What is baptism for?

[AI translation] You remember, I mentioned that now between Easter and Pentecost, in both our dioceses in Budapest, we have Sunday teaching on the means of grace in the churches. God, who has received us into the covenant of His grace, has also given us the so-called means of grace, with which He works out our salvation on the one hand, and prepares us for our Christian vocation on the other. These means of grace are the Word, the sacraments and the Church. That is why we have already spoken about the good of the Bible, the good of the Word preached, the good of preaching, and now I would like to speak again about a very simple but fundamental question: what is baptism for? It is not a question of whether or not we need the sacrament of baptism for our children, but of the fact that we ourselves, all of us, are baptised people, that at some time or other we have had the waters of the cross poured on our heads in a church. So let it be a question between us now: what does it mean for us, for our faith and for our daily life, to be baptised in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?First of all, let me tell you frankly from experience: it doesn't mean much! We don't even think much about our baptism. When I was preparing for this sermon, I was struck by how much the significance of my own baptism had become flattened in me. And isn't that how it is for all of us? For which of us is it a new miracle every day to be a baptised person, which of us can be amazed again and again that this heavenly mark of distinction has been given to us? Even in a good marriage, there is a constant sense of the happy miracle of being one another. But do we have this joy of being God's and God's my own - which is, in fact, the very content of the sacrament of Baptism? At the time of our baptism and in the days and even years that followed, we could not have rejoiced in this miracle, because we knew nothing about it at the time. We did not consciously participate in it. We did not even go there ourselves, but were carried along in a lap. So it could not have meant much to us then. But now? Can we rejoice in it now? - No! - in other words, we are simply not aware that we have been baptised, and perhaps we would not be shocked or miss it if it turned out that we had not in fact been baptised.
Somehow, the whole idea of baptism has degenerated in our minds into a church ceremony for children, a solemn ceremony of naming, which, once you have been through it once in a long time, you don't think about it much when you are an adult. We grown-up people have relegated baptism to childhood, and even then we could not enjoy any of it, because when a few drops of water representing the blood of Christ fell on our heads: we were asleep or shouting. So we don't know anything about it, except what our parents tell us. Who among us knows, for example, the date of his baptism, the day he was baptised? We all know our birthday, of course, and remember it every year, but we would never think of celebrating the day of our baptism. And if someone did, we'd look at it as something special. But it wouldn't be so eccentric! Because on the day of my birth I was registered as a citizen of Hungary, and on the day of my baptism I was registered as a citizen of the Kingdom of God. And this is not such an insignificant event, in fact: it is something of significance for the rest of our lives!
Just imagine that once in your life something unimaginable happened, and that this miracle happened on the day of your baptism. The majestic and mighty God leaned over you and said, "This child is mine!" With the mention of your personal proper name, the Word was spoken over you, "I baptize you in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit!" Not "in the name of" - that is, as if baptism were by commission or authority of the living God - but in this way: "in the name of". The name then meant the person himself. The name of God: equal to God himself. To baptize in this name is to place one in the reality of God's life, to immerse one in it, in a way similar to the way a raw thread is dipped in crimson dye. So God has drawn You into the most intimate communion of life with Himself. God the Father, who has established an everlasting covenant of grace with his people; God the Son, who has washed this people from all sin with his own blood; God the Holy Spirit, who also shares with this name all that Christ has acquired for it, making salvation and eternal life a reality lived by faith. This same God, thrice the same, bowed down to you then long ago and declared, "This child is mine!" And "I am this child's!" So, when you could neither say yes nor no, when you could not yet choose and decide: He has already chosen, He has already chosen for you! He has chosen you body and soul! He did not wait for you to ask, - on the contrary, He loved you, redeemed you and received you into His eternal grace before you were even formed by His holy hand, before you were even alive on the face of the earth. And that there might be no doubt about all this grace which He has prefigured, He has confirmed it with a seal. He has also given visible proof. Those drops of water which actually fell on your head at your baptism, were seen by all; your name, which He connected with His own name, with His own life, was heard by all who were then in the church. He extended the scope of his covenant to you, and by the badge of his covenant: baptism, he marked you as belonging to him. God Almighty there, then, solemnly declared, "I am your covenant partner, I will be with you every day until the end of the world!
