1/11/09 - Baptism of Our Lord - Isaiah 49:1-6

A MAN ON A MISSION
- Jesus came to bring back the Jews
- Jesus came to be a light for the Gentiles

People were crowding around the shores of the Jordan River - listening to this strange man speak, being baptized in the river’s waters, and confessing their sins to the Lord. And while all of this commotion was going on, John the Baptist’s cousin slips into the crowd. A normal 30 year old man, a Galilean, someone who probably just blended in with everyone else there. In fact, most of these people probably had never seen him before because he had yet to do anything outwardly spectacular in his life. But then this cousin of John’s, Jesus of Nazareth, stepped into the water. And when John baptized him the gospel writer Mark says that the heavens ripped open, the Holy Spirit came down upon Jesus in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven thundered “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11). And as those words echoed away, his ministry officially began. From that point on, Jesus was a man on a mission. He had come to bring back the Jews who had fallen away, and he had come to be a light for the Gentiles. And for the next three years of his life - from his baptism to his ascension, Jesus never wavered in that mission. He preached countless sermons, performed incredible miracles, healed the sick and disabled, prayed night and day, often times went without sleep, patiently instructed, vehemently condemned, and invited everyone to see their Savior - whether Jews in the city or Gentiles in the country. Jesus was determined to carry out the mission his Father had given him. He was set on fulfilling the prophecy spoken about him through the prophet Isaiah so many years ago.
700 years before Jesus wrapped himself in flesh and blood and walked on the surface of this earth, the prophet Isaiah spoke the Lord’s own words about Jesus and about his mission. And according to this prophecy, the first thing the coming Messiah was to do, was “to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself.” Jesus came to bring back the Jews to the true faith. And throughout his life you can see how much effort Jesus put into that assignment. It was his custom to go into the synagogue every Sabbath Day and teach the Jews there. He spent many hours among the Pharisees explaining the Word of God to them. He attended the Jewish festivals and instructed the Israelites there that had gathered from all over the land. He even gave these instructions to his disciples the first time he sent them out on their own: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel” (Matthew 10:5-6). Jesus desperately wanted to save his own people. He wanted them to repent. He wanted them to believe in him as their Savior. And when they didn’t, when they rejected him, when they refused to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, he was heartbroken. A few days before his crucifixion Jesus looked at the capital city of Judah and cried out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matthew 23:37).
Jesus had a genuine love for the Jewish nation. He longed to bring them back even though they almost categorically denied his love and forgiveness. But Jesus never gave up on those Jews who called him a blasphemer. He never stopped trying to lead those who hated him to the truth. He even went to the cross for those who sent him there to show the extent he was willing to go for their salvation. Christ was on a mission. And he did everything that needed to be done for the salvation of a nation who didn’t even want him alive.
I would have written off the Jews a long time before that. After seeing their attitude about Christ and after witnessing their blatant disrespect for Jesus and his Word, I would have given up on them. I wouldn’t have even tried! I would have made the determination right away that they were so stubborn and so hardened that it wasn’t even worth my time. I’m positive I would have thought that if I were living during Jesus’ life because all of us still do the same thing today. When we run across a person from a different religion - not a Christian denomination but a Muslim or a Mormon or a Jehovah’s Witness or a self-proclaimed atheist or even someone who practices Judaism - we almost instantly write them off, don’t we? “Oh, he’s a Muslim, she’s a Mormon, that family belongs to the Jehovah Witnesses church, they are life-long members of the Jewish synagogue… and so why bother? I’m not even going to waste my breath. They are so deep into their false teachings that they will never listen to the truth. They are so tricked by what their church body has taught them and are so convinced that those heresies are actually the truth that they are as good as gone.” And with that attitude controlling our thoughts and minds we don’t even attempt to talk to them about Christ. We don’t include them in our prayers. We don’t even consider it possible for them to become believers in the true sense of the word. We would never say that out loud, of course! We would never verbally question the power of God’s Word on the hearts of people, but deep in our heart we always seem to know that there is really no hope for this particular person or that unfortunate family. We shake our heads in disgust after talking to a Muslim, we avoid like the plague the two Mormons walking down the street, we try to kick the Jehovah’s Witnesses off our porch as soon as human possible, we roll our eyes at the atheist and keep our mouths shut, we wrinkle our brows in confusion at why anyone would want to follow the traditions of Judaism like the person standing in front of you… We write them off, we try not to think about where they will end up, and we move on with our lives.
