BAPTISM OF THE LORD – YEAR C
Commentary of Fr. Fernando Armellini
A good Sunday to all.
The feast of the Epiphany has just passed, and we know that with the term 'epifaneia,' the ancient Greeks indicated the manifestations of their deities. When Jupiter or Apollo showed their presence, their power, through prodigies and visions, the Greeks called these manifestations' epiphanies.' We Christians have adopted this term to indicate the manifestations of our God. In the Church of the first centuries, even today among the Orthodox, the feast of the Epiphany celebrated not one manifestation of God but three manifestations; three moments in which God showed the splendor of his face.
The first manifestation of God is the one that takes place at creation, which was welcomed by the magi in the narrative that Matthew brings us. We can approach creation in a practical way to use the creatures we need, then as humans, we will use them in a certain way; we eat with a fork and spoon, but we perform the same gestures as our pre-human ancestors. Another way of approaching creation is that of the contemplative, the one who wonders about the meaning of all this creation, and thus, the believer comes to welcome the manifestation, the epiphany of the love of God, who has prepared a beautiful home for his sons and daughters.
Another manifestation of God that is celebrated in the Epiphany is the one that took place at the baptism of Jesus and on this one, we will meditate today. A third manifestation, a third epiphany, which was celebrated and is still celebrated today by the Orthodox, is the feast of Cana. We will reflect on this epiphany next Sunday and just mention it now. The epiphany of the face of God, who is love, only love.
Humans have always imagined God as a Master who had the right to give orders and who graciously rewarded those who obeyed his commands and severely punished with pestilence and calamities those who transgressed them. This face of God was a mask that people had put on the face of the true God. When he came to make himself seen, God manifested himself (and this is the epiphany) as the husband who loves his wife unconditionally. Even though she is unfaithful to him, he still loves her. This manifestation of the face of God cannot but fill us with immense joy. We will reflect on this manifestation next Sunday.
What epiphany of God is baptism? The first letter to Timothy says that the Lord is the King of kings, the Lord of lords dwells in unapproachable light; no one has seen or can see him. We have also heard it in the prologue of the Gospel of John a few days ago, where it says: 'No one has seen God. God cannot be seen; the Only Begotten came to show him to us.' At the feast of the baptism of Jesus, there was an epiphany of God.
Why did the Son of God come into the world? Precisely, to be seen. With baptism, Jesus began his public life. He will walk the streets of Palestine, he will also go out of Palestine; he will go through the various towns, he will enter the synagogues of the various cities, to show the epiphany of the face of God. He has come to show us the true face of God. He is the only God we believe in and is the one we will see shining in the face of Jesus. This is the epiphany found in baptism.
We ask now what epiphany of God did the Israelites of Jesus' time expect? And what epiphany of God do we expect today? Let's hear what happened:
"The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might be the Messiah."
The evangelist Luke introduces the account of Jesus' baptism by telling us about the expectation of the people. Let us try to understand what the Israelites of Jesus' time expected. Israel is a people who have always suffered throughout the centuries; Canaan, Palestine, was a land of passage, always invaded by other peoples. To the east was the great Assyrian, Babylonian and Persian empires. To the west was the great kingdom of the Pharaohs. The land of Israel was wedged between these great powers. On the international scene, Israel never counted for anything. Even the great kingdom of David and Solomon, praised in the Bible, never existed; it was a great dream that never came true.
Despite all the disappointments of history, Israel has always for centuries nurtured hope of a glorious future. Here is the hope. It is a hope that began with the promise made by Nathan to David, who promised his descendants an eternal kingdom. At certain points in history, this hope faded away. When things were going well, this hope was not cultivated, but in moments of crisis and suffering, the expectation of the promised Messiah, of the son of David, the savior, would resurface and the Lord was asked to send the one who would begin a kingdom of peace, justice, and truth. In the last two centuries before Christ, this hope had been accentuated. For what reason?
In the first place, because it was a time of deep economic and political crisis, the Jews living in Palestine were exposed to the arbitrariness of the great Greek and Roman landowners. This happened in Israel; the Jews living in the various cities of the Roman empire were very well off and were a great economic, commercial, and financial power. The crisis in Palestine was economic, political, and there was also a crisis of religious identity because the Israelites had come in contact with the great Greco-Roman culture and many of them had been seduced by it and had abandoned the faith of their fathers. And in this climate, several political and religious groups had emerged; the Jewish sects, which we know very well, at least some of them.
