Have you ever walked by something that you see all the time and one day you pass by and say, “Wait a minute! That’s doesn’t make sense at all!” There’s a bit of that in the Baptism of the Lord that we celebrate today. We’ve heard the story since childhood and sort of take it at face value. But really, if you think about it, why did Jesus get baptized? Even John the Baptist thought it was a little out of sorts. At first glance, it doesn’t make sense for a couple of reasons.
First, John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. But Jesus was without sin. So why did he need to repent? It doesn’t make sense on that level. Second, baptism as we understand it today involves the washing away of Original Sin and initiation into the Church. Again, Jesus was conceived without Original Sin and at that time, the Church had yet to be founded. It doesn’t make sense on that level either.
So how does the Baptism of the Lord make sense? Well, one of the amazing things about Jesus is that whatever he encounters, he transforms. For example, when he entered fully into human existence at the Incarnation, he not only restored all humanity to our original dignity, but raised us to a state even higher than the angels. Imagine that. At the wedding at Cana, he took the jugs of water and transformed them into the best wine the head steward had ever tasted. At the Last Supper, he took the Passover and transformed it into the Eucharist. The list goes on and on.
In the same way, at the Jordan River, Jesus entered into the waters in the baptism and transformed them into the means of sanctifying grace. In baptism Christ encounters us, and we encounter Christ. Thus, when we enter the waters of baptism, we are forever changed. Our sins are washed away in the Blood of the Lamb and we become members of the Mystical Body of Christ. As John the Evangelist says later, “See what favor the Father has bestowed on us by letting us be called children of God.”
The baptism of the Lord inaugurates the public ministry of Jesus.
From here he will go into the desert for forty days to prepare himself and to be tested.
Then he will give the Sermon on the Mount. Then he will teach and preach and heal and exhort and suffer and die and be raised and ascend to the Father and send the Holy Spirit to found the Church.
The public life of Jesus began with his baptism.
So too the public life of every Christian begins with our baptism.
What have you done, what will you do with the grace that has been given to you? (For those of you who live in the marvel universe…will you use this power for good or for evil?)
May the grace given to each of us in baptism continue to grow and mature.
Because at the at the end of this life, we must all stand before the judgment seat of Almighty God, in the presence of all the saints and all the angels and all the heavenly host.
And what a marvelous thing it will be, should gaze upon you and say to the celestial multitude in that same voice that came from the heavens on the banks of the Jordan so very long ago:
“This is my beloved son
This is my beloved
With whom I am well pleased.”