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"

 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 Philip'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 the 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 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.   In this context, my study bible says, fire has the primary meaning of the gift of the Holy Spirit.  This fire will be given to the world at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).  It furthermore is a declaration of the judgment of Christ, in which the faithful will burn in a spiritual sense (see 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10; 2:8).  This fire of both the Holy Spirit and the one which burns the sinful is one and the same.  It is the same Power and the Same spirit which both enlivens the faithful and destroys the faithless, my study bible says.

But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip'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 his brother Philip's wife while Philip was still living.  John the Baptist openly criticized this as a violation of Jewish Law, and was imprisoned and will be martyred as a result.  Herod the tetrach himself "posed" as a Jewish leader; his father Herod the Great was a non-Jew who called himself the king of Judea, ruling for the Romans.  But Herod the tetrarch also known as Herod Antipas) was not convincing to his subjects as a true Jewish king; elsewhere Jesus compares him to a fox (13:32), a ritually unclean animal. 

 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 explains that Jesus Himself does not need baptism.  But in the act of being baptized, Christ accomplished several things.  First, He affirmed the ministry of John the Baptist.  Second, He is revealed here by the Father and the Holy Spirit to be the Christ, beloved Son of God.  Third, He identified with His people by descending with them into the waters.  Fourth, Jesus prefigured His own death in this baptism, which gives baptism itself its ultimate meaning.  Fifth, He entered the waters and by so doing sanctifies the water itself for the whole world's Christian baptism.   Sixth, Jesus fulfills the many "types" of Him which are given in the Old Testament, such as when Moses led the 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).  Finally, Christ opens heaven to a world that was separated from God through sin.

In the figure of John the Baptist, we see a figure of Israel and of the Law.  He is a prophet in the order of the prophets of the Old Testament; considered by the Church to be the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets.  John stands for righteousness.  Above and beyond all the impact of the world upon Israel at this time, John is a radical lover of God.  He lives and ministers in the wilderness, away from the cities and the power structures of the time, away from the politics of the nation.  In this way, he is a prophet among the prophets of old, in which all of life is focused on mission.  His message is simple:  the Messiah is coming, be prepared through repentance, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah.  He is the "voice" of Isaiah 40:3-5.   This repentance he helps to facilitate through a ministry of baptism, a symbol of death and rebirth, and his baptism will be fulfilled in turn -- first through the Baptism of Christ which we read about in today's reading, and second through Christian baptism, facilitated through Christ and the gift of Holy Spirit.  John is a radical reformer in a powerful spiritual sense, calling people back to God, but also declaring to Herod -- as no one else could dare -- the unlawful conduct of Herod's marriage to Herodias.  He is our original image, in the long line of the Old Testament prophets, of "speaking truth to power."  But this truth is a spiritual truth, born within an Israel torn apart by wars and endless skirmishes of kingdoms and powers, and now under the rule of Rome, the great imperial power whose empire was continually expanding.  It is a time of expediency, might, and power, and the rule of law enforced brutishly through disciplined force.  Israel itself is in its own kind of turmoil, caught between the Roman rule, the need to compromise, and the powerful forces of its own faith and spiritual history, and religious rulers seen by the common people -- and expressed through John the Baptist and Jesus to come -- working first for their own places.  There are indeed righteous among all of them, but all of Israel awaits the Messiah.  Everyone seems to have their own expectations of just what the Messiah will be and do; the people wonder if John himself is the Messiah.  And in this midst of all of this is the Baptism of Jesus, the great and holy wonder of Christ who gives us in return the manifestation of the Trinity, the sacramental holiness of water consecrated for our own baptism, and the gift of the holy fire of the Spirit.  Let us give thanks for the greatness of God, who turns all of the mundane world to a place of sacrament and revelation -- and above all, a place for God the Word to come to us.