John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said,
"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
Sunday, January 12, 2020, is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!"
Sunday, January 12, 2020, is the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.
All four Gospels tell of Jesus receiving baptism in the Jordan River from John the Baptist.
Here is a compilation of their narratives.
Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee to John at the Jordan.
John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said,
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
I did not know him, but the reason why I came baptizing with water was that he might be made known to Israel.
The one who sent me to baptize with water told me,
‘On whomever you see the Spirit come down and remain, he is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'"
Jesus came to be baptized by John.
John tried to prevent him, saying,
“I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?"
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness."
Then John allowed it.
After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and was praying.
Then the heavens were torn open, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from the heavens,
“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
John said,
“Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God."
The next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and as he watched Jesus walk by, he said,
“Behold, the Lamb of God."
What was this baptism that John was administering?
John owns that he was baptizing with mere water, but that Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, John believed himself to be in need of receiving the baptism that Jesus could offer.
John also saw himself as unfit to baptize Jesus, and wondered that Jesus would seek baptism from him.
John was certainly not administering the Christian sacrament
of Baptism in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
John offered a baptism of repentance, a way for people to show ritually both their change of mind against sin in their lives as well as their intention to turn anew to God.
The water of John’s baptismal ritual was a symbol of washing sin from their lives.
John offered a baptism of repentance, a way for people to show ritually both their change of mind against sin in their lives as well as their intention to turn anew to God.
The water of John’s baptismal ritual was a symbol of washing sin from their lives.
Jesus was without sin, and had no need of this baptism.
Nonetheless, he chose to enter into solidarity with sinners.
He chose to accept immersion, that is baptism, into the very water that was steeped and stained with the sin of the world.
He chose to accept immersion, that is baptism, into the very water that was steeped and stained with the sin of the world.
That baptism made Jesus dirty with solidarity with our sins.
Like a lamb sacrificed as a sin offering, Jesus took onto
himself the outpouring of human sin onto his innocent self.
“Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of
the world!”
Loaded with the sin of the world, he let sin die through himself, with him, in him on the Cross.
Rising in our humanity beyond sin and death, he has created our humanity anew and filled and vested through and through with the Holy Spirit of divine glory.
He now baptizes, immerses, steeps us in the solidarity of the everlastingly spotless and holy Name of the Father and of himself the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Rising in our humanity beyond sin and death, he has created our humanity anew and filled and vested through and through with the Holy Spirit of divine glory.
He now baptizes, immerses, steeps us in the solidarity of the everlastingly spotless and holy Name of the Father and of himself the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
