Today the focus moves to the Baptism of Jesus at which more important allusions are made to the significance of the child in the manger. Mark the gospel for the lectionary Year B treats the baptism of Jesus in an almost perfunctory manner. “In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan.” More important to Mark is what happened after the baptism that is the descent of the dove and the divine voice. Just to pause a moment Luke’s gospel also hardly mentions the baptism proper and John’s gospel does not mention it at all. We could well ask was there a problem for the evangelists and for the early church in Jesus being baptized? Well yes there was because why would the sinless Son of God need baptism at all? The incident of Jesus’ baptism by John was a source of some embarrassment which accounts for the perfunctory way in which it is dealt with in the gospels. The matter is dealt with in another way as well and that is the clear distinction made in all the gospels between the ministry of John the Baptist and that of Jesus. So today’s gospel opens with words by John the Baptist making this quite clear: “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John’s Gospel puts it another way: “I must decrease that he may increase.”

Why then was Jesus baptized by John? Here I find the best explanation is in terms of Jesus total identification with our humanity. Jesus the fully incarnate one enters into the whole human experience, the whole messiness with which we are familiar, and submits to John’s baptism as a sign of his participation and identification with us. And furthermore in terms of Jewish religion Jesus shows himself as obeying the religious tenets of the people into which he was born. In this moment of baptism he demonstrates that he is one of us, fully human, and one with his people, the Jews. Jesus is not a human in general, but a particular human, born at a particular point in history and into a particular social, cultural and religious setting. So his baptism as much as it caused some issues for the early church nevertheless itself is a commentary upon the meaning of the incarnation. This child is not just humanity in general but particular person in particular time.

But the focus of Mark’s account of the baptism of Jesus as I have already said is not on the baptism in the water of Jordan as such but upon what happened afterwards. “And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” The water baptism is the occasion for two theologically vital events to do with the significance and identity of Jesus. First is the Descent of the Spirit upon him in the form of a dove. Jesus is no ordinary person but one to whom the Spirit is given and in whom it remains. Jesus in other words is the Spirit-bearer, the one in whom the Spirit of God abides. Remember that for Mark’s gospel there is no nativity scene. Mark begins with the baptism of Jesus. This is the first act of the drama of Jesus the Son of God. What Mark is saying is that from the beginning this Jesus who came from Nazareth in Galilee was the bearer of the Spirit of God. In this action of the descent of the Spirit there are all sorts of overtones about the Creation of the world with the Spirit hovering over the waters in the act of creation. Jesus is the New Creation as Paul calls him the one in whom the creative Spirit of God is present and active. John’s Gospel puts it another way: “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” That was the gospel for Christmas Day. What is being said in different ways is that this Jesus, this child, is one in whom the whole creative Spirit of God is present. This distinguishes Jesus from the prophets and all other holy men and women in that while they have particular gifts of the Spirit and do and say holy things Jesus is the Spirit-bearer from the beginning not just in occasional ways but it is his character, his identity.

But there were two things important to the early church about the Baptism of Jesus: the Descent of the Spirit and the Divine Voice. Mark says: “And a voice came from heaven, You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” These words echo the Isaiah lesson and link Jesus to God’s Servant mentioned there; they also link Jesus to the Psalms where similar words are addressed to the King, especially King David. The allusions are obvious. This Jesus, this child, is one of whom the prophets and seers of old longed and looked for. This is the one whom God promised he would raise up to save and serve his holy people. This is that Messianic figure that is at the very heart of Jewish expectation. This Jesus, the child in the manger, is identified with this figure. But as faithful parishioners of the Church of the Transfiguration we are also familiar with the words addressed to Jesus by the divine voice. Yes they are the same words which are spoken by the divine voice at the Transfiguration. Just as an aside I love Mark’s gospel for its remarkable symmetry. Mark makes it clear from line one that this Jesus, this child, is the Son of God. Not only does he say so in the first line of the Gospel, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” but he says it at the end after the Crucifixion in the words of the Roman centurion “Truly this man was God’s Son”. This Divine Sonship is confirmed both at the Baptism of Jesus at the beginning of the Gospel and at the Transfiguration exactly half way through the Gospel.

Both events, the Descent of the Spirit and the Divine Voice, point to the identity of Jesus, this child: he is God’s Son.

But if that is what is being said about Jesus what does it all mean for us, the baptized faithful of the Church. If our baptism is the outward sign of our participation in the saving love of God made known to us in Jesus Christ then his identity is a clue to our identity. If we believe that Jesus is bearer of the Spirit of God; if we believe this Jesus is God’s Son; if we believe that all God’s promises abide in the person and work of Jesus, then we believe that by our baptism into Jesus, into his death and resurrection, we too share in the fullness of his humanity and of his divinity. What Jesus is that we shall become. The Eastern Orthodox churches speak of the Christian life as a process of divinization. What a wonderful way of thinking about the baptismal life in which we all participate. As we enter more deeply into the mystery of our baptism so we in fact grow into the divine likeness made known to us in and through Jesus the Christ. This is the good news which we celebrate each time we celebrate a baptism and as we make eucharist together Sunday by Sunday. On this day may we give thanks for our baptism into Jesus and pray that we may enter into the fullness of life which it signifies.   Amen

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