And 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 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 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 comments on this passage that Jesus does not need purification.  But by making the purification of humanity His own, He would wash away humanity's sin, grant regeneration, and reveal the mystery of the Holy Trinity.  Therefore, Christ's baptism was necessary for the fulfillment of God's righteous plan of salvation.  Gregory of Nyssa is quoted as commenting:  "Jesus enters the filthy, sinful waters of the world and when He comes out, brings up and purifies the entire world with 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.  As the Spirit of God hovered over the water at the first creation (Genesis 1:2), now 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, my study Bible comments.  It notes that Jesus does not become the Son of God this day -- rather He is revealed to all as the Son of God on this day.  The Holy Spirit has always rested upon Him.   In the East, the feast day of Epiphany (meaning a manifestation or revelation) or Theophany (meaning a manifestation of God) is celebrated on January 6th.  It commemorates this day and points to the age to come.  In the very early Church, Christ's Nativity (Christmas) and this day (Epiphany) were celebrated together on January 6th, a practice still held in the Armenian Apostolic Church.  

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."  My study Bible notes how the Baptism of Jesus reveals the great mystery of the Trinity:  the Father speaks;  the Holy Spirit descends; the Incarnate Son is baptized.  

 

My study Bible points out the parallel here between Old and New Testaments in the Spirit of God, who, in the Old Testament hovers over the waters at the beginning of Creation, and who here hovers over Christ at this beginning of the New Creation.  These parallels are intentional and filled with meaning, given to us so that we understand the power in these events as given to us through the Scriptures.  In the Creed, the Holy Spirit is called "the Lord, the Creator of Life" (the Greek word Ζωοποιόν/Zoopion is frequently translated as "Giver of Life" or "Life-giver" but is more accurately translated as Creator of Life).  When the Holy Spirit hovers over the waters at the beginning of Creation in Genesis, the Spirit hovers over what is understood to be chaos, the opposite of Creation.  This is the understanding of the Old Testament.  The Holy Spirit is revealed to be hovering over Christ, as the Holy Spirit has always been, at Christ's Baptism.   That is, the power of the Holy Spirit is with Christ, the Son, and Christ's Baptism in effect sanctifies all the waters of the world for Christian Baptism.  It restores the order of Creation, renewing it for purposes meant for our own restoration and regeneration.  As we will see through the exorcisms that Christ performs, His work is to restore order, in some sense, to the chaos that often permeates our world.  How can we, as modern people, understand this chaos?  We see chaos present where there are great sins committed, such as the mass and random killings which take place during warfare.  We see it where violence can permeate families and neighborhoods for all kinds of reasons, where a murder or other violence destroys and pollutes families, disrupts relationships for generations at a time, and lays particular affliction upon children who are born into a circumstance over which they had no control or who suffer the effects and fallout from violence or abuse.  We can see violence in neighborhoods from organized crime of many types, or the lawlessness that permeates and lays claim to victims who cannot protect themselves from predators.  Everywhere we look, we can find chaos that enters our world through sin and destroys the kind of order that God condones in relationships within community, family, and for us as individuals.  There is the chaos of addiction and its attendant behaviors, which so often destroys family relationships and puts equal strain especially on children who pay the price for it, or other family members afflicted through another's problem.  We don't have to look far for chaos; we can see it all around us in one form or another.  Christ -- and the accompanying work of the Holy Spirit -- remains the answer for these problems.  One may not find that God simply appears and fixes everything; that does not happen in our world.  For, as the commentary a few days ago noted, we human beings are a sort of battleground for this world, where the influences of chaos and their effects in us meet the power of God to restore and heal, to help us find our way through a world afflicted by sin and its effects.  But we can call upon Christ to help us find our way forward; we hear and listen to His commands and do them.  How often does violence result from rage, from the inability to practice forgiveness, to face a good road, from the descending depravity of chaos that simply gets worse if one does not "turn around"  toward God and find God's way (otherwise known as repentance)?  Can we look around ourselves and see what it is to lack humility, to abuse others through false use of power, to fail to find Christ's way through bad circumstances?  Do we observe people going from bad to worse as they continue along this same path of abusive uses of power and manipulation?  John the Baptist has come preaching a baptism of repentance in preparation for Christ, and this is still the way for us.  It is still Christ who must help us to find His order in New Creation; it is still Christ to whom we turn to seek to put order into our lives out of chaos, to make sense of bad circumstances and help us through them the best we can, to find what the practice of love means in our lives, and the responsible use of authority and power.  It is Christ to whom we turn and rely upon for help through our own chaos and difficulties, whose help and presence we learn to depend upon when family or others let us down.  It is our faith that helps us out of the desert wasteland of meaninglessness to values that give meaning and substance to our lives.  So here in today's reading, the Holy Spirit is revealed to be always present with Christ at this New Creation, and we are each called to be part of that New Creation, through the waters sanctified by Christ and the seal of the Spirit, through practice of His commands, and prayer and worship to keep us alive and alert to His presence in them.   Our prayer and worship, our hearing and doing of Christ's commands for us, is the ongoing moment-to-moment practice of renewing and participating in our Baptism, in the life He offers.  We, too, become part of the New Creation, and our lives may touch others in this practice as examples of what is possible through the love of Christ the beloved Son, and our return of that love for us.