As preached by Brother Christopher
Holy Wisdom Church
“Then Jesus appeared…” (Mt 3:13)
Why did Jesus get baptized? As
biblical scholars and historians attest, that Jesus was baptized can hardly be
doubted. Since John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance and those who went
out to the Jordan to be baptized simultaneously confessed their sins, why would
Jesus— whom we believe to have been the sinless one— why would he have joined
their ranks? John the baptist himself protests initially, “It is I need baptism
from you and yet you come to me…” I don’t think it was a display of false
humility on Jesus’ part but instead an action that was drenched in meaning, in
solidarity with humanity. On the one hand, Jesus recognized that it was God’s
will; when he responds to John by telling him it is necessary that they fulfill
all righteousness, that’s what he was getting at. Jesus recognized that in
submitting to baptism not only was he identifying fully with the human
condition, but also in his person he was bringing to a close the old covenant
and ushering in a new age. In this sense, his baptism was a prophetic act, one
that was radically eschatological. That this is so is shown by the fact that as
he emerges from the water, heaven opens and the Spirit of God descends on him
like a dove and the voice from heaven says, ‘This is my Son, the beloved, with
whom I am well pleased.’ This is the revelation of the Trinity. All three
persons are present: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The evocative symbol of the
dove that hovered over the chaotic waters in Genesis, now is present at the new
creation, and the voice of the Father confirms Jesus’ true identity before his
public ministry. To quote John the Baptist, he will be the one in the new age
to baptize in the Holy Spirit and with fire.
Yet
the significance doesn’t end there. On a liturgical level, theophany is an
incredibly rich feast that expands the mystery of Jesus’ baptism to a more
cosmic level. Water is a symbol of life. Without it, there is no life. In the
context of the liturgy, water becomes an image of the whole of life, the world
and all creation. No matter how dirty and polluted life has become, it is never
beyond purification and transformation. When Jesus enters the water, he enters
as the God/Man, possessing both a human and divine nature in one person. In one
of the prefestive hymns we sung, “Neither simply God nor plainly human, but,
in both his natures, he is one only-begotten Son. In his humanity, he asks the
prophet to baptize him; in his divinity, he takes away the sins of the world.” Being
immersed fully into the waters of the Jordan, Jesus symbolically unites himself
with all creation, with all matter, and as he rises from the Jordan the whole
world shimmers in its aftermath, transformed into an eschatological vision that
is radiant for those with the eyes to see it. The liturgy gives us such a
glimpse. Think of the verse in the 2nd lity hymn of this feast that we sang
last night, “Today, Christ the Savior is baptized. As he comes forth from
the waters, he raises all the world as well…”
Today is
Theophany, the appearance of God, God appearing in sensible form. It is a feast
of lights, of revelation. Jesus’ baptism reveals a world transformed by God,
restored to its pristine beauty by virtue of an unconditional love that
overcomes every temptation to despair. That is worthy of our every hope.
