In thinking
about today’s feast, I found myself asking a simple, predictable question: “Why
did Jesus seek baptism from John the Baptist?” Since John’s was a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and presuming that Jesus had no need to
be purified in this way, why did Jesus deliberately seek out baptism from John?
Based on today’s gospel, one probable explanation could be that it was the most
effective way for Jesus to be publicly recognized. Given John’s reluctance to
go through with the baptism, his protestation that he needed baptism from
Jesus, one could understand Jesus’ response to let it be... so as to fulfill
all righteousness. It was a question of doing God’s will. By doing so, not only
John, but all those around him would hear the revelation that accompanied the
baptism. That certainly seems to be Matthew’s point: here is the Messiah. Yet this wasn’t simply a “ta-da” moment. It
was more a confirmation for Jesus to launch his public ministry which would
quickly pick up steam through his healings and teaching.
Be
that as it may, however, beyond Matthew’s specific intent, Jesus’ baptism
reveals something more: it is the revelation of the Trinity, the distinctive
bedrock of Christian belief about the very nature of God. It all starts
here. Just as the Spirit hovered over
the waters at the creation in Genesis, here we have the Spirit in the form of
the dove lighting upon Jesus, followed by the voice from heaven saying, “This
is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” Father, Son and Spirit are revealed in this
event. What it means for us is the reality of a new creation, the possibility
of real personal and cosmic transformation.
The first two readings this
morning amplify this. Ezekiel prophesies that God will pour clean water over
Israel, removing the heart of stone, giving them a new heart and a new spirit.
And in Paul’s letter to Titus he explains that God’s grace has been revealed to
save the entire human race. He does this by means of the cleansing water of
rebirth and renewal in the Holy Spirit. The fruit of this is an enlightenment
of sorts, the gift of being able to recognize Christ as the true light of the
world. This is what baptism inaugurates, even if it takes years to come to a
more mature, personal experience of Christ.
Still,
all this, powerful as it is, doesn’t exhaust the riches of this feast, the
scope of its mystery. By Jesus’ accepting baptism, he consciously identifies
with all people, with sinners of all times, without exception. He literally
plunges into an identification with all humanity, both individually and
collectively. It is a prophetic act, one that makes clear that he came not to
judge or condemn, not to lay on us a new burden of rules and regulations, but
by taking on our nature to be simply united with us, knowing from the inside
what it is like to be a human being; he does this solely out of love, and in so
doing even more mysteriously makes us partakers of his divine life. This is
what makes the incarnation credible: what St Athanasius said so long ago: “God
became human so that humans may become God.”
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