These sects were expecting a messiah, but they had different expectations. What were the Sadducees expecting? They were the rich people; they were well off, they were the temple priests; they expected a messiah who was a high priest who would practice a cult religion and sacrifices in a perfect way. This would initiate the new world, a relationship with God that was commercial: we offer sacrifices to him that he may grant his favors. This was what the Sadducees expected. For them, the Messiah would be a high priest.
The Pharisees also expected a change, a messiah, who would interpret the Torah very well, who would ensure that it would be observed, and then the world would change; a new world would be born with the observance of the Torah, and this was the messiah they were waiting for.
Then there were the Essenes, the ones from Qumran, who were expecting a messiah to lead the struggle of the children of light against the children of darkness, and they also thought to take up arms, the sword, to impose the light on the darkness.
The zealots would appear after Jesus; they did not exist at the time of Jesus. They will be the exasperated nationalists who were expecting a messiah as a military leader, a king, the true son of David, who was to sweep away the pagan conquerors and bring the Jewish people to dominion over all the nations of the earth.
Then, some expected what was in the prophecies, that God himself would intervene to reign over Israel. The prophet Ezekiel says, in the name of God, in chapter 20: “Oracle of the Lord, as I live, I will reign over you with a mighty hand, arm, and wrath.” These were the expectations of a direct intervention of God. These were the expectations of the people of Israel when Jesus came to the Jordan. They all wondered within themselves if John was not the Messiah. The baptizer had raised great hopes.
This figure is very well presented to us by the contemporary historian Josephus Flavius who says that 'the Baptist was a good man; he urged the Jews to live a righteous life, to treat one another with justice, to submit to God with devotion, and to be baptized.' But this historian said that 'John believed even this baptismal washing was not acceptable as forgiveness of sins but was convinced that if there was not an inner conversion it would be only a purification of the body; the soul had to be purified beforehand by righteous conduct.' And he concludes his account of the Baptist by saying that 'King Herod, among the many wicked deeds, added this one: he imprisoned this good man, the Baptist.'
The people, who had all these expectations, had glimpsed in the Baptist the Messiah. Before we continue, we ask ourselves, what expectations do we cultivate of the Messiah of God? What do we expect from the Messiah of God? What epiphany of God do we expect? Let us be careful what we expect because we may be expecting what God has never promised, or rather has positively excluded. Perhaps we expect God to manifest his power through miracles that directly solve our concrete problems, those of our daily life; that the problems we cannot solve, He will do it through prodigies. He will not. He has never promised that.
If we expect the manifestation of God with miracles, we will not see it. If, on the other hand, we hope for one that will give meaning to our endurance, one that answers the deep questions we ask ourselves, One who shows us how to be people and gives us the inner strength to be builders of a peaceful world, justice, love... if we wait for this Messiah, we will be waiting for the right person. Now let's listen to the answer that the Baptist gives to those who believe that he is the Messiah:
"John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.’"
The Baptist eludes the multitudes who had pinned their hopes on him and said, 'I am not the one expected. The world of love, of peace, of the justice that you desire, I will not build it, but will be he who comes after me.' As you can see, the Messiah can be confused with the sound and just man, with the wise man. There is in us a deep need for spirituality and a search for the meaning of life and it cannot be silenced; it demands an answer. It can be put aside for a while, but then it resurfaces, because we are well made.
We can look for an answer in the wisdom of this world, in the many religious propositions, doctrines, spiritual traditions, humanism that circulate, and we will find many beautiful answers, but we will never be satisfied because we are well made, we are made for Christ and the Gospel. When I read Plato, when I listen to the wisdom of Socrates, I say, 'What beautiful words,' but only when I find Christ, I say, as Peter said, “You alone have the words of eternal life.” Neither Socrates, nor Aristotle, nor Plato, nor the other philosophers, only Christ gives the ultimate, definitive answer, satisfying my questions.
The Baptist goes on to say, as evidence of the difference between him and the Messiah; he says: "I baptize with water, but he is coming who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." The image that he uses is very effective; it is that of the water that can cleanse a person externally, or water for a plant, but it only becomes a vital nymph when the plant absorbs it, or when it is drunk. So, this water is inside; it does not act externally. John says: 'My baptism is external; it washes the person externally; it is only a sign that presupposes the goodwill to change one's life and be ready to welcome God's manifestation, the epiphany. It is only a preparation to welcome the actual baptism, the baptism of the Holy Spirit.'
