The Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Homily for the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ

The gospel passage for this Sunday stands at the very beginning of St. Mark’s Gospel and is typical of this evangelist’s no-nonsense style. We will hear readings from this Gospel all throughout the liturgical year 2021. Today, on this feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Mark’s dramatic and powerful account of Jesus’ mission begins.

Unlike the other three Gospels, there is no run-up to the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry — no account of Jesus’ remote origins, or his conception, or the circumstances of his birth. With St. Mark’s account, we first meet Jesus as a young adult, as he comes south from Nazareth to the borders of the Judean desert where the prophet John the Baptist is dramatically challenging his people to repentance, urging them to wash their lives clean in the waters of the Jordan River. While large crowds come from nearby Jerusalem, drawn by John’s magnetic force, the focus falls on a single pilgrim from Galilee in the north, Jesus of Nazareth.

Mark tells us that John had anticipated the appearance of this “stronger one” who will bring a baptism not just of water, but of the “Holy Spirit.” And Jesus, the holy one of God, has at last come and, in a spirit of solidarity with his people, he, too, plunges into the Jordan as a sign of beginning a new life.

But there the comparison with the others who flock to John ends. In short, quick strokes, Mark describes Jesus entering the Jordan — the river that Israel had crossed on its way to the promised land — and as he comes up out of the waters, the heavens are torn open and the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus, suffusing him with God’s own power. At that moment, the voice of God booms across the heavens: “You are my beloved Son; with you, I am well pleased.”  The evangelist shares with the readers and hearers of this Gospel what is still unknown to the crowds. Right from the outset, we learn Jesus’ awesome identity as the beloved Son of God, the “strong one” who is filled with the Spirit of God, and who immediately begins his mission of healing, of confronting evil, of bringing justice - one who ultimately would give his very life for the sake of his people.

From the vantage point of Christian faith, the other Scripture readings for this Sunday anticipate this dramatic scene.  The first reading is considered the last chapter of what is commonly called Deutero or Second Isaiah and functions as the end of the Book of Consolation. In it the prophet urges the people to heed or listen to the voice of God, to seek the Lord while he may be found. Ordinarily, the Lord would be found in the Temple. Here Isaiah exhorts the listeners to find the Lord elsewhere, away from the sanctuary. For the prophet Isaiah, God’s word calls Israel back to her homeland, back to the desert, where God first wooed them. At the banks of the Jordan, they find Jesus whom God proclaims is his beloved Son.

The reading from the First Letter of John addresses the ancient heresy which proclaimed that Jesus was not both human and divine. In an intellectual argument that strains belief, these men taught that Jesus was human until the baptism at the Jordan and that he reverted to being human when he was crucified – thus only divine during his ministry. They reasoned that God was immortal. They simply could not conceive of a God who would be born of a woman and who would die on a cross. John argues against this kind of thinking by declaring that Jesus is the one who came through water and blood, not by water alone, but by water and blood, referring to his birth, his baptism and his death. He also adds the testimony of the Holy Spirit who was seen descending upon Jesus at his baptism.

Ancient Judaism understood well the symbolic meaning of cleansing with water as a sign of renewal and dedication.  But, as Mark’s Gospel describes, this ritual bath was more a disclosure of Jesus’ true identity as Son of God and as a vessel of the Spirit.

Jesus’ baptism foreshadows our own baptism: fashioned as daughters and sons of God, filled with God’s Spirit, commissioned to bring God’s love and justice to the world. This feast invites us to think of the very foundation of our faith as Christians — our belief in Jesus as the Son of God, as the Word made flesh as well as our belief in ourselves as Spirit-filled children of God.

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator