Jan 11, 2026 - Romans 6:1-11 - The Baptism of Our Lord

A number of polls have come out recently as we move into 2026. It’s a midterm election year, so all of the political talking heads want to know how voting will go later this year. It’ll be a bit of a statement as to what Americans think of how Trump and Congress are doing. Of the polls I’ve seen, the item that tops the charts is immigration.

Obviously there are many different schools of thought on immigration, whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing. Even if it is acceptable, what are the standards and expectations? Who gets in and who doesn’t?

Immigration has been a major feature of our country for a long time. In most big cities you’ll have parts of town that bear the clear features of one ethnic group or another: a Little Italy, a China Town. The names on the businesses, the restaurants, the way people talk, all speaks to their ethnic heritage. Here in Fort Smith we have the unique influx of Vietnamese refugees that probably account for why we have as many Vietnamese restaurants and bubble tea shops around as we do.

Again, there are many schools of thought on immigration. You may have your own opinions on the matter and may make your opinions known in the election. I’m not so much concerned about the circumstances and value of immigration, rather I want you to think about what happens, or what should happen, when someone does immigrate. What does that life look like?

If you were one of those Vietnamese refugees who came here as a result of the war that was devastating your country, what do you do when you get here? It’s not as if you can just throw out your heritage. Your past has helped shaped who you are, what your interests are, what skills you have developed, the nursery rhymes you learns, the books you’ve read, the music you’ve listened to, that all doesn’t just go away. Still, you’re here in a new country, a country you came to because you wanted to, probably because there was something going very wrong in your home country. Do you try and become a part of this new country with all of its opportunities? Do you try and support it and make it a better place, a place that others like me might want to come? Or do I live like I’m still in my home country? Do I try to make where I live now like where I came from, even though my home country is a mess and even though I came here because I think it will be a better place for me?

The question of immigration can’t truly be separated from assimilation. Do I go to a new place and keep doing things the same way I’ve always done them, or do I go to the new place and become part of what they’re doing?

Even for those of us who were born here and have lived all of our lives here, the issue of immigration and assimilation are very pertinent to us, not just as citizens, but as immigrants.

St. Paul’s discussion of baptism here in Romans is about the most extensive explanation of the sacrament in the New Testament. God had been teaching his people about how he works through water from the very beginning. Here though, we aren’t preparing people for something yet to come. Jesus has already instituted baptism as a means, a system, by which God binds his word and promise to people. God promises to do things here, great, powerful, and gracious things. But what does that all mean? Baptism is something we should all want, we’re even commanded to share this gift with the world. What does it mean to be on the receiving end of this gift?

St. Paul brings out is how baptism is a transition. It functions this way just about everywhere you see God working through water. The unclean are made clean. The slaves are made free. The sinner is made righteous. Now also, the dead are made alive.

Wherever we see God working this way, it is always as a gift. The unclean cannot make himself clean. He has to be judged clean. The slaves in Egypt could not make themselves free. They had to be set free and the threat of slavery had to be drowned and die. The sinful and evil world could not make itself good and righteous. It had to be washed clean from top to bottom, to purge it of all of the evil. Only righteous Noah and his family remained safe from the waters. The dead cannot make themselves live. The dead are powerless, helpless. They have to be given life by the one who has the authority to tell the grave to give up its dead.

God accomplishes the work necessary to bring someone from one side to the other. These are all life-altering changes. They make you new and different. They give you something you didn’t have before and could never get for yourself. God has saved you from a terrible and eternal fate.

Now what? God has brought you across the border from death to life. Like someone who has been allowed to emigrate from a war-torn, poverty stricken country and now lives in a land of peace and prosperity, what do you do now that you’re here? Do you become a part of the good things that are happening here? Do you take leave behind the cultural values that brought war and destruction, that run roughshod over the needs of others, abusing and taking advantage of them?

God has taken you from an old life, from old ways and customs, old ways that are all about feeding your own need for pleasure, comfort, or wealth, and bringing you into a land, a kingdom, where the needs of others are more important than your own, a land where the king himself demonstrates this life by loving and caring for his subjects by sacrificing his own life for them.

St. Paul argues that living in your old ways is more than just odd, it’s impossible. While you might be able to import your old morals and values from the old into the new here in this world, you can’t do that with God’s kingdom. God’s kingdom only works one way. You don’t get to live however you want. Besides, why would you want to? You left sin behind. You left slavery behind. You left uncleanliness behind. You left death behind. Why would you want to bring any of that back?

St. Paul wants us to see clearly what God has done for us. Saved from death, saved from slavery, saved from an existence apart from him, saved from death. Baptism is your assurance of all of those things. It is your assurance that those are no longer things you have to fear. They no longer rule your life.

Jesus leads us from death to life. We, as his disciples, follow in his footsteps. We learn to live like him. As students emulate their teachers, children emulate their parents, we emulate Christ. Jesus comes into a world mired in sin and cursed by death. He takes his followers out of that dark place, out of that hopelessness and isolation, and brings to a place of life and joy. He redeems us with his own blood. He secures our release with his suffering and death. He enters into the darkness of the tomb to bring out all of those who are trapped in death. We who follow him into the tomb will continue following him out of the tomb.

If we have left the tomb, if we have left sin, left isolation, left slavery, and left death behind, why would we want to go back to them? As God leads his people across the wilderness, he commands them sternly not to return to Egypt. They complain repeatedly about how much better life was back then and how God has abandoned them and left them to die. They romanticize slavery and death. They make it sound like a good thing. They think the old ways were better. They would give up everything God had given them because they do not want to let go of the evil they had lived around.

The temptation is there before us every day. We return to what we know, to what feels comfortable. Even though we know it’s evil and destructive, even when our selfish wants destroy relationships and ruin lives, we still want to bring that way of life into God’s kingdom. We want all of the benefits, but we don’t want to change. We struggle with admitting that we are the ones who made a mess of things here. I would like to say I’m one of the few that has his head on straight and I can find admittance into God’s kingdom on my own merits. But no, I can only do so by changing the standard required for entry, or by overlooking all of the evil I commit.

God has to make me clean. God has to rescue me from slavery. God has to rescue me from sin. God has to rescue from death. God brings me into his kingdom through the work of his Son. He has given me a place in his kingdom, a place I don’t deserve. It is a kingdom that is free from all of the evil of the world. To keep my old ways of living is to say I would be better off if I had never left, if I were still trapped in slavery to sin and death.

The Baptism of Jesus shows us what God has been doing with water from the very beginning. Jesus brings all of that together there in the Jordan. As he tells a confused Joh, “it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus doesn’t need it for himself, but to make it ready for us. He, like God in the pillar of cloud and flame, leads his people through the water, keeping them safe from the danger. We follow Jesus through the water and find ourselves safely deposited on the other side. We are new people now. We are God’s people, citizens of his kingdom.

St. Paul’s message is one of grace. Christ has led you from death to life. His message is one of promise. If you continue to follow Christ, you will always end up wherever he is leading, no matter how grim things look, no matter what evils are perpetrated in this world, Christ will lead you out. His message is also a reminder. You follow Christ because he saves you. You follow Christ because his way is the better way, the perfect way, the only way.

Leave your old ways behind. You will struggle. You’ll be tempted. You’ll fail over and over again. But, God has already given you citizenship in his kingdom. Trust in his salvation and learn from his ways. Live the new life that he has given you, so that you his kingdom in action in your life today.