John answered them all, saying,
“I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
John the Baptist was in the business of preparing the people for the coming of the Messiah. The baptism he offered them was necessary precisely because the people were not ready, the way was not yet made to be a straight and level highway for the coming of the Lord. He offered a ritual cleansing for people who desired to be pure to welcome the coming of the Lord in their day.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
John related to the crowds by calling them to conversion inviting them to desire increasing holiness. His attitude toward the Messiah who was to come was quite different. His role was to build up the expectations of the greatness and power of the one who would come. Hype would be the wrong word for John's proclamation, for he saw all of what he said as legitimate, and likely even falling short of what the reality we be.
After all the people had been baptized
and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying
It is no wonder that John tried to prevent him from being baptized. The baptism was for the crowds to be ready for the Messiah. No doubt John wanted to say something like, 'Can't you see you'll ruin all the expectation I worked so hard to build if you just take baptism like the rest of the crowd'. Yet Jesus told John that it was fitting to fulfill all righteousness. To his credit, John accepted that. Perhaps he recalled the words of the prophet Isaiah with which such a decision would resonate.
Here is my servant whom I uphold,
my chosen one with whom I am pleased,
upon whom I have put my spirit;
he shall bring forth justice to the nations,
not crying out, not shouting,
not making his voice heard in the street.
Just when it seemed that the coming of the Messiah would disappoint the great expectations John had worked so hard to inculcate in those who came to him something happened for which even those expectations were inadequate preparation.
heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him
in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven,
“You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased.”
Jesus was revealed to be all that John the Baptist said and more. But this did not happen apart from his humble, self-emptying, descent into the waters. Jesus was manifested as the Son of God, not when he stood over and apart from the people, but when he most fully identified with them. Jesus did not need baptism, nor did he deserve the suffering and death which baptism symbolically represented. But if his people needed baptism and were liable to the penalty of death it was to those very limits that Jesus himself would go to reveal the love of the Father. In sharing the waters of baptism Jesus sanctified them and made them sacramental. In enduring death he transformed it into a pathway to eternal life. It was true that he was not entirely what anyone expected. He was better, and loved us more than anyone could have asked or imagined.
He saved us through the bath of rebirth
and renewal by the Holy Spirit,
whom he richly poured out on us
through Jesus Christ our savior
Jesus unsealed the font of baptism for his Church giving her the power to bring cleansing and new life. It would henceforth bring with them the promise of the Holy Spirit himself. The symbolical and ritual cleansing of John gave way to a sacramental cleansing in which the Spirit himself would descend on the believer, and after which the Father himself would recognize the newly baptized as a beloved son or daughter.
Baptism was a new creation, where the Father could once again see what he had made and pronounce it good, while the Spirit hovered over the waters. It was a cleansing flood, like that of Noah, which Christians could survive united to the Ark that was Christ and his Body the Church, after which the Spirit like a dove brought the promise of new life. It was a crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan signifying the beginning of the end of the long true exodus, in which believers passed from death to new life. It was all of these things because there were no limits to how far Jesus would go to identify with his people. He was there at the most extreme cases, present to reassure those who would otherwise assume they were lost, as if to say, 'Fear not, even here, my love for you is enough.'
Fear not to cry out
and say to the cities of Judah:
Here is your God!
Here comes with power
the Lord GOD,
who rules by a strong arm;
here is his reward with him,
his recompense before him.
In our world the gift of the love of Jesus is not recognized because he did not conform to the earthly paradigms of power. We need to become his heralds, unafraid to cry out. We are invited to reveal Jesus by becoming like him, loving in the same way that he did, by going to the limits, by identifying as much as we can with the suffering of those in need. Assuredly, it is there that the weakness of God will prove stronger than the strength of men (see First Corinthians 1:25). It is there that the anointing Christians have received in baptism will most fully manifest itself. It is there that Father will speak his love and favor over us most fully, as we come to more fully resemble his Son. We have been given the grace to live like Jesus because we are in fact united to Jesus, sharing the Spirit of Jesus, living as sons and daughters in the Son. Just as he himself revealed the Father we in turn must now reveal him in both word and deed.
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth
with the Holy Spirit and power.
We are anointed with the same anointing of Jesus. This is the gift of the feast we celebrate today as well as the gift of our own baptism. Let us embrace it by going about doing good and healing all of those- and there are no fewer of them today- oppressed by the devil, for God himself is with us.
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