Baptism of the Lord – 12th January 2025

The First Reading, a passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah, is sort of the final commentary on Christmas.  Why was the child born?  What sort of person would he become?

He would be revolutionary.  He would change human understanding of justice, of peace, of love, and of power.  But his revolutionary role would be the furthest thing from what people normally mean by that word.  In no sense at all would he be a demagogue, or a rabble-rouser.  Isaiah writes he shall carry out his mission, “not crying out, not shouting, not making his voice heard in the streets,” not demanding attention.

But that gentleness must never be mistaken for weakness.  For his would be an immense power, immense enough to truly establish justice on earth.  Isaiah pictures the Father himself as telling the Messiah, “I have called you for the victory of justice”.

And that prophetic commentary on the birth and life of Christ begins to come to fulfilment in the Baptism of Christ.  Christ’s baptism was a public joining of himself and his mission with those who awaited the coming of the Messiah.  It made clear to Jesus himself and to all those who saw it the approval of the Father, the sending of the Holy Spirit as a divine and public confirmation of the mission that he would take up.  Christ’s baptism very clearly identifies him as the one Isaiah foretold.

The Father affirms that what Christ was about to do, the kind of life he was about to teach, was right, that it was pleasing to the Father, that it would work even when it didn’t seem that way, even when the example of Christ would seem foolish, wasted, self-destructive.

From then on, power would have little to do with the ability to control one’s surroundings, overcome one’s enemies, or eliminate one’s problems.  Rather, power would be a matter of the ability to embrace one’s surroundings, be kind to one’s enemies, be patient with one’s problems.

From then on, success, status, would have little to do with how well one is regarded and served by others.  Rather, it would be a matter of how well one offers one’s self in service to others.

From then on, love wouldn’t have much to do with how good a thing or person makes one feel.  Love could no longer be a business deal, where one gives only in proportion to what one gets in return.  Rather, love would be much more a matter of preferring to be the victim of evil rather than the cause of it – the one who bears burdens rather than the one who inflicts them on others.

We, too, share in that Baptism, that divine approval of our mission.  We have been commissioned equally as clearly as Christ, to go out as faithful, loving and patient servants.  Let us be sure that we accept  that mission and live it out as openly, as publicly as did Christ.

Fr Andrew