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 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, as he preached repentance in the wilderness of Judea, 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 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 explains here that Jesus does not need purification.  It says that by making the purification of humanity His own, He would wash away humanity's sin, grant regeneration, and also reveal the mystery of the Holy Trinity.  Therefore, this particular Baptism is fitting to fulfill God's righteous plan of salvation.  Gregory of Nyssa is quoted by my study bible:  "Jesus enters the filthy, sinful waters of the world and when He comes out, brings up and purifies the entire world with Him."

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.  The Spirit of God hovered over the water at the first creation in Genesis 1:2.  Here the Holy Spirit comes in the form of a dove in anointing the Messiah, the Son of God, at the beginning of the new creation.  My study bible makes the important point that this anointing does not make Jesus the Son of God upon this day.  Instead it is understood as a revelation of Christ's true identity to the world.  The Holy Spirit has always rested upon the Son.  On January 6th, the Orthodox Churches celebrate a feast day known as Epiphany (meaning, in Greek, manifestation or revelation) or Theophany (meaning a manifestation of God).  This celebration both commemorates this day and points to the age to come.  In the earliest years of the Church, this event was commemorated on the same day as Nativity, and this is still the case of the Armenian Apostolic Church.  We understand through such that Christ's birth into the world, and this beginning of His ministry (and thus also the beginning of "end times" - the age in which we still live)  are understood in the same sense.  Thus is "all righteousness" fulfilled, as Jesus indicates.

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

Let us consider what revelation is; in this case, the revelation of the Holy Trinity takes place at Jesus' Baptism.  Does that mean that this is the first time the Holy Trinity exists?  No, it does not.  Neither does it mean that Christ became "beloved Son" on this day.  The words of God the Father about the beloved Son, "in whom I am well pleased" give us a sense not only of the Father's love of the Son, but also of the ministry which is begun in a way fitting to fulfill all righteousness.  The revelation is to us, it is "good news" to us, something to startle the world -- and perhaps something "hidden from the foundation of the world" (13:35).  The Trinity exists in an eternal state, without beginning discernible in the sense in which we could understand it.  Therefore what is revealed to human beings is that which has existed since before time -- before the world as we know it and experience it.  But Christ's Baptism helps to fulfill all righteousness by manifesting this eternal truth and reality into our world, so that we can understand it and move toward that fulfillment in ourselves as well.  And this is the reality of prophetic revelation:  it gives us something that may be eternal, but it is something of which we are either ignorant or need to be reminded.  In this light, from the beginning of our faith, and before, it has been understood that time exists in at least two different states.  There is the time of this world and of our lives, in which we grow as human beings, moving from one choice to another, from one understanding or state to another.  And then there is the "time" of God which is no time at all, but outside of time as we understand it, an eternal reality, from "before" time existed.  As such, we might consider time itself as a gift to us, as a sense in which we might grow and change, and to have time for repentance.  It is also necessary to our own gift of free will; that is, so that we may exercise our own choices for direction in life, for choosing that in which we place our trust, and that in which we don't.  In these senses, Christ's Baptism in the Jordan by John opens up for us all considerations of all of creation and why it exists, and also our place, seemingly in the middle of it.  For if the waters for Christian baptism are sanctified through the Baptism of Christ by John, then time indeed seems to double back upon itself in which we might even consider a type of Eucharistic sense:  God gave us the world and everything in it, but when those waters are given to God through Christ's Baptism by a human being, God returns them to us sanctified for baptism with the Holy Spirit (see in yesterday's reading, above, the Baptist's words about the Christ:  "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire").  Therefore time as we know it, and time as it exists in an eternal sense of Father, Son, and Spirit intersect.  In our liturgies we commemorate the sacrifice of Christ for the love of the world, and over and over again, as such, time continues to intersect, even as we celebrate and worship with the angels of heaven.  In this way we know creation as both a gift and also fitting for sacrifice -- and to be returned to us with God's greater blessing and grace.  And so it is that this teaches us how each of us can live our lives.  What do you have in your life that you would like redeemed, blessed, sanctified, returned to you with greater blessing from the Lord?  He is baptized in the waters of the earth and sanctifies them for us all for the blessing of our baptism with the Holy Spirit.  Do you have a problem that needs help?  Give that -- even in sacrifice -- to the Lord.  Do you have a blessing such as may be considered personal wealth?  Then do the same.  Are you blessed with certain talents and gifts, or perhaps with what you consider to be handicaps, one way and another?  Then "sacrifice" them, any and all, to the Lord, and see how the Lord returns it to you.  Through the Baptism, we understand the revelation of the Lord and of the Holy Trinity, not as something merely given to us just then, but as something which intersects our world through our own capacity for interaction and worship, to reveal what we need and what is good for us, what it is that truly blesses us.  Remember that Crucifixion has taught us the same, in which the most dreaded instrument of punishment reserved for the worst criminals was given to God, and returned to us as symbol of salvation, redemption, and victory over even the last enemy, death.  Let us think of the blessings of our faith, the choices we can make, even for "sacrifice" in this sense -- and move into the revelation God offers us, all the time.