Lk 3:15-16, 21-22
Rev. Richard A. Miserendino
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With the Christmas
season drawing to a
close, it’s always possible that we’ve under-appreciated some of
the gifts we’ve
received.
Embarrassingly, some of
the best
presents I’ve ever been given have languished on my shelves or
in storage for
months or years before I’ve cracked them open and discovered a
real treasure.
Some of the best things in life are understated.
Understated treasure is
also the
watchword of our Gospel today for the Baptism of the Lord. After
a resonant
introduction from St. John the Baptist, “One mightier than I is
coming,” Luke
casually states that “Jesus was also baptized.” Then he abruptly
moves on to
the public ministry of Our Lord. Sandwiched in between, with a
mere two lines,
is one of the most significant moments in Scripture. Something
huge and rare
happened while Jesus was praying: A revelation of the Trinity.
It certainly
seems like St. Luke almost forgets to mention it!
Why doesn’t it get more
space? Because
the significance itself is contained in the smallness and
hiddenness of the
moment, via symbol and context. Consider that in this moment,
Jesus’ baptism in
the Jordan, we see a microcosm of his entire work and mission.
Looking at the
smallness and hiddenness of the passage, we ask: Who is Jesus?
God become man —
Almighty God creator of the universe, made small, hidden in
human form, but
also present and real and accessible.
Moreover: What does
baptism signify
generally? What has he come to do? Take on and wash away the
sins of the world
and offer pure faith and repentance for us. Christ’s baptism
symbolically
contains it all. The Lord’s baptism is a tremendous gift, if
we’re willing to
take it off the shelf and open it in our lives.
We can unpack it even
more — it unfolds
for us like a flower: The Greek root, “baptizo,” means to purify
by immersion,
but it also contains the connotation of drowning. Water for
desert-dwellers and
nomads like those of the Holy Land is a life and death affair.
Not enough or
too much all at once, you die. But just right, it creates life.
In Christ’s
baptism, he symbolically and really foreshadows and shoulders
the burden of his
death for our sins. He accepts his mission and sees it through.
The cross is present
in this instance, too.
The Resurrection is
present, as well.
Consider that baptism used to mean being submerged by a
quasi-stranger under
water, multiple times. They might hold you down there for a bit,
just to make
an impact. When you come up, you likely gasp for air. Life
sparkles and dazzles
around you in new light as the drops fall from you. Better
still, you’re
cleaner and feel fully awake, refreshed and renewed. Christ’s
baptism and ours
contain the Resurrection.
The episode ends with
Jesus in prayer —
communion with God, and the revelation of the Father and the
Spirit. No barrier
stands in the way between the world and God, both in Christ’s
baptism and our
own. Christ’s baptism points forward to what our baptism does in
each and every
one of our hearts — makes a permanent home for the love of the
Trinity and
reveals it in our lives.
As we reach the end of
the
“gift-giving” season, it might be wise to take a moment to
reflect on our own
baptism. For most of us, it remains a gift “hidden” in the past.
But perhaps
it’s time to take it off the shelf and unpack it a bit this
year. After all,
it’s the root of Almighty God present in our lives, a love and
divine life that
is transformative and stronger even than death. The more we’re
willing to
reflect on our baptism and put it into practice this coming
year, the more
we’ll know what a treasure we’ve truly received.