Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness

 

 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 in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!"  For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying: "The voice of one crying in the wilderness:  'Prepare the way of the LORD;  Make His paths straight.'"  Now John himself was clothed in camel's hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.  Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.  But when he 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 here that Jesus does not need purification.  As He makes the purification of humanity His own,  Jesus would wash away humanity's sin, grant regeneration, and reveal the mystery of the Holy Trinity.  So, His baptism was necessary for the fulfillment of God's righteous plan of salvation, my study Bible says.  St. Gregory of Nyssa is quoted:  "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. My study Bible points out that 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.  Jesus does not become the Son of God on this day.  Instead what we are witnessing through the Gospel is Christ being revealed as the Son of God.  The Holy Spirit has always rested on Him, as He was begotten as Son before all ages (Creed).  The feast day of Epiphany (meaning manifestation or revelation), in the Eastern Churches, commemorates this event on January 6th.  In the very early Christian church, Christ's baptism and nativity were celebrated together on this same day, a tradition continued in the Armenian Apostolic Church.  It is also called Theophany, which means a manifestation of God.  The commemoration of this day also points to the age to come. 

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 asks us to note how the Baptism of Jesus reveals the great mystery of the Trinity (thus making it a Theophany).  The Father speaks; the Holy Spirit descends; the Incarnate Son is baptized and declared.

In Genesis, as my study Bible points out, the Holy Spirit hovers over the waters of the earth at the first creation.  In the understanding of Genesis, those waters were considered to be waters of chaos, and the Spirit of God hovering over them to begin creation is God creating order out of chaos, especially through the Word (in Genesis, God speaks creation into being).  Here we have the Word Himself (John 1:1) who has taken on human flesh and become one of us, plunged into the river's waters in order to create anew, and to reveal anew God at work in the world.  The quotation from Gregory of Nyssa reveals to us the foundations of our faith: "Jesus enters the filthy, sinful waters of the world and when He comes out, brings up and purifies the entire world with Him."  In one sense, Jesus "fulfills all righteousness" by making all the waters of the world proper for Christian baptism to come, and as He is revealed as Son, and together always with both the Father and the Spirit, it is possible now for Christian baptism to be understood as regeneration and rebirth, giving new life to those who continue in the faith of Christ.  In baptism, we are to die to the old self, and begin a different life, a process that is meant to continue for our lifetimes and simply to begin a journey with God.  When St. Paul writes, "I die daily" (1 Corinthians 15:31), he speaks of this lifetime journey meant for continual regeneration and renewal, death and resurrection.  For we are baptized into the whole of Christ's life, and the Church's sacraments, and the whole of our Christian lives, are meant for participation in His life.  Baptism, then, is a type of death and resurrection, as we are plunged into the waters which symbolize death and chaos, but are reborn through the power of God, especially the Spirit of God which hovered over the waters before creation.  We have but one baptism, but that is meant to be a continual presence and reality at work in our lives, renewed through faith and faithful living in dedication to Christ and His teachings and life lived for us, "to fulfill all righteousness."  Let us think about forms of death and of chaos in our lives and our society, and what Christ's baptism to fulfill all righteousness means for us, the Incarnation of the Word that renews creation and puts all things in order.  Once again we are asked to understand the nature of time in the sense that it is given to us in the Gospels, for these things are at work for us now through participation and sacrament, even for an event that happened two millennia ago.   This nature of time and fulfillment is expressed in the repeated excerpts from Old Testament Scripture we have found so far in Matthew's Gospel; this is the prophetic nature of time.  How important is it that we may participate in His life and the work of the Spirit in the world?  How do we see our lives unfolding in that context?  Where does His command "to fulfill all righteousness" come into your life and the world around us even now?