Baptized into the Cross

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. - Galatians 2:20a

In this season of Lent, we hear a lot in our scripture readings about the cross. As we walk through the season of Lent, we get closer and closer to Holy Week, when we tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. We focus on the cross, not because we're meant to feel guilty, but because we give thanks for what God did on the cross. Because Jesus died on the cross for us and for all of humanity, we don't have to spend all of our time worrying about being acceptable to God. We look to the cross and see God doing what God always does-- taking a place of death and suffering and destruction, and bringing forth life from it.

When we have a funeral for someone who has died, we Lutherans talk a lot about baptism. We hear the words that Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, "If we have been united with Christ in a death like his, we shall surely be united in a resurrection like his." When we were baptized, our old selves died. No matter how young we were, no matter if we remember it or not, we died. Traditionally, those being baptized were fully submerged in the water, as though their old selves drowned and they came up from the water, raised to a new life. Even though our practice has changed and we now sprinkle heads with water instead of full immersion, the same thing happens to us. We die and are reborn.

But nothing in this life is ever quite that easy, is it? We forget that we have been reborn. We stumble through life, not always making choices that lead to everyone being able to flourish. That's why we remember our baptism, why we start our worship services with confession and forgiveness. Because even though the sacrament of baptism is something that happens to us once, it's also something that we are a part of every single day. Every day is a new chance to die to our old selves, to the selfish parts of ourselves that don't see or care for anyone else, and to live into the new life that Jesus brings, the new life that is only possible because of the cross.

In our baptism, we die with Christ and rise again with Christ. Our baptism sends us out into the world, to follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Not because we're saved by our works, but because our neighbor needs them, and it is through our efforts in the world, however small, that the work of God is done and the kingdom of God comes closer.