Yes, all this happened when I was baptized - all this is true, it is real! But: not magically! Baptism is not a magical instrument, by which we are now right with God, and which saves us without further ado, but an opportunity, an opened door. Moreover, it is a divine commitment, signed by the blood of Christ, which means that you do not have to acquire grace by piety practices or anything else, but you have to accept and live it as a free gift, but with self-conscious faith. Baptism is not a substitute for our decision in faith, but an aid to it, an urge to it. It assures you: you can truly believe that God is your God, that Jesus Christ died on the cross for you and in your place, that the Holy Spirit will possess you, will do the work of redemption and sanctification in you, will purify you and transform you into a man of God! God has made it known in your name that forgiveness is ready for your sins, that eternal life is open to you, that you can live in it - the seal is on you! You are baptized!
Draw strength from it for your faith! God accepts you too, makes your life blessed, rich, joyful, useful: why not live it? Why are you a beggar at God's door, when you could be a child in God's home? Look at the prodigal son: when he was going home, he determined to say, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your servants." And when he came home, and began to say what he had so often repeated to himself in his spirit on the way, behold, he could not finish his sentence. He had got as far as 'I am not worthy to be called your son', but 'make me like one of your servants' was already drowned in the embrace of paternal love. In the arms of his Father, he felt that he would offend this loving, dear heart! His father did not want a servant - for he was glad to have his child back. Let us understand, then, that we can please God no more than by claiming, with humble filial faith, our sonship, our filial rights, our dignity! That is, by not begging for alms as beggars, but by living in communion with Him as redeemed children!
Once upon a time, in the early days of Christianity, baptism was a turning point in the life of the person who received it: it was the expression of the great decision to pass from the old, pagan, godless life, by the grace of God, into the new life, a life truly Christlike, consecrated to God. The New Testament compares the waters of baptism to the waters of the Red Sea. The people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, and when they reached the other shore, the waters formed an impenetrable barrier between the abandoned house of service and the new, free life in which they were now wandering on towards the promised land. In this sense, the waters of the cross are a dividing line between our old sinful lives and the kingdom of God. Whoever has passed through it: having left the old self, can now walk in the renewed life redeemed in Christ. For you, your baptism can become such a Red Sea, such a dividing line, such a sign and seal of God's grace upon you, and indeed it becomes such a dividing line as soon as you decide with all your heart to live with Jesus Christ, to take on what He promised when He said at your baptism, "Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Mt 28,20).
In the room where I was preparing this sermon, a life-size portrait of my father hangs on the wall. It is painted in such a way that his gaze is always on the person who is looking at it. Wherever you go, in any corner of the room, in any part of the room, that gaze follows you, looking at you. In a way, it's very real with Jesus. "I am with you every day," he said. He is with me in such a way that his gaze is always on me. Wherever I go, whatever I do, wherever I hide. He sees me, he looks at me, his gaze gives me strength, comforts me, educates me, disciplines me, guides me, rebukes me, strikes me down and lifts me up: he is with me! I am with him! I live with him! I walk with Him in the streets, among people, in my work, among my family, in my struggle against my sins. He is with me and helps me and trains me to keep all that He commands us.
Let us not allow the fact of our baptism to be obscured, to be obscured: let us enjoy the great privilege of wearing the distinctive badge of our covenant relationship with the living God! Let us draw abundantly on His resources! It is now a sin to be empty, to be powerless, for you are entitled to abundance! Say to yourself, "I have all power in Christ". What I have to do, I have strength for in Him who strengthens me: in Jesus Christ. We will be amazed at what we will be able to accomplish! God has called us to a Christian life through baptism, He commits us to a Christian way of life: but He commits us in such a way that He immediately qualifies the one who commits himself to it by faith!
And now, when you go out of this church and life is going on around you, you are tired of work, people are annoying you, they talk to you or you talk to them, so if you live your daily life: do not forget that you are baptized, immersed in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit! Do not forget the gift and commitment of this gracious miracle!
Amen
Date: 29 April 1956.