Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness

 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.  And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?"  But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."  Then he allowed Him.  When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.  And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

- Matthew 3:13-17

 Yesterday we read that in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"  For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying:  "The voice of one crying in the wilderness:  'Prepare the way of the Lord; make His paths straight.'"  Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.  Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.  But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers!  Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not think 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 tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.  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 His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

  Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.  And John tried to prevent Him, saying, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?"  But Jesus answered and said to him, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."  Then he allowed Him.  My study bible tells us that Jesus doesn't need purification.  But by undergoing baptism, He makes the purification of humanity His own; He washes away humanity's sin, grants regeneration, and reveals the mystery of the Holy Trinity.  Thereby, His baptism is necessary for the fulfillment of God's righteous plan of salvation.  Gregory of Nyssa writes, "Jesus enters the filthy, sinful waters of the world and when He comes out, brings up and purifies the entire world with Him."  We notice John's humility; he only baptizes Jesus when Christ commands "permit it to be so now," and He pronounces it "fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."

 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.  And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."  My study bible reminds us that at the first creation, the Spirit of God hovered over the water (Genesis 1:2).  Here, the Holy Spirit comes in the form of a dove to anoint the Messiah, the Son of God, at the beginning of the new creation.  In this baptism which "fulfills all righteousness," Jesus is revealed as the eternal Son of God.  The Holy Spirit has always rested upon Him.  The quotation of the voice of the Father is from Psalm 2:7:  "You are My Son,/Today I have begotten You."  The baptism of Christ becomes a revelation of the Holy Trinity:  the Father speaks, the Holy Spirit descends, and the Incarnate Son is baptized.  In the ancient Church this was celebrated together with Nativity on the feast day of Epiphany.  Epiphany means manifestation or revelation;  this event is also called Theophany (which means a manifestation of God).  It is celebrated on January 6th, both commemorating this day and pointing to the age to come.

Jesus' baptism begins His public ministry.  It is for that reason that the ancient Church coupled the celebration of His birth with Epiphany; both are births.  But just as a pregnancy lasts nine months, and by the time a baby is born, it is the fulfillment of what we know has been generating in the mother's womb, so Christ's baptism is not really "just" a beginning.  It is a manifestation, as its name implies.   It is a fulfillment.  It is God "filling out" and taking shape and making more substantial to us the reality of God's work in the world, God's presence in creation.   In revealing or manifesting the Trinity, we are given a deeper and fuller perception of God.  These are not just abstract and far away concepts, ideas set out by philosophers.  They are rather manifest, made tangible, audible, seen as images.  The reality of God forms and shapes God in our world for us to grasp and to come to know, more than we knew before.  This is the movement of the Incarnation, and it is the fullness of the movement of God in the world, who has come to us that we might better know God.  We will know God's love, and Jesus will leave us with the command to "love one another as I have loved you."  The fullness and shape and manifestation of God comes to us as part of the whole spiritual history of God at work in the world, and so that we may participate more fully and deeply in God, becoming "like God."  We will be invited to participate in the life, death, and Resurrection of Christ, an ongoing and ever-fulfilling promise.  The baptism of Jesus meets us with the spirit of the Gospels, the fulfillment of promise, the fullness of God given to us, shaping and giving us depth in the understanding that God is a Person with whom we are engaged in relationship, the three Persons in One giving us an image of just how deeply communion goes.  This manifestation happens in a natural way, understood by those who can receive it, and giving us its fruit as we are given our own baptisms which produce spiritual fruit through the time of our own lives.  This promise of manifestation is also given to us in order to more fully form and shape and give dimension to the persons we can become, as we too participate in the "fulfillment of all righteousness" (John 3:5-8).