Meditation: Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
The Baptism of the Lord (Feast)
All were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Christ. (Luke 3:15)
The people who had come to hear John the Baptist were expecting something explosive. A prophet had arisen who would denounce all the enemies, all the “bad guys” who made life hard for everyone else. Maybe he was the Christ, the Messiah, come to cast out the Romans and their henchmen and restore Israel to its former glory.
But then came Jesus. A small-town carpenter who spent his time with the powerless and the sinful. The Spirit came upon him instead—not a fiery preacher calling out people’s sins, but a humble man preaching love of enemies. Surely people were caught off guard.
Jesus came “to open the eyes of the blind,” not to cast the bad guys into hell (Isaiah 42:7). He came “to bring out prisoners from confinement,” not to punish people for their sins (42:7). He came to take away our sins so that we could learn to love one another—good guy and bad guy alike.
When you hear this reading today, close your eyes and picture the scene. Picture John immersing Jesus into the Jordan River—a river that had received the sins of all who had come for baptism. Imagine Jesus accepting all of those sins and every sin that they represent.
For the next three years, Jesus will bear these sins, along with the sins of everyone else he comes into contact with. And still bearing those sins, he will teach us about his Father’s mercy, heal us from the wounds of sin, and deliver us from whatever hatred and bitterness is stored up in our hearts. Then he will take all that sin, hatred, and bitterness to the cross, where he will put it to death forever.
Today is the beginning of salvation for you and for everyone else, good guy and bad guy alike. So rejoice in this salvation and ask Jesus to help you love as he loves. Ask him to help you love everyone.
“Praise to you, Jesus, for taking all my sins!”
Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7
Psalm 29:1-4, 9-10
Acts 10:34-38
Saint Chromatius of Aquilaea (?-407)
Bishop
Sermons on the Epiphany, 34 ; CCL 9A, 156-157 (trad.© Friends of Henry Ashworth, Christ our Light, vol. 1, p. 87 - 88)
From Christ's baptism to our own
What great mystery lies in this heavenly baptism! The Father's voice is heard from heaven, the Son is seen on earth, the Holy Spirit appears in the likeness of a dove. There is no true baptism or forgiveness of sins apart from the true Trinity… The baptism of the Church is the one true baptism and is given only once. Those who receive it but once are made pure and new; pure because it washes away the stain of their sins, and new because when their old sinful selves have been laid aside they rise again to new life…
The heavens were opened when the Lord was baptized to show that the kingdom of heaven is opened to believers through the bath of rebirth, according to the saying of the Lord: "Without being born again of water and the Holy Spirit no one can enter the kingdom of heaven" (Jn 3:5). Those who are reborn and who preserve the grace of their baptism enter… And so, because our Lord came to give a new baptism through which the human race might be saved and all sins forgiven, he condescended to be baptized first himself. He did this not to have his own sins taken away, since he had committed none, but to sanctify the waters of baptism and so give them power to obliterate the sins of all believers reborn in them.