Jesus takes the plunge into the water to save us

Homily for Baptism of the Lord Year B 2015

Isaiah 55:1-11; 1 John 5:1-9; Mark 1:7-11

Introduction

Finally today we come to the end of the Christmas Season.  Guys you have no more excuse for not taking the Christmas stuff to the attic.

More seriously, today’s Feast of the Baptism of Jesus brings to a close the season in which we focus on the idea that God became man.

·        On Christmas Day we marvelled at the birth of the baby Jesus.

·        On the feast of the Holy Family we then celebrated the family that raised this baby into the man that we know as Jesus the Son of God.

·        On New Year’s Day we celebrated the feast of the Blessed Mother, the woman whose body was the channel for bringing God’s Son into the world.

·        Last Sunday on Epiphany, we returned to the baby Jesus, who was being revealed not to the Jewish shepherds as at Christmas, but to the non-Jewish wise men from the East.

·        Finally today, we close this chapter of the Christian story, with the baptism not of the baby Jesus, but the adult Jesus about to start his ministry.

And so, why did Jesus, who is God, who did not have any sin and therefore had no need for baptism, present himself to be baptized by John?  I would like to answer this question using the example of locks on a river.

During high school geography class in Uganda, we learnt about the locks on the Great Lakes that run between Canada and the USA.  A few years ago I had the opportunity to visit Sault Ste. Marie in Northern Michigan and see the locks in the canal between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.

Locks are built in places which have falls and rapids.  In such places, it is impossible for the boats to climb upriver or to come downriver as the incline is too sharp; sometimes also there are several sharps rocks and boulders in the area.  And that is where locks come to the rescue, enabling safe navigation. The locks, which are like gates, are built at the bottom and at the top of the falls.

When a boat is going downstream, they first raise the gates at the bottom, allowing the lock to fill with water.

·        Then they open gates on the upper side of the lock to let the boat in, after which they close them.

·        Valves are then opened on the downstream side of the lock to let the water out.  As the water drains, the boat floats downwards.

·        When the water in the lock matches the level of the downstream water, the lower gates are opened and the boat moves out and continues on its downriver journey.

When a boat is going upstream, the reverse procedure is followed.

·        The boat is allowed into the lock by opening the lower gates.  After the boat is inside the lock, they close the lower gates.

·        They then open the upper gates slowly and lock begins to fill with water, raising the boat in the process.

·        When the water is level with the upstream flow, the upper gates are opened and the boat is let out to continue on its upriver journey.

In this way, the locks help the boats to avoid the steep falls and sharp rocks.

Scripture and Theology

The boat coming from upriver into the locks represents Jesus lowering himself and bringing himself to our level, in total solidarity with us.  Jesus became human and identified with our weak humanness.  He faced the same temptations like all humans do; but he never gave in to those temptations and thus never sinned.

The purpose of John’s baptism was to show externally that one had converted and repented.  Jesus did not have to convert or to repent; he was always on God’s side.  But just like he spent lots of time eating and drinking with sinners and outcasts, so as to convert them, Jesus also undergoes this baptism, this sign of conversion, to be in solidarity with sinners.

And after Jesus has identified himself with sinners in this way, the Spirit comes down on him like a dove, and the Voice of the Father says: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  This is God’s way of commissioning Jesus, God’s way of endorsing the work that Jesus is about to start: teaching, healing all the way to the climactic moment of his passion, death and resurrection.

By his baptism, it is like Jesus enters the lock from the upper side, takes a plunge into the water, if you like, and is lowered to the downstream level, where sinful and weak men and women are to be found.

Christian Life

There is a reason Jesus goes through all that trouble to come down to us.  He comes down to bring us back to the Father.  If the lock brings Jesus down to us, the same lock takes us up to the Father.  And so, while the baptism of Jesus brings him down to our level, our baptism raises us to the upper level, so that we now are like God, we now can share in God’s life.  And this is possible because Jesus first came down to our level, by becoming man and by taking on our sinfulness as he showed so clearly by his baptism.

As we celebrate the baptism of Jesus, which he underwent only for our sake, it is important for us to reflect on our own baptism and what it means.  Many of us were baptised when we were babies and so we may have no recollection of the celebration.  But we know that our baptism was not simply some magical ritual that was done once and for all.  We also know that it was not simply another excuse for the family to have a party.  Rather our baptism by removing original sin from us and by making us adopted children of the Father, it set us on a lifelong journey of growing in faith, hope and love.  Our baptism opened the gates for us and let us into the lock, so that now we are slowly rising up to the top, so that we can be holy and perfect like God our Father.

We must therefore take seriously the baptismal commitments that were made on our behalf and that we accepted once we were adults.  Put simply we rejected Satan and all his works and all his empty promises of sin.  The works of Satan and his empty promises continue to be among us, such as the terrorist murders carried out in France this past week, allegedly in the name of Islam.  But Satan can also stain our baptism if we respond to those acts with hearts of hatred and prejudice against all Muslim people.

At our baptism we resolved instead to believe in God the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and professing our faith not only in Word but also in action, observing God’s commandments by loving God and our neighbour and.

In some countries, including my home country of Uganda, there is the beautiful practice of celebrating not only birthdays, but also the day of our baptism and the feast day of our baptismal saint.  Our baptismal anniversary reminds us of that baptismal commitment to keep rising to the top; our saint’s feast day gives us an example of someone who has lived their baptism fully and risen to the top.

Conclusion

Finally, the water used at our baptism was only perhaps a few drops or a little more if the priest used immersion.  But that water can be multiplied many times over in the way we live our lives, so that indeed it lifts us up from the whatever darkness is drowning us to bring us to the top, where God awaits us with open arms and invites us to live with him forever and ever.