Matthew 3:13-17
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.’
Commentary
John’s mission was to prepare his fellow Jews or the inauguration of the messianic kingdom, expected and eagerly awaited, for centuries. His baptism, a washing of the people in the Jordan waters, was an outward sign of their inner repentance, and a turning of their hearts to God. Jesus had no sins of which to repent, and his heart was always with God. He was God in human nature, but he wished to be associated with all pious Jews, and so, like them, to be baptized by John. This was his way of inaugurating the messianic era.
Christ, our beloved Saviour, began his messianic mission, the mission of enabling the whole human race to be sons of God and heirs of heaven, with an act of self-humiliation. His insisted on going through John’s baptismal rite even though he had not sin to repent of. He did this because he was the representative of all sinners, and had come “to take away the sin of the world,” and in order to set sinners of all time an example of true humility and true repentance.
During the Christmastide just ended, the Sunday lessons from the holy scripture have reminded us, again and again, of the humiliations Christ endured on earth for our sake. The greatest of these was the incarnation, God taking the nature of man, the Creator becoming a creature, the master making himself a slave. Add to this, the reception he got when he came among us, his birth in a stable, his cradle a manger, his forced flight into Egypt, his life of poverty in the despised town of Nazareth, where he earned his meager livelihood by the sweat of his brow like the most ordinary of men.
All this was for men and for you! He suffered all of this, and much more, notwithstanding the face that, as God, he foresaw the ingratitude he would receive in return, from the vast majority of those for whom he suffered. All of us here today have shown him our share of this ingratitude. We have not only forgotten to thank him, but we have positively offended him by our sins. We have grumbled and complained, and perhaps open rebelled, when he asked us to follow him on the path of humiliation and suffering, which he trod before us for our sake.
What human benefactor, what fellow-man, who had put himself to great inconvenience, and caused himself humiliation and personal suffering in order to help us, would not wash his hands off us, forever, if our return was forgetfulness, thanklessness, ingratitude and even insult, in return for all he had done for us? And could we blame him? But God is not a human benefactor. His love, his mercy, his understanding and sympathy, are not finite and limited like those of men. His love is for sinners, as well as for saints. It is reaching out to us every day and every hour of the day, recalling us to a sense of duty, a sense of gratitude, and indeed a sense of self-interest in our eternal welfare.
Meditate for a few moments today on the lesson of this Gospel reading. Think of the magnitude of the humiliations and the sufferings that Christ, God’s Son, endured in order that you could have eternal happiness. Your own earthly troubles, your worldly aches and pains, will then appear small in comparison. Instead of upbraiding God for letting them happen to you, you will welcome them as his means of making you more like his beloved Son, and so more worthy to be among the brother and sisters of Christ who will share his heaven with him for all eternity. Amen.