FIRST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY, YEAR C

The Baptism of Christ

January 12, 2025

Church of the Ascension, Chicago

 

Luke 3:15-16, 21-22

 

“Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.”

The Epiphany and the Sundays following reflect on the revelation of Christ as the Son of God at various points in his earthly life, beginning with the star that brings the wise men from the East to worship him and offer their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh; through his baptism in the Jordan River, which we celebrate today; through the wedding feast at Cana where he changes water into wine; and culminating in his Transfiguration on the mountaintop, where he shines with the light of the divine glory.

 

The word Epiphany means revelation, manifestation, or showing forth. We appropriately use this word to describe some profound new insight. In more colloquial language, the penny drops, the lightbulb switches on, and, for a brief but potentially life-changing moment, we see things as they really are.

 

At the most basic level of meaning, Our Lord’s baptism in the River Jordan is an Epiphany or revelation of his identity as the Son of God. It marks the end of what is sometimes called his hidden life—including his childhood and upbringing in the household of Mary and Joseph—and the beginning of his public ministry of preaching, teaching, healing, performing miracles, and gathering disciples.

 

Not only that, but also, in the language of Eastern Christianity, the Lord’s baptism is a Theophany: a revelation of God the Holy Trinity. All three divine Persons are revealed as present and active. The Son is immersed in the waters; the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove; the Father’s voice is heard from heaven.

 

Today, I want to focus on the content of the heavenly proclamation: “Thou art my beloved Son; with thee I am well pleased.” These same words are repeated almost verbatim at the Transfiguration in the presence of disciples Peter, James, and John. When a cloud overshadows the mountain, Jesus radiates dazzling light, and a voice sounds from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” 

In both instances, the Father names Jesus not just his Son but his beloved Son. This appellation reflects love as the essence of the relationship between the Father and the Son, and indeed among all three divine Persons. Love is intrinsic to the inner life of the Godhead. The deepest meaning of the Theophany at the Jordan can be summed up in a single sentence that appears not once but twice in the First Letter of John, namely: “God is love.”

New Testament scholars point out that Christ’s Baptism was certainly an historical event because the early Church would never have made it up. For Jesus to be baptized by John was somewhat embarrassing to the early Christians. John’s baptism was a call to repentance and conversion, but according to traditional Christian teaching Jesus had no need of either. John was administering a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins; but Jesus was sinless. The person administering baptism would normally have been of a higher religious or spiritual rank than the one receiving it; yet great as John was, Jesus is infinitely greater. So, down through the centuries, Christian thinkers have debated the question: Why did Jesus submit to a baptism of which he had no apparent need?

 

The best answer is the traditional one. He did so to express his solidarity with the fallen humanity he came to save. At his baptism he identifies with us in our sinfulness, so that at our baptism we might be identified with him in his sinlessness. For this reason, our celebration of the Feast of the Baptism of Christ furnishes an appropriate occasion for us to give thanks for our own baptism, and to recommit ourselves to our baptismal promises.

At our baptism we were incorporated into the same divine life of love made manifest at the baptism of Jesus. The Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in the visible form of a dove. In the course of my priestly vocation so far, I’ve lost count of the number of baptisms I've administered, and I can reliably testify that I’ve never seen a dove descending on the newly baptized. (There's always a first time; maybe today?) Nonetheless, the Holy Spirit descends upon each of us at our baptism just as surely as upon Jesus at his baptism. A voice from heaven proclaimed Jesus his beloved Son, in whom he was well pleased. Again, I’ve never heard such a voice from heaven at any of the baptisms I’ve administered, at least not audibly in any physical sense. Nonetheless, there’s a sense in which God always speaks these words to the newly baptized: “You are my beloved son – you are my beloved daughter – in you I am well pleased.”

 

Another way of putting it is that at our baptism we enter into the very same filial relationship that Jesus enjoys with his heavenly Father from all eternity. What he is by nature, we become by adoption and grace: God’s own sons and daughters, indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Just as the Lord’s Baptism marked the beginning of his public life and ministry, so our Baptism marks the beginning of our life as members of Christ’s Body the Church, continuing in the world his mission of forgiveness, healing, reconciliation, and love.

 

But that love has a cost. Being God’s beloved Son did not protect Jesus from suffering and death. Indeed, one ancient tradition holds that the steps Jesus took into the River Jordan were his first steps towards Calvary. A related tradition depicts Christ’s descent into the waters of the Jordan as prefiguring his death on the cross and descent into hell on our behalf. Still, the revelation of divine love in the voice from heaven is what makes it possible to undertake such a journey and offer such a sacrifice. Christ bears suffering, death, and the grave for our sakes, so that enfolded in the love of the Holy Trinity we may bear anything for his sake. Our baptism prefigures not only our dying with Christ in a death like his, but also our rising to new and eternal life with him in a resurrection like his.

 

At the heart of the baptized life, then, is the mystery of divine love. As we celebrate the Baptism of Christ (and administer the Sacrament of Holy Baptism), we may dare to imagine God the Father speaking to us the same words that he spoke to Jesus. Whenever we get discouraged or life’s challenges threaten to get us down, it can be enormously helpful to call our baptism to mind, and hear again God saying to us: “You are my beloved son – you are my beloved daughter – in you I am well pleased.”