Suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased"

 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.  And John tied 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 when John the Baptist 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 tied 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 notes that Jesus does not need purification.  But by making the purification of humanity His own, He would wash away the sin of humanity, grant regeneration, and even reveal the mystery of the Holy Trinity.  His baptism was therefore necessary for the fulfillment of God's righteous plan of salvation.  Gregory of Nyssa has written, "Jesus enters the filthy, sinful waters of the world and when He comes out, brings up and purifies the entire world with Him."   By His baptism, Jesus signals His full humanity, the taking on of all the righteousness and fulfillment of the Law in humility and obedience, just as He will take on suffering and death.  But there is more happening here:  He sanctifies the waters of the world for the Christian baptism that is to come by water and the Holy Spirit.

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. As Genesis tells us that the Spirit of God hovered over the water at the first creation (Genesis 1:2), here the Holy Spirit comes in the form of a dove to anoint the Messiah, the Son of God.  It is the beginning of the new creation, my study bible says.  But Jesus does not "become" the Son of God this day; rather this is a revelation that He is the Son who is and always was (see John 8:58).  The Holy Spirit resting upon Him is an eternal reality.  In the Eastern Church, this day is known as Epiphany (a manifestation or revelation) or Theophany (a manifestation of God).  In the early Church, the celebration of Christ's Nativity (Christmas) was celebrated together with His Baptism (Epiphany or Theophany), the beginning of His public ministry.  To this day, the Armenian Apostolic Church continues this tradition on its historical date of January 6th.

And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."  This is a quotation from Psalm 2:7:  "You are My Son, / Today I have begotten You."  In Jesus' Baptism, the tremendous mystery of the Trinity is revealed in  sight and hearing:  the Father speaks; the Holy Spirit descends; the Incarnate Son is baptized. 

The Baptism of Christ seems to fulfill a number of important roles.  It is first of all a new birth, just as Christian baptism is also a new birth.  The world is regenerated via Christ's "fulfillment of all righteousness" as part of His taking on of the fullness of human life for the plan of salvation.  The world is "reborn" as in Genesis when the the Holy Spirit hovered over the waters, fulfilled as Creator -- the Son and Word -- is revealed via the vision of the Holy Spirit's descent and the voice of the Father.   The Trinity itself becomes manifest and revealed to all.   God is revealed among us, so that by fully becoming one of us we may healed through union with God.  Here at the beginning of this mission, the start of Christ's public ministry, He is baptized by one who has spoken of Him by saying, "He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry" (see yesterday's reading, above).   Humility is on display in the great graciousness of this mission of Christ and how it is conducted.  Our God condescends to be with us in love.  When we commemorate this Baptism, we should understand its depth and complexity, and yet it is so much done in total simplicity.  In this place there is no fanfare such as accompanied Jesus to Jerusalem.  He simply appears at the Jordan to John the Baptist, who at this point is the only one who knows who the Christ is.   Jesus has no followers and no disciples, His mission first is to "fulfill all righteousness."  Jesus will later say of John, "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he" (11:11).  It is a crossroads, a turning point, and yet the fulfillment of all things nascent here.  In the grace of baptism, we receive a new birth.  It is Jesus' righteousness, and John's holiness that allows us to begin a baptism of water and the Spirit available to all the world.