START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
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OBSERVE:
In some Christian traditions, this passage focusing on the baptism of Jesus is known as a “Theophany,” i.e., a manifestation of God’s glory and presence.
There are two sections in today’s Scripture reading. The first section is a kind of preface to the baptism of Jesus. The second section describes the baptism of Jesus.
In the preface to the baptism of Jesus, Luke describes the ministry of John the Baptist. John humbly defers to the one who is coming, who is more powerful than John himself.
He clearly differentiates between himself and the Messiah.
John’s baptism is a baptism by water. Elsewhere, John’s baptism is defined as:
a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3).
Repentance is seen as a necessary step in the spiritual process of salvation. John declares that the Messiah will soon bring the next step — a baptism of power and purification:
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
John sees the ministry of the Messiah as the beginning of the judgment — the separation of the just and the unjust:
His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
But in the following verses we have a paradox. The powerful one who is coming, the Messiah, the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire, who will judge and separate the just from the unjust, presents himself to John to be baptized like any other sinner!
But what happens during his baptism demonstrates that Jesus is not a sinner in need of absolution:
. . . when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
This is a true theophany. The full Triune nature of God is present. The Holy Spirit descends upon the Son, indicating God’s presence. And the voice from heaven is the voice of the Father, declaring Jesus’ unique relationship as the Son of God.
Jesus is uniquely the Beloved. This is language reminiscent of the descriptions of Jesus in the Gospel of John:
It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known (John 1:18).
The true nature of Jesus as the Son of God and the Messiah, the Second Person of the Trinity, is made manifest in this passage.
And the Father’s statement — with you I am well pleased — is a clear statement that this baptism and the theophany acknowledge the established identity of Jesus. Jesus isn’t being “adopted” as Son of God — God is already well pleased with the Son who has coexisted with him in the unity of the Trinity from eternity.
APPLY:
A theophany is a little like what happens when we open and close blinds in a window. When the blinds open and close, they don’t change the brilliance of the Sun. That light remains a constant. But opening the blinds means that the person on the inside can see the light.
When this theophany occurs in Luke’s Gospel it doesn’t change the nature of God. God remains the same. But we begin to catch a glimpse of the nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
All three Persons of the Godhead are manifest in this passage — as Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit descends, and the Father acknowledges that Jesus is his Beloved Son.
The act of baptism by John is like the opening of the blinds. As opening the blinds reveals the Sun, so baptism reveals the Son.
Likewise, in a narrower sense, our baptism reveals our relationship with God as his adopted children. As an Orthodox priest recently said:
we become by grace what Jesus is by nature.
RESPOND:
What really matters to me is that when I was baptized, and when I came to faith in Christ, my life was “hidden” in his life; I was identified with Christ:
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory (Colossians 3:1-3).
So, as Jesus has been baptized to reveal that he is the Son of God, which is confirmed in his life, death and resurrection, so when I have been baptized I have been revealed as a child of God, and now am able to live my life in him and to be raised to life in the resurrection.
Our Lord, your baptism reveals who you are as Son of God. May my own baptism reveal who I am as a child of God! Amen.
PHOTO:
“Light is a constant” uses this untitled photo by woodleywonderworks which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
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