Dear Christians, the Lord has given you a treasure. He has given you a gift so precious and wonderful that it will bring you to everlasting life. This gift protects you from the devil. It proves that God is your Father. It is the pure white garment of Christ's righteousness. It is the seal of the Holy Spirit that guarantees your inheritance of eternal life and blessedness. This gift is your proof that your sins have been forgiven and that you will rise from the dead on the Last Day. This promise and treasure from the Lord is nothing else than...drum roll please...your Baptism! Yes, in your Baptism you have been united to Jesus and in that water and the word the Holy Spirit has made sure that what Christ has accomplished on the cross is delivered personally to you. In Baptism, through the hands of the pastor, the Lord snatches you from the devil's kingdom and brings you into His family. In Baptism, you are made a disciple, a child of God, and an heir of eternal life! Learn your Catechism; learn what it teaches about Holy Baptism so that you will ever be comforted and strengthened against the devil, the world, and your sinful flesh. Learn to live in your Baptism each day, for the glory of God and the benefit of your neighbor, those around you in your life.
Beware, fellow baptized, because we are surrounded by churches and preachers and worldly wisdom that wants to make Baptism into something other than it is. Baptism is a religious ritual. A rite of initiation or rite of passage. Baptism is a work you do that symbolizes your faith. Baptism is an outward sign of what's in your heart. Baptism is an ordinance that shows your obedience and changed life. Away with these notions! These are WRONG! Hear what the Holy Scriptures say. What does St. Matthew record? Who instituted Baptism? Jesus did. Into Whose name are we baptized? The Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Whose words are these? The Lord's! Whose command? Whose promise? It's all the Lord's! The first and most important thing we must learn about Holy Baptism is that it not OUR work but the LORD'S work. Baptism is not something we do to show God something. Baptism is something the Lord does to us to give and to do FOR YOU.
And this is just like the Lord has always acted and done His work. In the Garden of Eden, He attached His promise to the Tree of Life, that if they ate from it, they would live forever. To the ark, God attached the promise of being saved from the earth-destroying flood. In the desert, the Lord's promise attached to the bronze serpent saved those who were bitten by snakes. In the land of Israel, the Lord's promise attached to the Temple and sacrifices meant that people's sins they committed were not counted against them. The Syrian leper, Naaman, dipped seven times into the Jordan River to which the Lord had attached His promise to cure him of leprosy. But now, in Christ, we have Holy Baptism. Where the Lord's Word is spoken with the water, He has attached His promise to Baptism to save us. And see what a far better and more gracious promise comes with the Baptismal water, for this is not just for Adam and Eve or the Old Testament people of God or Naaman the Syrian. The Lord's Word with the water is a holy washing away of sins for all people of all nations! Holy Baptism is just the Lord doing things they way He's always done them but now doing them for all people in Christ.
Christ has not only attached His Word and Promise to Baptism but Himself as well! For where His Word and Promise are, there He is to save us. After His command to make disciples by baptizing and teaching, hear how He says, “Lo! I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Where is He with us? How is He with us? Simply: where baptizing and teaching are going on. Your Baptism is your promise that Jesus is with you, is yours, is FOR YOU. Baptism is Jesus' way of delivering to you all that He did for you in His life and death. From taking on Himself our sins in HIS Baptism, to fighting and defeating the devil and his tempting power, to suffering and dying on the cross for our sins and rising again in victory over sin, death and the devil—all these things Jesus has done for you. When our Lord gives His command and promise about Baptism, He is promising that with that water and His word, He Himself is yours and all that He has done He has done FOR YOU.
Now you have a defense against all that the world throws at you. Every sorrow, every bit of suffering—anything that happens to you that might persuade you that you are not a child of God—against all these things you can put your Baptism which is sure, certain and unchangeable. Against any temptation to believe that the Lord is NOT your heavenly Father, that Jesus has not taken away your sins or that you don't have the Holy Spirit living in you—against all these put your Baptism which has delivered and declares God's promises to you. Here is some more Lenten repentance for us based on our Baptism: don't live and believe what this world says about you, what your sins say about you or what the Devil says about you. Believe what your Baptism says about you! Believe what the water and the word declare you are. Repent of trying to figure out how things are between you and the Lord based on what's going on in your life. Instead, look to your Baptism which is His promise of exactly how things are between you: He the Father, you the child; He the Savior, you the one saved; He the Comforter, you the one comforted. But there's more! YOUR Baptism is also for the benefit of your neighbor. The Lord rescues you from sin and death so that He might make you of some use to the people in your life who need you. Whether it's your parents or kids or spouse or grandkids or coworkers or whomever—learn what your Baptism teaches: don't treat others as their sins deserve but treat them as those who have had their sins covered in the waters of Holy Baptism, too. Look around at your brothers and sisters in Christ. If we just look at one another and deal with one another on the basis of our behavior, we're in trouble! We're constantly stepping on one another's toes and if we got offended and mad each time we did it, we'd never survive. So look around and behold the sinner sitting next to you, not as a sinner, but as they are in Christ, as they are by their Baptism: a child of God.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, dearly baptized, learn your baptism! Open your catechism and study! Learn what Baptism is and what it does and how it does it and what it means for each day of your life. When the devil whispers to you that you are no Christian, shove your Baptism in His face and beg to differ. When the world overwhelms you and works to convince you that you are not a child of God, lift high your Baptism as a rallying cry that you will not listen to what the world says about you, but believe what the Lord has made you in your Baptism into Jesus. When your sinful flesh piles up sins so that you begin to think that you can't really be a Christian and can't possibly be saved or be going to heaven, then cry out that you are baptized. When you see the people around you, especially the ones in the church, acting as if they are sinners too, then look upon them NOT as sinners deserving your judgment but as fellow baptized disciples who are covered with the holiness of Jesus and therefore, in their baptism, like you, are not seen by the Lord as sinners but as His people. Learn and believe that Baptism is no mere work of man but is the very work of God which saves and rescues your from sin and death. Learn your Baptism. Live in your Baptism. Do as the Catechism says, each morning and evening, rising up and going to bed with the sign of the cross and your baptismal name. It goes like this: In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.