But Jesus died for these people. Jesus sacrificed his own life for them. Jesus’ mission was to save them. And so we dare not write them off. We dare not give up hope. We dare not ignore them or automatically determine they are beyond saving the very first time we meet them. Because that is not for us to decide. That is directly contrary to Christian love. That is directly contrary to God’s grace. That is directly contrary to Jesus’ mission. Are we to decide how far his mission should reach? Are we to decide when his mission has failed? Are we to decide that his mission should be extended to some people but not others? It is his mission. Not ours. It is his work. Not ours. It is his decision. Not ours. But we all have at times tried to decide for Christ to whom he should go and how far he should go and when he should stop.
Jesus’ mission never stops. And Jesus’ mission shows no favoritism. His mission was to save his own people, the Jews, but also the Muslims and the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses and us. Jesus’ goal was not only to bring back his own countrymen; his purpose was to be a light to the world. His Father said to him through the prophet Isaiah, “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” And because that is Jesus’ full plan, we are included in the beneficiaries of Jesus’ mission. We Gentiles, belonging to nations apart from God’s chosen people, are now included in God’s chosen people. His grace extended beyond the borders of his selected few and now encompasses the earth. That is what Jesus came to do. And we see him carry out that aspect of his mission throughout his entire life.
When Jesus was on this earth, he made it a point to reach out to those who were not included in the physical children of Abraham. He went to the city of Tyre and healed the daughter of a Greek woman. He gladly brought back to health the servant of a Roman centurion. And he lovingly confronted a Samaritan woman with her sin and with her Savior as they stood beside each other at Jacob’s well. Jesus’ mission was all-encompassing. No one was excluded from his love and grace, and no one is now. His mission is that his salvation is brought to the ends of the earth. His mission is that the most vile, the most undeserving, the most sinful sinners are forgiven. And you are proof.
Look who you are right now! You are an undeserving sinful sinner, but you are also forgiven! And you know it! You believe it! The Holy Spirit has worked faith in your heart through his powerful Word and you fully trust that Christ has died on the cross for your sins and so now you are eternally saved. And that fact that you believe that is proof that Jesus’ mission has worked on you. He has “called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9) as Peter says. A light that scatters the darkness of sin and reveals to you the glory and majesty of your Savior. A light that enables you to see through faith Jesus’ love and his compassion and his patience and the effort he has put in for you and the ransom he had to pay for you. Jesus has been a light for your sake so that you will never have to live in darkness again.
And amazingly, he wants to now use you to share this light with the world! He has extended his mission to include you, and now he wants to use you to extend it to others. It’s very similar to what our military does in this country. They use some of their own to recruit others because they have been on the “other side.” They know what it’s like for both civilians and those in the service. Jesus wants to use you to save others. Because you’ve been on the other side. You know what they need because you needed it and you now have it. Now that you have been brought to faith, the Lord wants to utilize your knowledge of the Savior to help others see him. It’s a humbling assignment, isn’t it? It’s overwhelming in a way. We are to carry out Christ’s mission? We are to offer his forgiveness and salvation to all the world? We are to be Christ’s ambassadors? It certainly is a task of great consequence that Jesus has called us to carry out. But he doesn’t ask us to carry it out alone. He promises to help us. He promises to be with us. And he promises that his Word will work in the hearts of those we come into contact with so that his will is always done.
And so now is not the time to write off some of those you know - it’s the time to reach out to even more. Now is not the time to step back - now is the time to take the lead. Now is not the time to wait or to set aside or to hope someone else will do what you are privileged to do - now is the time to go. Now is the time to talk. Now is the time to invite. Now is the time to care. Now is the time to love. Now is the time to give everyone you know a chance to see the light of Christ that you have been given, a chance to know the love of Christ that you know so well, a chance to experience the life in Christ that you will live forever.
You are on a mission. Christ’s mission. A mission that is tireless in spreading the gospel. A mission that has an urgent concern for the souls of all people more than anything else in this life. A mission that could not be any more monumental for sinners on this earth or any more important to the Savior of sinners, Jesus himself. He wants his mission to prosper. And he will make sure it will. And he will make sure it will prosper through you. Take joy in that privilege! Take pride in that responsibility your Lord gives you! You are able to share a message unparalleled in all of eternity! You are able to give the most precious gift known to man for free. And we as a congregation are able to carry out that mission together. I pray that the Lord gives you the motivation to do that faithfully. And I pray that he allows us to always carry out Christ’s mission to his glory.
Amen.

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance.” - Psalm 33:12