Being God’s Beloved

Being God’s Beloved

Lk 3: 15 – 18, 21 – 22

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Introduction

            Today is the feast of the Lord’s baptism. Our reading presents the two figures of John the Baptist and Jesus. John baptizes with water, Jesus baptizes with the Spirit.

The Gospel

Our Gospel begins with Luke narrating to us how John the Baptist’s message of repentance has created among the people who followed him, an atmosphere of expectation for the coming Messiah.  The intensity of this  expectation was such that people even entertained the idea that John the Baptist could be the Messiah. Luke tells us: “all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah.”

John the Baptist, however,  tells them that he is not the Messiah. Instead, he tells the people that there is indeed someone else who is coming who was much greater than himself. We know of course, that John was referring to Jesus.

John tells the people: “ I am baptizing you with water, but one mightier than I is coming; I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals. “  John the Baptist was practically telling the people that he was nothing compared to the coming Messiah. John tells them that he is not even worthy to loosen the thongs of the Messiah’s sandals. In those days, it is only slaves who loosen the thongs of their master’s sandals. John felt that he was not even worthy to be counted as a slave of this Messiah who is about to come.

But John’s comparison between himself and Jesus gains greater contrast when John tells the people the difference between the baptism that he gives and the baptism that the Lord gives. He says: “ I am baptizing you with water…he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”  

After this brief introduction about John, the gospel narrative then shifts and locates us to the baptism of the Lord. The gospel narrates: “ After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. “

It is important to notice how Luke describes the Lord’s baptism. At first, the baptism of the Lord was done and executed ordinarily just like all the other baptisms done by John on the Jordan river.  But then Luke continues saying that as Jesus was praying after being baptized, heaven was opened. The opening of heaven was followed by the descent of the Holy Spirit on Jesus in bodily form like a dove. Then a voice came from heaven saying: “ You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

Reflection

            The people’s expectation of the coming messiah was ripe. So ripe, that they couldn’t wait to see him. In the process of this excitement, their minds were already drawing conclusions that this long awaited messiah could perhaps be John the Baptist. But as John tells them that he was not the Messiah, their expectant spirit perhaps grew even more intense as John tells them that the coming messiah was much greater than he was; so much greater in fact, that John the Baptist himself felt that he was not worthy to loosen the thongs of this messiah’s sandals.

So how would have the crowd imagined this messiah after John spoke so exaltedly about him? Perhaps, they thought of him as one coming in majesty, or someone coming as a great king or as a powerful military man.

But Luke tells us that amidst this heightened expectation of the coming Messiah and his supposed greatness, the people failed to identify him, even when this Messiah was already there right in their midst.

And why were they not able to identify the Messiah? Luke tells us of how ordinary Jesus’ presence was among the people when he wrote : “After all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized…” There he was, the Messiah, being baptized like all the rest. No one even recognized that he was the Messiah they had been expecting all along, as he was being baptized. It was only after being baptized and while he was praying when his true identity was revealed as the heavens opened, as the Spirit rested on him and as a voice spoke of who he was.

This Messiah went to the river bank and perhaps lined up to be baptized just like all the rest. What was surprising about Jesus' baptism is that Jesus really had no need of baptism since baptism was done as a sign of repentance for one’s sins. Jesus had no sin. So why was he there lining up to be baptized like all the others seeking forgiveness for their sins?

He was there to show his solidarity, his oneness with our humanity, with all its weakness and sinfulness. In being immersed in the waters of the Jordan, Jesus experienced too the burden of those wanting to be delivered from their own sins. He knew our burdens by being one with us.

But Jesus didn’t only identify with mankind’s need for repentance and forgiveness. After his baptism, he was identified by the heavens, the Spirit and the voice as God’s beloved Son. His solidarity and oneness with us also meant that he was going to make us also God’s beloved children just like himself. In Jesus, we not only die to our sinfulness, we also rise with him to become the beloved sons and daughters of God, just like himself.  
The baptism of Jesus should remind us of our own baptism. The waters that were used to baptize us symbolized and effected our own death to sin. That is why, in our ancient church, the waters of baptism symbolized our very own death to sin. But our death was not alone. It was a death with the Lord who himself died not for his sins but for ours. And just as people who bathed in the river Jordan emerged from the river, free from all their sins, so too with us after being baptized. We emerge from baptism with the newness of life; a life made possible only in Jesus. 
The Lord accompanies us in our journey from the time we are baptized. He made our life like his own so that we too can be called sons and daughters of God, fashioned after his own likeness of being God's beloved.

Prayer

Dear Lord, you chose to be baptized, even if you had no need for repentance. Your baptism showed me your desire to accompany me in my journey of dying to sin and of rising again to become God’s beloved child like you. Because of you, I too have become God’s beloved, always loved, always cared for. Be with me always and accompany me wherever I go. Help me to be like you in whom the Father is well pleased. Amen.  

“ Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father so we too might walk in newness of life. “ – Rom 6: 4

For reflections like this, visit my blog: thevineyardlaborer.blogspot.com