Daily Gospel Reflection
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January 12, 2020
Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.
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.”
Right away, the thing that catches my attention about this gospel is simple: Jesus is asking to be baptized. Jesus, the Son of God, is asking John to baptize him. Obviously, I am not the only one who feels like this is crazy – John echoes the sentiment in today’s reading when he says, “I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.”
With apologies to every theology teacher and professor I’ve ever had, the first thing this made me think of is a Beatles song. As it turns out, Jesus also needed a little help from his friends – in this case, John (the Baptist, not Lennon). Thanks to eighteen years of Catholic school, I remember that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. Here, he is demonstrating his humanity and his obedience to the Father. He, too, needs to receive God’s love, in this case through baptism. I think this is so poignant – I’m obviously not Jesus and mess up constantly, so my need for God’s love is overwhelming.
Even Jesus needs to receive God’s love, and he is willing to ask for help with it. So, who am I to not ask for help in receiving God’s love – from my family, my friends, priests, mentors in faith, and so on? While the heavens might not open for God to tell me that he’s “well pleased” with me, it’s good to know that even Jesus needed to get by with a little help from his friends.
Prayer
Spirit of God, give us grace to recognize the ways you live in our midst. Trusting that we are your beloved, may we have the courage to work for righteousness and truth. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Today, the Church celebrates the Baptism of the Lord in the Jordan River, an event that points to the significance of the Sacrament of Baptism for all believers.
In an ancient sermon, St. Maximus of Turin wrote about this feast's connection to the Christmas season:
"Reason demands that this feast of the Lord’s baptism,
which I think could be called the feast of his birthday,
should follow soon after the Lord’s birthday,
during the same season, even though many years intervened between the two events.
At Christmas he was born a man; today he is reborn sacramentally.
Then he was born from the Virgin; today he is born in mystery.
When he was born a man, his mother Mary held him close to her heart;
when he is born in mystery, God the Father embraces him with his voice when he says:
This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased: listen to him.
The mother caresses the tender baby on her lap;
the Father serves his Son by his loving testimony.
The mother holds the child for the Magi to adore;
the Father reveals that his Son is to be worshipped by all the nations."
In this event of Christ's Baptism, as recorded in the Synoptic Gospels, God appears in a trinitarian form: Jesus the Son, the Spirit as a dove descending from heaven, and the Father as a voice from the clouds. The Baptism is one of the theophanies described in the Gospels, meaning events where Jesus’ divinity is fully revealed.
As the second person of the Trinity, Jesus did not need Baptism, but he consented to be baptized by John as a sign of the depth to which he joins our humanity. John’s Baptism was intended for sinners as a sign of repentance. Jesus was without sin, of course, but joins us in Baptism, just as he took on the consequences of sin in his death, in order to bring us new life.
The same Maximus writes:
Christ is baptized, not to be made holy by the water,
but to make the water holy, and by his cleansing to purify the waters which he touched.
For the consecration of Christ involves a more significant consecration of the water.
For when the Saviour is washed, all water for our baptism is made clean,
purified at its source for the dispensing of baptismal grace to the people of future ages. Christ is the first to be baptized, then, so that Christians will follow after him with confidence.
In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus’ Baptism forms a bookend of sorts to his public life—his work begins and ends with Baptism. His Baptism by John marks the beginning of his ministry. After his resurrection, Jesus commissions the apostles to “Go and make disciples of all nations, Baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
The scriptural account of Christ's Baptism has beautiful connections to powerful stories of God's action in the Old Testament. In the creation account (Gen 1:2), God’s Spirit is described as a wind hovering over the water; that same Spirit is shown over the waters of the Jordan here to show that in Baptism we are made a new creation in Christ. Christ, as the Second Adam, has opened up a truly new form of life with God, and in Christian Baptism, we die with Christ and rise with him to this new life of Resurrection (2 Tim 2:11, Romans 6:3-5, Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth, Volume II, p. 274).
The word “baptize” comes from the Greek word that means to “plunge” or “immerse.” In Baptism, the faithful are immersed and plunged into Christ’s death; they emerge from the water with Christ as a new creation through his resurrection. The water becomes a way to new life, much like the Israelites passed through the Red Sea in their liberation from captivity in Egypt. Ancient homilists often compared Christ's Baptism to the column of fire going before the Israelites in their exodus from Egypt. In the same way, the light of the world plunged into the waters of the Jordan to pave the way for all the baptized.
The tapestry pictured here in today's post shows John baptizing Jesus—it hangs in the chapel of the Coleman Morse Building on Notre Dame’s campus, which houses Campus Ministry.
On this feast of the Baptism of the Lord, let us give thanks for our Baptism by which we are made God’s children!