For a new person to be born, a seed of new life must enter into him as water of new life, a life that does not come from the earth but is a gift from heaven. And this gift, this life, the Baptist could not give it because he does not have it. The baptism of Jesus is not water that cleanses from the outside; it is water that penetrates from the inside, that springs up to eternal life, as Jesus says to the Samaritan woman. It is the gift of divine life and the life of the Eternal.
This baptism will also be a baptism of fire. When we hear about the fire, we immediately think of God's punishments. Nothing could be more wrong. God knows only one fire, the fire of Pentecost, his Spirit. Furthermore, the evangelist Luke, in chapter 12, mentions Jesus saying: "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already burning." Certainly, he does not speak of hellfire but the fire of the Spirit. Fire recalls purification, the destruction of all that is old, of the ancient world, and the fiery flood promised by the prophets, which burns all the old humanity, all hatreds, grudges, wars, destroy them.
The Spirit creates a new reality. It is the Messiah of God who will pour this Spirit upon the believers and will make them new people. This is the context in which the epiphany of God occurred at the baptism of Jesus. Let us now listen to Luke's account of it:
"When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, whom I love; with you, I am well pleased.’"
Now we begin to contemplate the epiphany of our God, the manifestation of the true face of God, which begins to reveal Himself in baptism. Only the evangelist Luke narrates a detail: Jesus was baptized along with all the people; therefore, he mingled with sinners. No God has ever revealed himself in this way. What kind of God did the Israelites expect? What revelation of God did they expect? They had been educated by the scribes and Pharisees, who had taught in the minds of all the Israelites the image of a justifying God who incinerates sinners.
And this image of God is disproved. God does not incinerate sinners; he stands by their side and accompanies them on the way of life. All would have welcomed him if God had manifested himself as a justifier. It was the God they believed in, and the Baptist had this image of God. It is a revelation that begins at baptism but will continue throughout his life. Jesus reveals this God who loves sinners, hates sin more than anyone else, because no one like him knows that sin harms his sons and daughters, but he always loves sinners. This revelation of the face of God is not in contradiction with the revelation of the Old Testament but is in continuity.
When we think of the Lord who is going to deliver his people from the bondage of Egypt, and then he makes them walk in the wilderness; he does not leave them alone; he accompanies his people. It is the image of the cloud that guides the people during the day, the fire that guides the people during the night, and then there is the image of the Ark of the Covenant, this Ark will be taken to the temple, always the symbol of the presence of God. When in the wilderness, the people reject the Lord, their deliverer, prefers the idol, then the Lord leaves the camp, his tent is pitched outside the camp, but he continues to accompany his people; he is never far from his people, even though He has been rejected.
Then He will be in the temple in Jerusalem, in the Ark of the Covenant, a symbol of his presence. When the people are deported to Babylon, the prophet Ezekiel says: “I see the cherubim go to the temple, they lift the Ark of the covenant and carry it over the Mount of Olives," and then he sees them leaving with the Ark to go eastward toward the rivers of Babylon, where his people are prisoners. And when the people return from exile, again Ezekiel the prophet will see Cherubim taking the Ark of the Covenant and bringing it back to the temple in Jerusalem.
The Lord has always revealed himself as the one who stands by his people, but here is the full revelation in Jesus of Nazareth. God is on the side of sinners. Then the evangelist Luke points out that Jesus was in prayer. Jesus' prayer means his constant dialogue with his Father. Jesus always wants to be faithful to his identity as the Son of God and that is why at every moment, he makes all the choices that the Spirit suggests to him, from his identity as Son.
Now, the evangelist introduces three images to present to us what happened during the baptism of Jesus. The first of these images: 'Heaven opened.' It means that heaven was closed. What does this image mean? In the cosmology of the Ancient Middle East, the sky was imagined as an immense cap separating the world of God from the world of humans; and in the Semitic culture, there was talk of seven heavens separating the throne of God from this earth and between one heaven and another, there were 500 years of road.
