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 

 

In yesterday's lectionary reading, we began the Gospel of Luke.  First, Luke's prologue:  Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were instructed.   From here, the lectionary began chapter 3:  Now 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 the 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 notes, fire has the primary meaning of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is given to the world at Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4).  Moreover, "fire" declares the judgment of Christ, in which the faithless will burn (see 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10; 2:8).  We must note also that this fire is one.  It is the same Power and the same Spirit which both enlivens the faithful and destroys the faithless.  

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 Antipas, the tetrarch or ruler of Galilee (popularly called king) had divorced his own wife, and married his brother Philip's wife Herodias while Philip was still living.  John the Baptist preached publicly against this marriage as unlawful as it violated Mosaic law.  Herod Antipas, like his father Herod the Great, ruled for Rome, although the family adopted Jewish customs and nominally called themselves Jews.

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 comments that Jesus Himself does not need baptism.  However, in being baptized, He accomplished several things, which my study Bible lists as follows:  (1) He affirmed the ministry of John the Baptist; (2) He was revealed by the Father and the Holy Spirit to be the Christ, the beloved Son of God;  (3) He identified with His people by descending into the waters with them;  (4) He prefigured His own death, giving baptism its ultimate meaning;  (5)  He entered the waters, thereby sanctifying the water itself; (6) He fulfilled the many types given in the Old Testament, 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); and (7) He opened heaven to a world separated from God through sin.  

 

Possibly the most stunning aspect of Christ's baptism is what is called Epiphany ("Manifestation," "Showing forth"), or more closely, Theophany ("Revelation of God").  This is worthy of a paragraph on its own, for here is the appearance of the Holy Trinity.  The Son is revealed by the descent of the Holy Spirit and by the voice of the Father.  My study Bible calls this the greatest and clearest public manifestation of God as Trinity in human history.  It was, since the ancient founding of the Church, celebrated on January 6th, and remains so in the Eastern Churches as a whole.  In the earliest years of the Church, Christ's Birth and Baptism were celebrated on this same day, as remains the case in the Armenian Apostolic Church, which has never separated the holidays.  My study Bible adds that the words spoken by the Father also apply to everyone who is baptized and lives faithfully, as sonship is bestowed by adoption (Galatians 4:4-7).  The Holy Spirit appearance as a dove is not an incarnation -- we should understand it, rather, as a visible sign for the people.  This moreover fulfills the type prefigured at the Flood.  My study Bible cites the commentary of Theophylact of Ohrid:  "Just as a dove announced to Noah that God's wrath had ceased, so too the Holy Spirit announces here that Christ has reconciled us to God by sweeping sin away in the flood waters of baptism."  

If we think about what it means here that, right at the very starting point of Christ's ministry, we are given this Epiphany or Theophany, we can see it in differing ways.  First of all, it is a heavenly declaration to the world regarding Christ.  Not only is He the Son, as revealed in the appearance of the Holy Spirit and the voice of the Father, but it teaches the world that where the Son is, there the other two divine Persons of the Trinity are as well.  It is, in and of itself, a revelation to the world of the Holy Trinity, and thus the foundation, or starting point, of Christian theology.  While during this period in Judaism (frequently referred to as "Second Temple" Judaism), the various names for God which already existed in Old Testament Scriptures were debated and discussed as possible differing Persons of God, this event seals the Trinitarian understanding for Christianity.  Moreover, it is intriguing that it takes place as Jesus submits Himself to the baptism of John the Baptist, for He certainly does not need to do this for the sake of repentance, nor, obviously, in preparation for the coming of the Christ, Himself.  In Matthew's Gospel, John the Baptist protests, saying to Jesus, "I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?"  But Jesus insists, saying, "Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then, we're told, he allowed Him (Matthew 3:13-15).  So therefore it opens to us to ponder what it means that Jesus and John thus "fulfill all righteousness."  It is a time of the handing off of public authority in some sense, from John, who is the last and greatest of the Old Testament prophets, to Jesus, the Christ or Messiah.  It clearly provides an opening to the whole world, through the manifestation of the Trinity and the declaration that Jesus is Son, that a New Covenant is now also going to be made manifest to the world.  It is safe to assume that Jesus' submission to Baptism, in addition to achieving all of the things my study Bible lists (as reported in the preceding paragraph), is something He does by command of the Father, without whom Jesus does nothing.  What seems explicit in Luke's Gospel, which we've just begun reading from yesterday's lectionary assignment, is that Luke centers us within history.  He marks events with a clear delineation of human time scale, by explicitly naming who is in authority in each worldly realm that is relevant.  He begins the chapter by noting that these events take place "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" (Luke 3:1-2).  Luke gives us a clear sense, then, of God "disrupting" human time, intervening within a setting of history, making an appearance to us within the worldly time and events we experience.  While a Theophany like this astonishing one-of-a-kind event is rare, it does not preclude the kind of epiphany we might experience in the life of the Church, in prayer or worship, in communion or through the sacraments, in prayer before a candle or icon, or any number of ways in which some sort of spiritual understanding is conveyed to us.  It is an announcement to us, not only of the Trinity and of Christ the Son, but also intimates to us that God appears in the middle of our worldly lives, intervenes, comes to us in ways unexpected and unanticipated.  Just as we are expected to live our faith through our worldly lives, God intersects with the world.  Nothing makes this more clear than the Incarnation of Christ itself, God become human.   It is the good news that indeed, God is here, present with us, always knowing and listening, and not so far away at all.  There is nowhere "off limits" and God finds a way to find us, even in a wilderness of unknowns -- or even where the worldly certainties would seem to crowd God out altogether.