truly human because to be truly human is to not have sin.

All of us have sinned and fallen short of God's glory because we have become tainted by the stain of original sin. And so John knows who Jesus is. John knows that he is the one prophesied in the scriptures.

• He is the Messiah who is to come.
• He is the Anointed One.
• He is the Christ.
• He is the Righteous One who has no need of repentance.

In fact, John understands so entirely how different a category Jesus is in that here's John, who by any other measure would be regarded as one of the holiest men who has ever lived. Jesus comes to him and John's reaction to him is, here is the Holy One about whom I'm not even worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. I'm literally not even worthy to be a servant on my knees in the dirt, untying this man's shoes!

That's how holy Jesus is in comparison to John. And so Jesus comes for baptism and John is shocked. Why on earth have you come to be baptized by me? No, he says, "I need to be baptized by you. You are the holy one. I need your baptism. I need to be baptized into you and not the other way around."

Fulfilling All Righteousness

And Jesus's answer doesn't explain a whole lot at first. We find out more later in the Bible. But he says, "Let it be so for now in order to fulfill all righteousness." To fulfill all righteousness. What is he talking about there? Because there's something special happening in Jesus's baptism.

Here, Jesus is going to go down into the waters. And as he goes down into the waters, he is not receiving a washing of water and the word where the water and the word carry away his sin and he becomes a new creation. But rather, when Jesus goes down into the water, he is fulfilling all righteousness. Which is to say, he is filling our righteousness.

You see, in ordinary circumstances, when you take a clean rag and you wipe something dirty with it, the rag gets dirty as the dirty object gets clean. But here, we see that the Clean One goes into the dirty water and makes it holy. So that holy baptism then becomes for you a healthful, cleansing bath because Jesus Christ has gone into it for you to fulfill your righteousness.

Isaiah's Prophecy

This is what the prophet Isaiah is speaking of in our first reading today. He describes this One who is coming 600 years before the birth of Jesus. He says, my Servant will come, my Chosen in whom my soul delights. Whose soul? Not Isaiah's soul. But actually, Isaiah is speaking God's word.

Here, God is speaking to the people, to you and me. He says, God says, my servant, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. The soul of God is going to delight in this chosen one who will come and serve his people.

I have put my spirit upon him and he will bring forth justice to the nations.

It's worth noting here that he says, not the nation, but the nations. If he were speaking just of the people of Israel, he would have said the land. It's a different word. Or perhaps the nation one, singular. But here he says the nations. The word here also is the word, the Gentiles.

In other words, this Chosen One, when he appears among us, is not coming just for the people of Israel, but he is coming for all people. Gentiles are just everybody who's not Jewish. So Gentiles includes you and me. Everybody is encompassed by this new and coming kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I have put my Spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations. Not just to Israel, but to all people. And the says further to his Son by the prophet Isaiah:

I will give you as a covenant.

Which is a remarkably weird thing to think about. Because that's not what a covenant is usually. A covenant is a series of promises.

When you get married, you engage in a covenant. You're entering into a covenant. You make mutually binding promises to one another. It's sort of, the word contract feels so sterile, but it's like a contract. I will do this if you will do that. I will give you this money if you will give me this car. That's a contract. It's a mutually binding agreement. A series of mutual promises with consequences attached.

But that's a thing. We write that on paper today. Or we say it out loud and shake our hands. That's not what exactly the prophet is saying here. God says, I will give you as a covenant. This covenant is a person.

And he says this person will be a light to the nations. This person will open the eyes of the blind. This person will bring out the prisoners from the dungeon and rescue those who sit in darkness.

Sitting in Darkness

Friends, we never are particularly interested in hearing that we sit in darkness. But we sit in darkness all the time. Intentionally and unintentionally. Closing our eyes to what's going on around us. From what dungeon do you need to be rescued?

Well, Luther would have put it this way. He would have said it in Latin. He would have said, Homo incurvatus in se. "Man curved in upon himself." Which is a wonderful description of what sin really is.

Sin causes us not to think about other people around us. We don't have to think about God in heaven. But it causes us to dwell on ourselves. We are curved in on ourselves. We are self-protective and look after our own interests. Or if we're being large-minded, we might think about those who are exactly like us.

We see this in the news as we reflect on who we are. All of us, on every side of the issue, have not been judging what happened in Minneapolis this past week by what actually happened, but by whether it happened to those we think of as friends or those we think of as enemies.

And any time that we make the decision to put ourselves in the place of judgment and judge based on what is good just for us, we live in moral darkness. The people of God must be concerned about what is true, not whether it benefits our friends or hurts our foes.

But it's not simply the question of that. The world offers us all kinds of identities as alternatives and ways to live. Look around you or turn on the news for five minutes and you will find that the world is offering you something to believe in, to attach your identity to.

This is found sometimes, frankly right now, in politics. But also in gender and sexuality. In race and nationality. We want to attach our identity first to one of these created things. And then claim that as Who We Are.

But ultimately, all such claims, apart from Christ, lead us to darkness. Because in that light, we no longer see our most important identity. You see, if you have been baptized into Christ, you are a new creation. The old has passed away with all of its other allegiances. And a new one has come.

Our Identity in Baptism

Our identity is found in Baptism.

In holy baptism, we are remade children of God. We are united with Christ. As Christ went down into the waters, and in so going there, made the waters clean and gave his Spirit to them, so when water is united with the word, and we go down into the waters of baptism, we receive his life.

In Christ, we are united with him. And he fulfills all righteousness for you. So that you no longer have to be right about everything. Or have all of your identities nailed down perfectly.

You have one identity, and it was not one that you made or claimed. But one that has been given you in your baptism, whether you remember your baptism or not.

And having our identity rooted solely in something which God has given to us, and freed us from darkness, then we can do what is right. Fearlessly speak the truth in love. In love being the important part.

Because Christ is our peace. Christ is the mediator of a new covenant. In him you have been marked with an indelible mark. The mark of the cross upon your forehead goes forward with you throughout your whole lives. You belong to Christ forever. No matter who you think you are also. That's your first identity.

And so we must be about the business of claiming and holding on to our identity as Christians first. Baptized people first. After that, all other identities can come in. We must, in short, do what Luther admonishes us to do over and over again: Remember our baptisms.

Not remembering the fact of them, like the events of that, as if I could remember something that happened when I was three months old. But remember that I am baptized and that's who I am.

Remembering Our Baptisms

And when sin and death and the devil and the world that are arrayed against me try to claim some other identity for me, as being primary, I will say no, but instead I am baptized into Christ and that's who I am.

We must remember our baptisms and that we are new creations in Christ. And for us that does involve repentance. Admitting that we have been going the wrong direction and regularly turning, and admitting that God was right, and instead going in his direction.

Remembering that you have been made a new creation in Christ, and God who is making all things new has made you his new and beloved creation in Christ. Remembering that your old self has been drowned in baptism and that you have new life forever with God in Him.

You have been buried with Christ by baptism into his death. But because Jesus Christ lives (for he is truly risen from the dead) as he lives, so too you live.

People of God, remember who you are. For you belong to Christ. And Christ belongs to God.

And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds strong in Christ Jesus our Lord, to life everlasting. Amen.