And when Jesus got here to the Jordan … then the Holy Spirit descended to him for the sake of humanity, as I already mentioned, within the look of a dove. And on the similar time a voice got here from the heavens which additionally had been spoken via David, as he spoke in his personal persona that which might later be mentioned to Christ by the Father, “You might be my son, right now I’ve begotten you.” Thus, we would say that his beginning occurred when data of him could be born in individuals.
—Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 88.8 (creator’s translation)
In trendy, Western celebrations of the Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ, our focus stays on the manger. Three clever males from the East be part of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, the shepherds, and some barn animals within the nativity scene. This pause on the nativity at Epiphany emphasizes how Jesus reveals his id to the nations of the world, represented in these three overseas guests.
Within the Christian East, nevertheless, the Epiphany is widely known as Jesus’ Theophany, his unveiling as God incarnate. This unveiling occurs not on the manger, however at his baptism. The Spirit descends and the Father declares Jesus his beloved Son. Within the Revised Widespread Lectionary and lots of Western eucharistic lectionaries, we have fun the Baptism of Jesus on the primary Sunday after Epiphany. In so doing, we shift the main target away from the manger and nativity scene, and we return to the banks of the Jordan, the place John the Baptist had known as to us in Creation. This liturgical return reminds us how the disclosing of Jesus’ divine energy on the planet addresses the longings of Creation as we proceed to await his second coming. The epiphany, in different phrases, continues.
John is called the baptizer, the Baptist, however he emphasizes one other Baptizer, “the thong of whose sandals I’m not worthy to untie; he’ll baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fireplace” (Luke 3:16; cf. Matt 3:11; Mark 1:8; John 1:26–27). If Jesus is the one who’s coming, if he’s in no want of repentance—why would he insist on being baptized?
In Matthew, John poses this query to Jesus (Matt. 3:14), however Luke leaves the query for us to ask. Luke provides us clues that information us deeper into the thriller of our Lord, the revelation and epiphany of his Triune divinity, and into the thriller of his baptism.
John known as Israel to repent and put together for the approaching messiah. It’s an Creation baptism, a baptism of anticipation. Jesus’ baptism, alternatively, is a baptism of revelation, invitation, and consummation.
At Jesus’ baptism, the heavens open, God’s voice declares Jesus his beloved son, and the Holy Spirit falls on him like a dove. This discloses who Jesus is: not only a man anointed for a particular job, however God the Son, the one begotten of the Father. Greater than this, although, Jesus isn’t simply God’s Son, however his “beloved Son” (Matt. 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22). The declaration of Jesus’ divine sonship units him aside because the beloved son of Abraham, like Isaac (Gen. 22:2), who finally could be supplied “on the mountain I’ll present you” (Gen. 22:2).
That is one facet of the revelation—the Father’s affirmation in Jesus’ maturity of the message given by the angel concerning the little one who shall be known as Immanuel, God with us. Additionally it is a clarification: This Immanuel, with us in our humanity, has a mission as God’s beloved Son. Like Isaac, he would ascend the mountain, carrying the wooden of his providing, through which God could be “well-pleased” (Matt. 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; maybe echoing Isa. 42:1).
However one other a part of the revelation is that Jesus’ baptism is one in all invitation. Jesus was baptized, simply because the others gathered on the Jordan had been. Matthew provides us the voice from heaven in third-person reportage: “That is my beloved Son, in whom I’m properly happy” (Matt. 3:17). Mark and Luke current the voice extra instantly within the second individual: “You might be my Son, the beloved” (Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22).
That is a part of the key of Jesus’ baptism: He who wanted no cleaning comes with us to the cleaning waters of baptism, standing with those that had no cleanness of their very own. The way in which Luke depicts it, Jesus’ baptism connects him with all others who could be baptized. In his baptism, he brings us with him into the waters, that he may deliver us with him into that thriller of his life with the Father and the Spirit. In different phrases, as a result of Jesus was baptized, we will be united with him via baptism. In his baptism, we’re invited into union and participation in his life.
Furthermore, on this second-person tackle, Luke and Mark deliver us into Jesus’ expertise of the baptism. We hear the voice addressed to him and us: “You might be my beloved son.” In Justin Martyr’s recounting of the story, emphasizing the echoes of Psalm 2:7 with the voice from heaven (“You might be my Son, today I’ve begotten you”) Justin attends to how listening to the divine voice within the gospel accounts of Jesus’ baptism not solely speaks of Jesus’ id, but additionally of ours: Jesus, eternally begotten of the Father, is begotten in us in our baptism and within the everlasting “right now” of the Psalm. “We would say that his beginning occurred when data of him could be born in individuals” (Justin, Dial. 88.8).
That is the fantastic thing about this divine epiphany. We exiled youngsters of Adam and Eve, extra like our earthly father than our heavenly one, are known as beloved. We couldn’t give a pure providing with him in his sacrifice on the cross, however we might turn out to be beloved in his baptism.
Jesus’ baptism and our baptism are sacramental and bodily hyperlinks to the identical occasion from two completely different sides. On one facet, within the baptism of our Lord, Jesus seems ahead to and sacramentally anticipates the cross. Descending into the waters of the Jordan—the traditional barrier between Israel and the promised land—Jesus anticipates his demise on the cross, at which level the curtain—the barrier between the Holy of Holies and the individuals—could be torn from prime to backside, opening God’s presence to us.
So too, at his baptism, the heavens have been opened: Our entry to God inaugurated. Because the voice of the Father and the descent of the Spirit testified to Jesus’ authenticity because the Son, so too the resurrection of our crucified Lord would testify to the sufficiency of his demise and the incorruptibility of his life. That is the consummation of his baptism: His baptism prefigures the cross, the place the place Jesus cries out finally, “It’s completed.” Our salvation, our forgiveness, the price of our adoption: paid.
Thus, our baptism seems again to Jesus’ baptism and again to the cross. As St. Paul says, “Do you not know that every one of us who’ve been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his demise? We have been buried due to this fact with him by baptism into demise, so that, simply as Christ was raised from the lifeless by the glory of the Father, we too may stroll in newness of life” (Rom. 6:3–4). Within the waters of baptism we share with our Lord, we determine with Jesus’ baptism, demise, and resurrection.
And in it we’re known as, as the trail of Epiphanytide provides approach to the pilgrimage of Lent, to take up our crosses with Jesus as God’s beloved youngsters. We provide ourselves, our souls, and our bodies to be a dwelling sacrifice with Christ. And in such an providing, Jesus, the beloved Son, reveals himself to us and in us, within the eucharistic sacrifice, and by the ability of the Holy Spirit in our day by day self-offerings. On this Epiphany season, we ask Christ to be revealed in us and thru us.
The Rev. Dr. Paul D. Wheatley is assistant professor of New Testomony at Nashotah Home Theological Seminary.
