The Baptism of Jesus
Ordinary Sunday 1, 13 January, 2002
Fr Neville Connell
Assistant Priest, St Peter's, Eastern Hill
An expression I hear quite a lot these days is 'virtual reality'. I doubt
if I understand what it means, but I wonder if it is a way of describing our
liturgical calendar. Today, our focus is on the Baptism of our Lord Jesus
Christ in the Jordan river by St John the Baptist. Through our liturgy today,
the prayer the readings, the sermon, as on all our great feasts we are able
to be present on the occasion celebrated. We make it present in our church,
it is virtually present, as we do through the ceremonies of Palm Sunday, Holy
Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Day in Holy Week. And indeed as we celebrate
the sacrifice of Jesus at Mass.
Baptism was not new as a religious action when John came baptising. If we
think about water, its life-giving and death-dealing properties, it is hardly
surprising that it was incorporated into religious practice. Adult converts
to Judaism were baptised in the river Jordan; in so doing, they incorporated
into their lives by ritual, the experience of the Jewish people whose ancestors
crossed through the waters of the Red Sea to freedom and new life. John's
baptism was a 'wake-up' call to his own people, the Jews, a call to repentance
because the time was short. He baptised those who asked for it sincerely, he
made demands about behaviour, and he warned them the Messiah's coming was near.
It was in this setting that Jesus stepped up to be baptised by John his
cousin. Despite John's reluctance to act they stepped down into the Jordan.
The early Church worried about that. How could the sinless one repent? But
Jesus' baptism was not for repentance but rather that Jesus might "do all
that righteousness demands". Jesus' baptism was the inauguration, the ushering
in of the New Age, (nothing to do with that expression as it used these days);
Jesus was the One who was to come, of whom St John the Baptist spoke. His
baptism was the fulfilment, the realisation of the hope of Israel.
Jesus was the Servant of God foreshadowed in our First Reading, "Here is
my servant whom I uphold...I have endowed him with my spirit that he may bring
true justice to the nations." "Faithfully he brings true justice.." "I have
appointed you as covenant of the people and light of the nations to open the
eyes of the blind, to free captives from prison..." Jesus' baptism was his
call, his commissioning for ministry.
When Jesus entered the waters of the Jordan, it was as if he was entering
the waters of the chaos of the first chapter of the Book of Genesis,
challenging it just as the Spirit did at the Creation; of the waters of the
Red Sea, the barrier for the Hebrew people between the Egyptians and new life.
When He came up out of the Jordan the Spirit descended like a dove, the Spirit
who brought order out of chaos at the Creation, who lead the people through
the Red Sea to new life. At his baptism, Jesus was foreshadowing the chaos
and death of his suffering and crucifixion, and his triumph over death on
Easter Day.
So Jesus sets before all who follow him the pattern for their lives, dying
and rising. As St Paul tells us, when we are baptised, we are baptised into
Jesus' death, that is, his victory over sin, pride, selfishness; which can
only be overcome by dying to them; putting them to death in the power of Jesus
who rose to new life. Baptism for Jesus was his call to ministry – to
proclaim the Kingdom of God, and the need, the imperative to repent, to change
direction. Baptism for us is the beginning of this journey of daily conversion
to Christ, of conforming to his way of life by dying daily, as St Paul has
described it. Once we are baptised, we are called to become what we are –
Easter people. Called to realise, make present really and not virtually, in
our daily lives what we have: the unending, tireless love of God in Christ
Jesus – our vision of the Kingdom of Heaven.
In our First Reading for today we recall, "Here is my servant whom uphold,
my chosen one in whom my soul delights. I have endowed him with my spirit that
he may bring true justice to the nations." Justice was an integral part of the
covenant relationship between God and the people of Israel. Not justice in the
rather limited, forensic sense that we understand the word today. The aim of
true justice was to set right whatever had harmed the relationship between God
and his people. It was used of the whole way of life of those who are loyal
to God, including worship and conduct.
Our baptism then is a call to true justice – in a world where so much
harm is being done to relationships between people, and between us and God. As
we learn to die and rise in love for the true meaning of justice, in the power
of the Holy Spirit we become what we are – Easter people.
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Views is a
publication of
St Peter's Eastern Hill, Melbourne Australia.
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