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Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." And with many other exhortations he preached to the people. But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philips's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, also added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison.
When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased."
- Luke 3:15-22
Yesterday, we read that in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of Iturea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, while Annas and Caiaphas were high priests, the word of God came to John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness. And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins, as it is written in the book of he words of Isaiah the prophet, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord; Make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough ways smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'" Then he said to the multitudes that came out to be baptized by him, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every good tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." So the people asked him, saying, "What shall we do then?" He answered and said to them, "He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none; and he who has food, let him do likewise." Then tax collectors also came to be baptized, and said to him, "Teacher, what shall we do?" And he said to them, "Collect no more than what is appointed for you." Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, "And what shall we do?" So he said to them, "Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be content with your wages."
Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, John answered, saying to all, "I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire." And with many other exhortations he preached to the people. My study bible explains that fire in this context has the primary meaning of the gift of the Holy Spirit, given to the world at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). But it also declares the judgment of Christ, in which the faithless will burn (see 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10; 2:8). We note that this fire is one: it is the same Power and the same Spirit which both enlivens the faithful and destroys the faithless. This fire can be thought of as a sort of energy, in which we either participate and embrace, or seek to resist.
But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philips's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, also added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison. Herod had divorced his own wife and married Philip's wife Herodias while Philip was still living. In his role as prophet, John the Baptist decried this unlawful marriage, and "all the evils which Herod had done." As Mark's Gospel gives a sort of "flashback" of John's death, Luke gives us a "flash forward."
When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased." My study bible says that Jesus Himself doesn't need baptism, but accomplishes several things by being baptized. He, first of all, affirms John's ministry. This occasion as reported here in Luke (and other Gospels) is what is called a Theophany, a revelation of God -- the Trinity. He is revealed by the Father and the Holy Spirit to be Christ, God's beloved Son. He identifies with His people by descending into the waters with them. His own death is prefigured here, which gives baptism its ultimate meaning (we are immersed in the waters as a death, and reborn in Spirit as we arise). Jesus entered the waters and so sanctified them all for the future baptism of all of us. Here is also a fulfillment of many "types" given in the Old Testament: for example, Moses leading people from bondage through the Red Sea (Exodus 14) and when the ark of the covenant was carried into the Jordan so the people could enter the Promised Land (Joshua 3, 4). And finally, Jesus' baptism opens heaven to a world separated from God through sin, a profound meaning for the Incarnation.
What can we say of the God-man who is revealed to us through this scene, this baptism? This is the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Some might say it's "opened up" by John's baptism. But it is the sanctification of the waters happening here which, in fact, opens heaven up to us as is implied in the text. This is the whole meaning of the Incarnation, given to us in a picture right here at the beginning, in this baptism. God the Father speaks, naming Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit descends "like a dove," a sign of peace we already know from the story of the waters of the flood. This is the story of God's reconciliation with us, and our reconciliation with God. It is the story of peace. It is the story of the oneness we can share in relationship to God, the Trinity, which we've just read so much of in the last prayer of Jesus from John's Gospel. In His descent, the Spirit hovers over the waters, just as we read about in Genesis at the creation of the world. We have a picture of reconciliation here in so many ways, God's presence, God's Spirit, reunifying us and making us whole again, restoring us to our "original creation." So many things are in this one picture! What we remember, then, are several things here. First of all, the presence of God -- and revelation -- mean that there are infinite possibilities for our understanding and interpretation, for signaling something important to us about our faith. It's an icon: a picture that can fill us with something important, maybe essential for the journey, for today or this moment. That is why we visit and revisit Scripture, the word of God, and it is how Scripture works for us. Each time we look at a "word-picture" or read a parable, a "word-picture" given us by Christ, it's all the same source of so many things, an infinite well of creativity and wisdom. All of it goes to feed us and to complete us, to reconcile us back to our original creation, in the love of God. If we limit "the facts" to a few worldly things, if we are so limited in our perspective as to think this has nothing to do with the heavens opening and our being invited in, then we miss so much, and we miss the point of Scripture. We understand its effects when we understand what is here, in this revelation, this "Breath of God." Our Creator has re-united with us. He is given to us and shares Himself with the elements of this world, His Creation, to sanctify, to give us something more, to take us on this journey of faith. Let's not limit what is infinite. It is our real gift of life, so much more abundantly than we understand. There is one more little thing for us to understand in this picture: Jesus is baptized "when all the people were baptized," after everybody else. Let us remember the humility of God who humbles Himself from love for us, who "condescends," and comes to us as one of us.
