The Divine "Us"

Jesu Juva

St. Matthew 3:13-17                                      

January 11, 2026

The Baptism of Our Lord      

 Dear saints of our Savior~

        “Separate but equal.”  If you’ve ever taken a class in American history, that phrase (separate but equal) might sound familiar.  It comes from a Supreme Court decision in 1896: “Plessy vs. Ferguson.”  In that case, the court essentially ruled that there could be “separate” facilities for white people and black people, as long as those facilities were “equal.”  This ruling essentially sanctioned the practice of segregation:  schools for blacks and schools for whites.  Restrooms for blacks and restrooms for whites—also theaters, restaurants, water fountains.  The court held it was legal to be separate in these ways as long as “equal” facilities were maintained for both races.

        “Separate but equal” may have sounded good to some, but in practice this ruling was a disaster.  In reality, what was “separate” was not “equal.”  Maintaining separate facilities based upon race only served to deprive blacks of their equal rights under the law.  As long as there was “separation,” there could never be true “equality.”

        There’s a connection here to Jesus—and to His baptism.  When Jesus showed up at the Jordan to be baptized, it didn’t sit well with John the Baptizer.  John had been blasting away at sinners, threatening them with wrath and judgment, calling them to repent of their sins and be baptized.  And these blasted, threatened, repentant sinners came to John in droves.  They confessed their sins.  They waded into the water with John.  They listened to John preach about the Greater One who was coming, whose winnowing fork was in hand, ready to burn up sinners with unquenchable fire.

        But when Jesus showed up, He didn’t do what John expected.  He didn’t join John and start blasting away at sinners with the fiery demands of the law.  In fact, Jesus didn’t stand “separate” from the sinners at all.  Instead, Jesus stood with the sinners as their equal.  Not separate, but equal.  Jesus—at the very moment His public ministry began—stood smack dab in the middle of sinners just like us.  With Jesus, there would be no segregation.  Jesus stood shoulder to shoulder with the sinners—in solidarity with the sinners.  Jesus, in His baptism, made Himself equal to the sinners, and not separate from them.

        A Jesus standing with the sinners—that didn’t fit John’s template.  John objected.  According to John’s template, Jesus needed to stay separate, and sinners should move to Him.  He certainly shouldn’t stand among sinners as their equal.  “I need to be baptized by you,” John objected.  “What are you doing coming to me?”

        John was right to object.  John’s objection is at the heart of all man-made religion.  Human ideas about religion are that we are supposed to go to God, do as God commands, the lesser serves the greater.  Because according to human ideas about religion, God needs to be appeased.  God needs to be buttered-up.  God needs to be bribed and massaged and manipulated and flattered and bargained with.  These human ideas about religion make perfectly good sense to our human minds.  It’s logical.  It’s rational.  It’s reasonable.  It’s also dead wrong.

        But the Christian faith is altogether different from human religion.  It’s not about us reaching up to God to get Him to do what we want done.  It’s about Him coming to us—as one of us—to do for us what we could never do for ourselves.  The greater serving the lesser.  This is what the baby in the manger was all about at Christmas—God Himself coming to us as one of us.  This is what Jesus wading into the Jordan river is all about—God coming to us as one of us—not segregated, not separated, but equal. 

John wanted to keep Jesus separate: “No sinners’ baptism for you!”  But Jesus gently pushed past that objection.  And He does it with a divine personal pronoun:  Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting FOR US—FOR US to fulfill all righteousness.  When John wanted to keep Jesus separate, Jesus says that this is about “us” (third person PLURAL).  Not “me,” but “us,” says the Savior.

        That little pronoun, “us,” may just be the most important word of them all today.  That word spoken by Jesus tells the whole story.  The proof is in the pronoun.  Jesus comes to be one of US.  Jesus comes to take upon Himself all that has gone wrong with US—all our sin.  Jesus stands shoulder-to-shoulder with US—with tax collectors and prostitutes, with idolaters and adulterers, with greedy gossips, with the addicted and the abusive, with the worthless and the hopeless, bruised reeds and faintly burning wicks.  Jesus is standing in the water with US, equal to US, bearing the sin of all of US.

        And just so we don’t miss what’s really going on here, God labels it for us—attaches His Word to the whole wet and wonderful affair.  God the Father makes things easy for us today—labels the whole show with the unmistakable clarity of His Word: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.  This one man—the One standing with us in the water—the One standing by the side and in the stead of sinners—the One who is not separate from us, but equal—He is God’s beloved Son.

        With those words of God, we know for sure what’s happening.  God’s delight—God’s pleasure—God’s incredible love—is found in and through His one and only Son.  And that Son is standing with US.  He comes to US.  Where our sins are is where He is.  Where His righteousness is, is where we are.  His righteousness is ours, just as surely as our sins are His.  What is ours is His; what is His is ours—all through faith.

        At His baptism—as His public ministry began—Jesus doesn’t talk in terms of “me,” but only in terms of “us.”  So, the question becomes, are you a part of that “us?”  Are you where Jesus is?  Are you living with God’s beloved Son, in whom all of God’s love and pleasure is focused?  This is critically important.  When Jesus was baptized the heavens were torn open.  The heavens can only be opened for Jesus—and for US who are with Him in faith.  No matter how much you pray and plead—no matter how much you give and serve—you cannot open heaven.  Only Jesus can do that.  Salvation is found in no one else.

        But Jesus has come FOR US, and for our salvation.  In your own baptism Jesus placed His name on you.  In that splash of water and the Word, God the Holy Trinity labeled you.  All that Jesus has, He gives to you.  The heavens have been torn open for you.  The Holy Spirit has descended upon you.  The Father declares that you are His beloved child.

        You are together with Jesus.  With Jesus, you are an “us” and not just a “me.”  And that makes all the difference.  It makes all the difference in the depressing days of January.  How easy it is to drag along this time of the year, dreary and fearful.  Back to school.  Back to work.  Back to the same old problems and pressures.  Nobody loves me.  Everybody hates me.  Me against the world.  Me separate.  Me all alone.  Me and my guilt.  Me and my sin.  But Jesus Christ won’t allow that.  He’s not separate.  He won’t stand for separateness.  Jesus is all about US.  He and you.  You and He.  He comes to where you are, so that you are never left alone to face the challenges of another cruel year.  Jesus is with you—to bear your sin away and teach you how to live with Him in faith.

        That togetherness between you and Jesus—that divine “us-ness”—it never gets labeled so clearly as it does at this altar.  For as Jesus gives US His body to eat and His blood to drink, the love and delight of God come to rest on US.  You’re never a “me” at the Lord’s Supper.  You’re an “us” with Jesus—in solidarity with Jesus.  As it goes with Him, so it will go with you.  He is not separate, but stands as your equal, dies as your equal, rises to one day raise you up with Him. For nothing in all creation—not even death—can separate you from Him, or Him from you.  For in Him you are an “us.” 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.