The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
The baptism of Jesus is such a powerful story. It is a Father-Son love story. It is the story of the deepest bond that can exist between a loving parent and a deeply loved child. It is the love story of redemption. The baptism of Jesus will prepare him to take upon himself the most difficult task in all of human history – the redemption of the human race. Both the Father and the Son know what awaits them. And so there is a certain poignancy about the baptism of Jesus. The Father embraces the Son through the Holy Spirit, the Son embraces the Father in the Spirit knowing all that is to come. This is the “eternal embrace.” The Father claims the Son and the Son will confess the Father. “This is my beloved Son,” the Father said. The Son would just say, “Abba.” The baptism is an experience of intimacy.
This experience was so powerful that at the end of his lifetime, Jesus said to his disciples, “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Thus, everyone who is now baptized in the name of Jesus is embraced by God. We become the “beloved of God.” Baptism is an invitation to fall in love with God in the same way that God is in love with us. Baptism is an invitation to embrace God in Jesus. Our baptism is an invitation to intimacy with God.
Surely the baptism of Jesus and our own baptism into the life and resurrection of Jesus has implications for us. I would like to draw three practical implications for us.
1. The first implication of our baptism comes from the fact that just like Jesus, the moment we are baptized we are claimed by the Father in an eternal embrace. By virtue of our baptism we do not belong to ourselves any more. If that sounds oppressive – that we are no longer our own – then we need to look at the consequence of not belonging to God. Without the Father’s claim over us, where we come from has no bearing on who we are today, and who we are today has no bearing on where we come from or what we will become. Our baptism is a choice we make to find the purpose and meaning of our life in the intimacy of the Father’s love. Our baptism allows us to find the meaning in the intimacy of our relationship with God. Because of our baptism and because of the Father’s claim over us we know where we come from and we know where we are going.
2. The second implication comes from the first. The Father’s claim over us is not some generic claim. The Father claimed Jesus as God’s “beloved Son.” Note that the Father did not just say Son, but rather, “beloved Son.” The implication of this is that in the Father’s claim over us, we find our own identity. I firmly believe that the conviction of one’s own identity as the “beloved” of God is what separates those who live their lives meaningfully and those who do not.
3. The third practical implication comes from our identity as the “beloved of God. Our identity as the “beloved” is more than an ego-boosting gimmick. Jesus’ identity as the “beloved son” guided him toward his mission. This mission is outlined in today’s first reading. “He shall bring justice to the nations… A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench…” God says to him, “I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.” Our identity, as the “beloved of God” gives our lives a deeper purpose – not an easy task by any chance as the life of Jesus proves. To bring God’s justice, compassion and consolation to one another, to be the sign of God’s covenant, to be a light in the darkness, to bring hope to parched lives, to bring forgiveness and healing to the hurting, to bring unity and love to the broken – that was the mission of Jesus and that is our mission too.
At our own baptism we were as warmly embraced by the Father as Jesus himself was. Let us say yes to that embrace and let the love of God guide the rest of the week and indeed our whole lives. Amen.
Fr. Satish Joseph