Baptism of the Lord - January 9th

Today the Church will celebrate the close to the Christmas season with the commemoration of the Baptism of the Lord in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. This experience of Jesus’ marks the beginning of his public ministry in which he would begin to publically manifest the love of the Father by announcing the establishment of the “Kingdom of God” through his life’s actions. This establishment of the “kingdom” would take place through, with, and in his human/divine presence in recorded history first to all the Jewish people and then eventually expanded to include the whole world.

 

This account of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist can be found in all three of the Synoptic Gospels -- Matthew, Mark, and Luke and alluded to in the Gospel of John. That makes it a very significant event in the life of Jesus which profoundly affected the early Church. Christians of every age have wondered why Jesus needed to be baptized in the first place. If Jesus is the savior of the world, then he is free of sin and does not need to be baptized. So why did he present himself to John the Baptist at the Jordan River to be baptized like all the rest? This story from Luke’s Gospel is a perplexing one even for the most enlightened disciple to understand. I would like to help you understand what is really going on in this scripture passage from Luke’s Gospel regarding Jesus as he presents himself to John for baptism.

 

Jesus comes up out of Galilee to be with John and his ministry at the Jordan. Scholars today believe that John was exercising his public ministry at the place where the Jordan River empties into the Dead Sea. It is believed that just a short distance from there is the place where the Hebrew people who were part of the great Exodus event crossed over the Jordan River and entered into the Promised Land given to them by God. That would have been quite a distance for anyone to travel back then. Such a journey would take Jesus from Nazareth in the Galilean territory in the North to the farthest region of the Judean Province in the South, some 174 miles. He would have to have traveled, walked, or ridden a donkey up and down over rough and dangerous terrain, most likely the trade routes of that age, carved out of the forests in ancient Israel. As the gospel writers indicate to us, this event was extremely important for Jesus to be a part of, so he went to be with John and what he was doing in the desert. Jesus was more than willing to battle the elements, fend off wild animals of all sorts, and encounter savory characters that might do him harm along the way. Nothing would stop him from fulfilling what he perceived to be what his Father wanted him to do; to be baptized by John. Jesus’ baptismal experience would launch him into beginning his public ministry of proclaiming the “Kingdom of God” through his teachings and marvelous deeds of loving and caring for all of his Father’s children.

 

Who was this man named John whom we encounter in the story in Luke’s Gospel? His parents were Zechariah and Elizabeth who were extremely religious members of the Jewish faith. They were very old when John was born. Both John’s father, Zechariah, and Elizabeth’s father were priests of the Temple located in Jerusalem. Therefore, from the very first moment of his conception and during his lifelong ministry John was predestined to being a priest of the Temple in Jerusalem. John wasn’t practicing his craft as a priest up in Jerusalem in the temple but rather out in the open near the Dead Sea. The reason was that he had had it with the religious leaders in the temple because they weren’t living the spirit of the rules as they should have been. The leaders were excluding all kinds of people from temple worship. Those who were barred from worshipping in the temple were the lepers, the blind, the lame, women who were divorced, and anyone who had any kind of physical abnormality. These people could not participate in any of the rituals in the temple. Thus, John created a new ritual for those excluded people so they would no longer feel excluded from their religious Jewish roots. He accepted them when the Pharisees and Sadducees would not.

 

 Jesus went down to be baptized by John to be with those people who were considered to be the outcasts of society and then were excluded from Temple worship and considered great sinners because of their physical, mental, or spiritual abnormalities. Jesus practiced open table fellowship which means he included everyone in his circle of friends – he never excluded anyone in his day nor does he today. In today’s world, he would be accepting the immigrants down at our border who were fleeing persecution in their home country and trying to become US citizens. He would love them and care for them making sure that they would become American citizens. He would care for people with AIDS or any other ailment. He would accept those with any color of skin or any sexual orientation you might be. It did not matter to him where you came from or what your status in life might be, Jesus just loved everyone for who they were which was a novelty then and now.

 

Along with what was just said regarding why Jesus felt compelled to be baptized I would like to add my own thoughts into that mix of reasons. First of all, I believe that the charismatic Jesus who had always been open to the promptings of the Spirit became excited to hear that his cousin was living a similar lifestyle of openness to God with regards to the grace of salvation.  John testified to this grace in his life by being innovative in spiritually creating a new route to God in the desert through a water ritual called baptism. This ritual was specifically created for all those who were forbidden to partake in Temple worship for they were not ritually pure to do so due to some physical abnormality. Thus, Jesus had to go and be with John to see for himself that beautiful sight of grace taking place. Another reason why Jesus had to visit what John was doing by baptizing the lowly, lost, and forgotten in the Judean desert is in relation to the first reason why Jesus had to be with John. If it is truly the case what the author to the Letter to the Hebrews says about our Lord and I believe it to be so; “He was like us in all things but sin”, Jesus had to be with John and all those he was baptizing, the great numbers of humanity that the religious leaders of the Temple had forsaken, that the chief priest of the desert (John the Baptist) had accepted as the beloved sons and daughters of God whom John was called to serve. John deeply loved the forgotten and outcasts of his time whom he was called to bring back once again into the family of a loving and forgiving God through the simple, yet profound, act of baptism. Jesus could not agree more in what John was doing out in the desert on the banks of the Jordan River. So Jesus stepped forward to stand in line with all the others, to wait his turn to be baptized like all the other Jewish men, women, and children; the so-called “lost sheep of the House of Israel.” It was to these types of people that Jesus was called to love and minister to just like John the Baptist was doing. For both of these two men of God deeply loved all those whom no one else would love due to their status in the religious/societal world of the first century of the Common Era.

 

Once Jesus was baptized by John and came out of the river the skies opened up and the Spirit of God descended upon him in the form of a dove. He heard a voice from on high, his Father’s, say to him, “This is my beloved son, my favor rests on him.” For all those of us who are baptized Christians, we hear a similar voice when we are baptized saying to each one of us; “This is my beloved child in whom I am well pleased”. From there we are sent out on mission just like Jesus was as his ambassadors for the Kingdom by spreading his message of justice and peace to everyone through our lifestyle of lovingly caring for all whom we encounter and live with.

 

Jesus’ immediate reaction to his baptism was to go into the nearby desert for an extended retreat, around forty days, to prepare for what would lie ahead for him in his public ministry. While in the desert he would deepen his relationship with his Father along with experiencing all the forces of nature that the desert would afford him. Not only that but Jesus would also be tempted three times—gifts of food, power, money--by the power of the evil one, satan or Lucifer, to turn away from his God. As we all know Jesus did not give in to those temptations. The entire experience of his desert retreat prepared him well for what was to come next in his three years of public ministry. As Jesus prepared for what he would encounter in the work he would do for his Father, have you? Jesus has never asked any of his disciples to do something he didn’t first do himself. As Jesus prepared for the difficult work God asked of him so, too, we should do the same for the work that God wants us to do.

 

Written by Bob Sugrue