The Lord had closed the heavens. He was grieved for the sins and the infidelities of his people, and He had become inaccessible, no longer sent prophets because people did not listen to them; and they had this dramatic experience of the silence of God. The psalmist says in Psalm 74: “There are no prophets among us anymore; there is no one to tell us how long this silence of God will last who has broken off relations with his people.” Here is the answer given to the prayer of these people. The prophet Isaiah tells us of a wonderful prayer of the Israelites who turn to the Lord and say to him, “We have been unfaithful, but you are our Father; Abraham does not acknowledge us as his children; Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob, are far from us, but You are our Father, we are the clay, and You work this clay; we are the work of your hands.” Then the invocation: “Rend the heavens open and come down to your people.”
This is the response given at baptism: the heavens are rent, and here we have the second epiphany of the Lord that we can contemplate; now with us is God himself, who has become one of us. The heavens can no longer be closed because God is with us.
The second image is the dove, the Spirit descending upon Jesus like a dove. The first thing that comes to mind is the Spirit that hovered over the deep waters before the world's creation. Now again appears the Spirit hovering over the waters of the Jordan; now, because of a new humanity is about to begin. And there is a second reference to the dove, to the floods, announcing the birth of a new humanity; the old one, speaking of sin, had been destroyed by the waters and now a new humanity was about to arise, represented by the flight of this dove, always a new creation desired by the Spirit.
Then there are the symbolic meanings of the dove, which are common to all cultures. The dove recalls gentleness, peace, and the Spirit rests on Jesus not as a lion of the tribe of Judah but as a dove. The dove is sweet. Perhaps the Israelites expected a different advent of the Spirit, not as a dove but as fire, as brimstone to incinerate sinners as he did in Sodom and Gomorrah. From heaven, we know that the Lord also hurled his ancient arrows to scatter his enemies. Here the Spirit descends upon Jesus like a dove. Here we have this tenderness, this affection, this kindness that we will always find in Jesus. The spirit will manifest himself in Jesus always with gentleness; it will approach the sinners with the gentleness of the dove, he will not break the cracked reed; he will not quench the lamp that still burns. The dove has been known in all cultures for its attachment to its nest; the homing pigeons, when released, they return to their nest. Here the dove rests in Jesus because that is its stable abode.
The Baptist says, “I have contemplated the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and remaining upon him.” The Spirit dwells in Jesus as in his house, in fullness. Then there is the third image, 'the voice from heaven.' This is an expression that often recurs in rabbinic literature. The rabbis used the expression 'a voice from heaven is heard' to present what God thought, for example, about a discussion they were having among themselves. To attribute a statement to God, they used the expression: 'A voice from heaven is heard.'
In our narrative, to define in the name of God the identity of Jesus: "You are my Son" it is God who guarantees to recognize himself in Jesus of Nazareth. As I have repeated other times when in the Semitic culture it is said 'son of a certain person,' rather than 'generated by' it is understood as 'similar to.' When it is said, 'this son resembles his father,' it is not only because of his pure external features because he gave him biological life, but because he assimilated the human being incarnated by his father; the father recognized him as a son. 'He who sees you sees my person, the human being that I incarnated.'
Here it is said to Jesus: ‘You are my Son.’ God tells all of us: 'Do you want to see me? Look at him; I recognize myself in this Son who perfectly reproduces my image.' Therefore, if I look at Jesus, who loves sinners, I discover the love of the heavenly Father for sinners; if I see Jesus forgiving, I understand that Jesus is merciful; if I see Jesus heal the sick, I understand that God is good and wants people's lives.
Then this voice from heaven says: "You are my beloved Son." The reference is to the story of Abraham who has to give to God his son, the beloved son. Applying this title to Jesus, God invites us not to consider Jesus a "beloved son" simply as a man, a prophet, a son like the others. He is the Only Begotten; he is unique; he is the beloved of the heavenly Father. 'My beloved.' We already know this expression because it is found in chapter 42 of the book of Isaiah. It is God who declares that Jesus is that faithful servant, that prophet whom he has sent to establish right and righteousness in the world. God the Father presents Jesus with this expression as the realizer of this prophecy.
Therefore, the voice from heaven fulfills all the expectations of humankind and reverses our conceptions of God. We begin to contemplate this epiphany of God in baptism, a manifestation of God and confirmation throughout his life; then at the cross, he will give the maximum of this manifestation of the face of God.
I wish you all a good Sunday and a good week.
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