(Resurrection Parish - Tualatin, Oregon)
"Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one"
Matthew 3: 13-17
The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/011126.cfm
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Almighty ever-living God,
who, when Christ had been baptized in the River Jordan
and as the Holy Spirit descended upon him solemnly declared him your beloved Son,
grant that your children by adoption, reborn of water and the Holy Spirit,
may always be well pleasing to you.
Thorugh our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
(Opening Collect)
The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord is essentially the second of three epiphanies of Jesus. Yes, while we are most accustomed to THE Epiphany, the famed visit of the Magi to the child Jesus and his mother, if we look at the Gospels we would see essentially three instances in which Jesus revealed himself to the world, a window, a new light, of who he is: God become human among us and stepped in to our world. As he was planning to do so through the words of the prophets, he fulfilled that in the coming of the God/man, Jesus. The Magi symbolize the wider world, the Gentiles, and how the world came to recognize why the Word became flesh in our midst.
The second “epiphany”
is that of our feast today, the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan by John the
Baptist. As Matthew relates in our Gospel, our Lord is baptized, he
comes out of the water and the Holy Spirit appears in “bodily form,” and a
voice from heaven is heard: “This is my Son . . .” The Son appears on earth to walk among us and
share the fullness of the broken human condition. He did not remain aloof from
human reality but entered in, to walk side by side in our broken world and to
create a redeemed world order before God.
The third epiphany? Although
we won’t hear the story, we are very familiar with it: the wedding at Cana and
the change of water into wine. Why that one? It was his first public miracle,
urged on by his own mother, Mary who presented the problem to her son, then told
the waiters, “Do whatever he tells you.” (Jn 2: 3-6) and so they did and in doing so Jesus continures the gift of joy for the wedding banquet and honors the sanctity of marriage by his presence. Is this the origin of the sacrament of Matrimony? It certainly is one of its bases.
In these three
events, the coming of the Magi, the baptism of Jesus by John, and the miracle
at Cana, God reveals not only his humanity now enfleshed in the person of his
Son, but also that this mysterious man, is divine and has power over nature as
in the working of miracles. At the wedding at Cana where Jesus follows the lead
of his mother and breaks upon the scene by turning water into wine. In that way, the first of his public
miracles, he reveals to his disciples that he is not just an ordinary rabbi. God is at work through him in an
unprecedented way.
But there is a
perplexing question that the early Church wrestled with, why was Jesus
baptised? As the argument went: John preached a baptism of repentance from
sin. If Jesus submitted to John’s
baptism, he must have been with sin. Yet, if our claim that Jesus is divine is
true, how could he be with sin? And, if he is without sin, why would he be
baptized? So goes the issue, round and
round. The answer to it will make the difference in understanding the true
nature of Christ.
One historical
comparison may help. During the Second
World War, England and in particular the city of Londan became a target by the
German air force. In 1940 that famed
city was bombed and destroyed most of the infrastructure of the city. But, what about the Royal family, the King
and Queen in particular. King George and
Queen Elizabeth, the parents of the late Queen Elizabeth II, were inside
Buckingham palace on the day of the bombing on Friday the 13th, 1940.
What did they
do? Flee to the countryside? Leave the
nation to fend for itself? More than one advisor strongly urged them to leave
for the sake of their lives and the future monarchy. Yet, despite their
privilege and position, they remained in the city. They shared the experience of that tragedy
and literally went to the people to encourage them and build up their lives. To
give them confidence and hope. They
entered the broken experience of the people and in the end built up the city
and nation and won great esteem from the people.
That is something of
the same as to why Jesus was baptized.
Though there was no need for him to do so, he entered our sinful
broken lives, he reached down and stood shoulder to shoulder with the sinful in
order to and heal and bring hope to humanity by calling us to the cleansing
waters of baptism and inviting us to now share in his mission and in the grace
of mercy and forgiveness.
The Gospel passage
from Luke this Sunday brings us to see the result of what Jesus has done. Luke
writes: “After Jesus had been
baptized . . . the heavens were opened for him, an dhe3 saw the Spirit of God dwescending like a dove and coming upon him. . ." The Son of God is anointed by the Spirit and is now sent out on his mission.
As we come to the end
of this year’s Christmas celebrations our attention now turns to this second
epiphany. Today’s Baptism of the Lord reminds us of the process through which
the curtains were drawn open for the world to receive the long-awaited
Savior. The curtains are open and the spotlight
shifts from John to Jesus as John fades from the scene. Jesus is the One.
It reveals the truth
of who Jesus is and uncovers part of that mystery. He is indeed God from God
and light from light yet he is also fully human. His sinless condition did not
make baptism necessary for him but for our sake it did. In the act of submission to John’s baptism
Jesus reveals to us not only who he is but in the same way who we are and what
we are called to become. In being baptized our Lord took upon him our sinful
nature and joined himself to us in the full experience of human life. This great act of mercy for humanity is
profound as it brings us the true hope of eternal life.
The other may be a
more complex question - that of sin itself.
Do we sin because we are human? Does the baptism of Jesus become
necessary because we are inherently a sin-prone people? We casually say that
“no one is perfect” so is that just the way things are for us? Do we uncomfortably put up with greed, lust,
selfishness, violence, deception, pride, gluttony, killing and rampant evil
because we are “only human?”
Jesus’ baptism shows us that to be fully human we are called to a higher moral standard. We were not created to be disobedient creatures. We don’t sin because we are “just human.” We sin because we are weak. That guilt of original sin, first committed when humanity turned away from God through free choice, is washed away in baptism so the grace of the same Spirit which descended on Jesus at the Jordan may come on us. While baptism isn’t some sort of magic that will transform everything instantly it opens the door to faith and solidarity with Christ as Lord and Savior as we now continue our journey through life as beloved sons and daughters of God.
Jesus showed us the
better side of human nature and what God’s intent is for us. That sin and
selfishness, greed and pride, violence and hatred should not rule our
world. Jesus’ own entrance into our
history makes all that possible by the Gospel he revealed to us. That God wishes solidarity with all of
humanity and offers to send his Holy Spirit to all who seek it and live by it. His
entrance on our stage is a new light, the brightest light to follow and
emulate. Compassion, mercy, love,
healing are virtues of strength not weakness. Our mission then is that of
Christ himself and the Spirit received in baptism compels us outward to be
missionaries of the Gospel of Christ himself.
During one weekly
Sunday Angelus at St. Peter’s, the late Pope Francis stated the same reminder:
“We Christians must do this: replace malice with innocence, replace power
with love, replace pride with humility, and replace status with service. Being disciples of the Lord means . . . not
assuming closed attitudes but rather proposing the Gospel to everyone; bearing
witness by our lives that following Jesus makes us freer and more joyous.”
(Angelus: 1/19/14).
In the celebration of
the Holy Eucharist, we are intimately joined to Christ as our Word and our
food. We stand in solidarity with each
other in forgiveness, love, support and our spiritual life. Here we are strengthened to go out and be
truly human and more authentically the presence of Jesus in the world of today.
As we are baptized into Christ we preach his mission not by words alone but
more convincingly by good example.
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