13 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized by him, 14 but John forbade him, saying: "It was I who needed to be baptized by you, and it comest thou to me? "
15 Jesus replied:" Never mind now, because it is convenient for us to fulfill all righteousness ", and John does it resisted more.
16 Accordingly he was baptized, Jesus came out of the water. Then the heavens opened [for him] and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.
17 At the same moment a voice came from heaven, which said: "This is my beloved Son, in whom my approval. "
Dear brothers and sisters, dear friends
,
The baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist opened the public ministry of Jesus in our 4 gospels. That's a sign that, for the early church, there was a surprising act in this fundamental issue for understanding the entire ministry of Jesus. One could say that the story of the baptism in the Jordan River indicates the vocation of Jesus in a special way. Some dissident movements of the early church even believed that it was only at his baptism that Jesus became Son of God, "he had in some so, was adopted by God at this point ... This morning, I would not engage in historical or dogmatic theories on baptism, but I would rather let the images speak evangelicals, because they seem very strong and are full of resonances to guide us in our thinking and our lives. In our four Gospels, Jesus 'baptism by John the Baptist marked the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. This shows that for the first church there was in this act something fundamental to understanding the life of Jesus and his message. And as we are in the season of Epiphany, where different aspects of the person of Christ are highlighted in particular, we will look at his baptism to understand what he says.
This baptism of Jesus was in fact long been considered an enigma. Some have claimed that Jesus was the Son of God became u the time of his baptism. On the other hand, the fact that Jesus identified himself with sinners as we are by this baptism has posed many questions. Therefore, in the pseudo-gospel to the Hebrews (an apocryphal text) Jesus says that no, of course, it is not sinful! But our real gospels themselves are much more discrete and require more thorough examination. And finally, there is the tendency to bring Jesus' baptism and ours, forgetting too quickly that John's baptism was not Christian baptism we received!
So this morning, I suggest you keep it simple and let ourselves be guided by the text of the Gospels, asking us to offer their insight.
Keeping it simple, therefore, and consider the principal symbol of Jesus' baptism: water. This is a symbol that evokes many references in our Old Testament: we think the passage of the Red Sea, which marks the liberation of the Jewish people from Egypt. Paul, moreover, establishes parallels between this episode and Christian baptism, which is also the path to liberation. But what we need to understand is that often in the Old Testament, the water does not necessarily positive image that we have given it. For us, water, that's life. For the Hebrews, it was more complicated! From the stories of creation, water is seen as a symbol of "chaos", the dark world of the threat that the men and all creation are exposed (see the story of the Flood) ... In the Bible, the symbol of water evokes not, first, clear and limpid water that washes and purifies but the water engulfing threatening!
We find it especially in the Psalms, the prayer book of the Jewish people. The Psalms are filled with images of natural disasters (torrents devastating flood violent, swampy ground, etc ...) to express a very concrete and tangible, highly visual one might say, the situation in which moral and spiritual man is, a situation made the psalmist in the forces of evil and violence of the enemies ... as if he were drowning, submerged in water!
Often, we tend to be abstract face of evil that affects us. We speak well of "ill-being "Alienation. We are even a few to talk about the consequences of sin ... But psalmists evoke the same things in much more graphic terms. To designate the psalmist speak of a torrent in which man is carried away from the morass into which it sat, net or trap that hold him prisoner. Powerful images that express this feeling of loss of balance, shortness of breath, enslavement and even the threat of annihilation ...
These images also evoke the terrible power of evil on us and all our impotence: can we, in fact, fighting against a stream that runs down? Can we remove oneself from a swamp that engulfs us? Is it possible to raise its own forces out of the abyss?
Therefore, in the Psalms, in addition to the description of the dramatic situation in which man finds himself, there is also always the very real and dramatic appeal to God's help, the Waiting for a Savior ...
In our theological language, then we would speak of salvation, forgiveness of sins or grant. The Psalmist, He will speak of a God who removes man from the mire, birds which escape the net and take flight, ground very stable (the opposite of the swamp) on which we can walk in balance, even rock (the opposite of the abyss) that we can climb.
We may now try to read the story of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan from the rich symbolism of biblical psalms.
When Jesus came to Jordan to be baptized by John, it is in the water, a symbol of threat and chaos, he will plunge into this abyss that he will enter in this dark area, dark our world that will be submerged.
He wants to show himself fully human solidarity and enter into full communion with us, even in those places where we lose the foot and where we can sometimes feel overwhelmed by anxiety. Dip in the Jordan, Jesus wanted to enter the heart of the shadows of our world and each of our lives. He would not be above us, on a pedestal moral or religious. He did not want to be next, in a universe well protected, caulked and waterproof, but it was deliberately placed at the heart of the fray in the heart of the confusion of our world unredeemed. Jesus came to where humans are injured by violence and shame, fear and evil. Jesus came where the man suffers and cries out in pain. Jesus came where the man doubt and revolt, where man confronts his poverty and its fragility.
And that certainly sums up the whole Gospel, which is why each of the four evangelists opens the public ministry of Jesus by the story of baptism.
By contrast, one can compare this with another story of transmission: the narrative of the nature of the Buddha. Again, it is about water: the texts tell us that the Buddha was meditating on the bank of a river, when, suddenly, the waves raged furiously around him ... but it remains completely unmoved, beyond the reach of the world in a meditation that nothing can disturb ...
There is a difference between Christian faith and all Eastern wisdom, which so fascinate people today: Jesus does not remain on the shore to meditate to escape the world, desires and therefore the suffering related to desire, but will penetrate the torrent, carrying him on our suffering, save the world from the inside ...
And throughout his ministry, Jesus will go to the pods of life, to the infirm, sick, sinners to show them the compassion of God. Another episode was also echoed at the baptism: when the disciples are made in a storm and Jesus comes to them, walking on water (Mt 14.22-33, Mk 6.48, Jn 6.19). Is this simply a demonstration of power, a reversal of the laws of physics? No, walking on water, symbol of death and destruction, Jesus shows that they are stronger! It is a veiled announcement of the resurrection. That is why Jesus can tell his disciples frightened, "do not worry, it's me, do not be afraid! .
But what is even more extraordinary in the narratives of Jesus' baptism is that it is at this moment when the earth shifts under his feet, when it penetrates into the abyss, the heavens opened and therefore the separation heaven-earth, God-man is abolished. It was then that God is completely close.
The identity of Jesus is then fully revealed (épiphanie!!): "This is my beloved Son" and the Holy Spirit descends on him in the form of a dove, who announced the osieau Noah that the flood was over and that life was about to resume!
What we say all these images and symbols Bible?
is when Jesus saw his baptism, when he saw that deep solidarity with us sinners, this crossing anxiety, this abandonment of any human security, and when he gets so full heart of humanity, it is revealed as the Son of God as one who can only rely on God alone, take his life God alone ... A God that he was experimenting as larger, stronger, more powerful than all the depths of our world!
For his baptism, Christ entered fully into its mission. He does so in full confidence in him whom he never ceased to call his Father ... And it is experience that makes us live so that we are brothers and sisters by adoption, so that we too can call God "our Father .
For these biblical images are also pictures of our existence: the stream, swamp, dry land, the skies are realities in each of our lives. The text of the baptism of Christ becomes invitation: invitation to dive into this abyss that sometimes frighten us, to pass through the trials and anxieties that haunt us from the quest for our inner life and also share the pain our fellow human beings. Jesus has been there, he shows us the way, he gave us everything. By faith, he wants to take us to the place where heaven can be opened over the abyss and where we can discover, in turn, son and daughters of God!
Amen.
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