Reflection on the Baptism of the Lord

Imagine what this day in Jesus’ life must have been for him.  He has just taken part in a purification ritual that John, his cousin, does with the people.  Jesus is one of the crowd. This baptism of John’s is a commitment to do better, to live with hope that the Messiah is coming and maybe is here. Luke tells us that the people were filled with expectation.  Might John be the Messiah?  

And Jesus?  Was he, too, filled with expectation of what might be ahead?  What could have been Jesus’ prayer after he was baptized?  Was he thinking about joining John’s disciples?  Maybe John is the Messiah.  Then, as he was praying, all of a sudden, a dove appears above him, as though heaven was opened.  We think of Pentecost and the new life in the community after it had discovered Jesus somehow alive in its midst.  But today’s story is at the beginning.  Jesus’ teaching has not begun.  He may still be doing carpentry work, not thinking much about the future.  But, suddenly, there’s a voice speaking to him from heaven: “You are my beloved Son.  With you I am well pleased.” 

We do not really know what happened.  The literalness of this experience is not how things are in the 21^st century.  But we have many more ways of communication than people in those days.  And how did the evangelists, how did Luke, know what had happened?  We don’t know, but it doesn’t matter.  Something happened.  Something sparked Jesus or no one would have written about it.

Jesus, we tend to think, knew the Hebrew Scriptures well.  That statement, “with you I am well pleased,” must have reminded him of what Isaiah had said many years before: “Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased.”

The moment must have been a defining moment for him, an identifying moment. The words had such clarity.  God is pleased with him.  God is asking him to bring justice to the people, to bring God’s salvation, we might say.  This event equips Jesus with God’s power for his work ahead.  He is beloved of God.  He is full of the presence of God. It is as though God has looked ahead to how Jesus would act, how he would live.  It is as though Jesus’ faithfulness to God and his compassion for the people are all caught up in this moment of being the beloved, the son, the servant.

Jon Sobrino, the Spanish Jesuit theologian living in San Salvador, has said that God is at work in Jesus. He says that Jesus’ whole life can be considered a parable or a gesture of God’s communication with human beings.

So what is asked of us?  Each of us, too, if we choose to be a Christian, to be a follower of this Jesus, is called to be a parable of God’s communication with human beings or a gesture of God’s communication with human beings.  We are called to share God’s presence with those with whom we live and interact. We are called to kindness and compassion in the circumstances of our daily lives.  As we enter into Eucharist this morning, let us ask the One whom Jesus called Father to nourish us with the body of the Chosen One, the Beloved, so that we can know ourselves pleasing to God as we do our part to bring justice to the earth.