Day 26 Thursday - Mar 23, 2023; Mar 14, 2024; Apr 3, 2025
And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name. -Acts 22:16
I hated bugs in my sandbox. We’d get these little beetles that just creeped me out and took all the fun out of sitting and playing because I was too occupied with whether one of them would come up out of the sand. So one day I came up with a solution: I flooded my sandbox. I put the hose in there and watched as the water carried all the beetles to the surface. Then they’d wash right out the side of the box.
Now you could go in there and dig up all the bugs and tell me they are gone. But I won’t lie, it sure helps to see those flood waters wash them away. The same is true of the power of baptism for our faith. I can tell you how Jesus has dug up and taken away every last sin. That is true. The hard part is sometimes believing it. That’s where baptism comes into play. “Rise and be baptized and wash away yours sins” is a message that says Jesus has taken away every sin, and you can believe that all the more because Jesus who died on the cross is now washes you in baptism. And it is this Jesus who gave you this cleansing baptism whose name you are to now call upon in faith. It makes the sin removal a little more real, a little easier to grasp, and offers us a ritual upon which we can count on his blood’s cleansing power washing over us. It confirms the gospel in our lives.
So when you look at the sandbox of your life, if you struggle to believe that now forgiveness has really taken away every sin, remember how God flooded that sandbox with his grace and confidently call upon his name again.
How marvelous, Lord, that you have washed me not just with water, but with your Word. Let me see in my baptism the cleansing power of Jesus over my sin. And let me always therefore call upon his name in a confidence that would not be the same apart from the gift of your sacrament. In Jesus’ name I sing this praise, Amen.
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