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Last Sunday we had the joy of welcoming a new member into the Body of Christ through baptism. This Sunday we remember our Lord’s baptism by John the Baptist. For believers the baptism of our Lord is very important. Many of us have already been taught that through the waters of baptism our old life is washed away and we arise as new creations in Christ. If this is true, then why did Jesus have to be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness”?
The Son of God came into this world by taking on human flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. Although Jesus was born without sin and remained sinless for our sakes, He had to be baptized. The baptism of John the Baptism was a baptism of repentance. People came to John for baptism to publicly show that they desired to start anew. The act of public baptism was a sign of their repentance and contrition. Knowing this about John’s baptism makes it even harder to understand why Jesus would submit Himself to be baptized.
John the Baptist even told Jesus, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” John, Jesus’ cousin, knew that Jesus had lived a sinless life. His words testify to this with the admission that Jesus did not need to be baptized, because only someone who had sinned needed to go through the waters of baptism. So it is not just we who are at first baffled by Jesus’ desire to be baptized.
In fact, it would be impossible to understand until we realize that Jesus was baptized for our sakes. Jesus showed the way for us to follow by becoming the Way of our salvation. Through the waters of baptism, Jesus was humbling Himself to become our sacrificial lamb. The waters of baptism marked the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry on earth. Jesus’ baptism was Jesus’ act of submission to walk the path of obedience to the cross as the Lamb of God. It was Jesus’ public commitment to do His Father’s will.
The waters of baptism washed away Jesus’ old life of privacy. From now on all that Jesus did would be done to draw people to God through Himself. Through the act of baptism the days of Jesus’ carpentry ended and His life as the Master carpenter of our lives began. Jesus became our Way to the Father by saying yes to God in baptism. He who knew no sin showed us what we as sinners need to do to become one of His disciples. We must be willing to follow our Lord through the waters of baptism as a public declaration of our acceptance of Christ.
As people who walk in darkness, only through the waters of baptism can we become Children of the Light. This is why we celebrate our Lord’s baptism during the season of the Epiphany. Jesus was manifested as the Light of the World through the waters of baptism. It is written in our reading today from the gospel of Matthew, “And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’”
Where else in the scriptures have we read about the Spirit of God descending upon people? At Pentecost, Luke writes in the Book of Acts, “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” The empowering of the disciples of Christ through the filling of the Holy Spirit marked the birth of the Church on earth.
So too was the beginning of Christ’s ministry on earth marked by the Spirit of God alighting on him. The voice of the Father God acknowledged this new beginning in Jesus’ life with the words, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased”. This confirmation by God the Father proclaimed to all who heard His voice that Jesus of Nazareth’s true identity was that of the Son of God, the Messiah. John the Baptist’s recognition of Jesus as the Messiah was affirmed that day.
John the Baptist’s ministry of preparing the people for the arrival of the Messiah had been completed. The waters of baptism revealed the presence of the Messiah on earth in the form of a lowly carpenter, Jesus of Nazareth. The babe that King Herod had sought to kill as an infant had survived and grown into a man. This man had been subjected to temptations that all men faced, but unlike other men, this man, Jesus of Nazareth, had not succumbed to sin. Sin had no hold on this carpenter from Galilee.
Jesus, the Son of God, had lived in a quiet village learning first hand the joys and sorrows of being human. The Creator had become one of us in order to show us a better way of living that only a sinless person could offer. No other human on earth had done what Jesus did in only thirty years. He had passed the test of temptations as a man, now He would face temptations as the revealed Son of God. The mask of protection from Satan was washed away in the Jordan River that day. From now on Jesus would be targeted by Satan and his followers. Jesus’ life would no longer be his own.
The manifestation of Christ in the world was revealed that day on the muddy banks of the Jordan River. The powers of this world would now seek Jesus out not to worship Him, but to find ways to destroy Him. Jesus was marked for slaughter that day for our sakes. The carpenter became the Lamb of God. The man who had worked with wood all of his life would someday know the feel of the roughness of a cross as the implement of his death. The hands that once held the nails to create things would be pierced with nails.
For our sakes, Jesus was baptized. For our sakes, he died. For our sakes, Jesus conquered death and was resurrected from the grave. The first born of the new creation marked the first step of salvation for us through the waters of baptism. Now through our baptism we too die in Christ and arise as new creations in Christ. Our baptism that marks for us our new life as Children of the Light began with Christ Jesus in the Jordan River. This is why we remember our Lord’s baptism.
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