Lk 3,15-16.21-22
(Baptism C)
Significance. – The reference to the imprisonment of John the Baptist in 3,20 separates the section about Jesus, in the sense it distinguishes two periods in the history of salvation – as we find indicated in the remark of 16,16: “The Law and the prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached.”
And so, from now on, the path is cleared for presenting the activity of Jesus. The fact that the activity of the two protagonists still overlapping cannot be eliminated completely, but Luke strips this fact of any real significance. According to 3,21-22, Jesus is baptized as one of the people, like any other Jew. Luke excludes any suggestion that John the Baptist may hold an important role in this incident – actually he does not even mention the name of John the Baptist! This agrees with his whole concept of the meaning of John the Baptist as belonging to the OT: the real beginning of salvation is found in Jesus alone.
v.21: when all the people were baptized: Luke seems to mean that the baptism of Jesus is the last one to be performed in the people of God, that it represents as it were its fulfillment. The mission of John the Baptist is henceforth completed.
- when Jesus also had been baptized: As Creed shrewdly remarks (Luke 57), this is said in a mere subordinate participial clause, one inserted in the clause mentioning the baptism of the people. This is a subtle way of suggesting that, in this baptism of his, Jesus is completely assimilated to the people. Furthermore, this baptism itself is not important; it is only the occasion for the revelation which follows, an idea more marked here than in Mk-Mt; and so, the baptism is not described at all, only the subsequent theophany. In Jn, we go a step further in this direction: there the baptism is even omitted! What is described in Jn is only the theophany, or more precisely the witnessing of John the Baptist about the theophany (the whole gospel of John being staged as one gigantic trial).
- and was praying: The divine intervention seems to be an answer to the prayer of Jesus, which Luke is the only evangelist to mention. Henceforth he will often mention the prayer of Jesus (5,16; 6,12; 9,18.28.29; 10,21; 11,1; 22,32.41.44; 23,34.46 – twelve mentions in all!), thus suggesting that prayer filled the life of Jesus. For him, the Christian prayer is essentially a request for obtaining the Holy Spirit: If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (11,13). Similarly, in the acts, the gift of the Spirit is preceded by the prayer of the community (Acts 4,31; 1,13-14). Also in the apocalyptic tradition, prayer is the normal preparation for divine revelations: Dan 2,18; 9,3-21; 10,2-3; Lk 9,28-29; Acts 9,11; 10,30; 22,7.
v.22: in bodily form: Luke gives a more objective and historical presentation of the theophany than Mk-Mt. The “visionary” connotation has totally disappeared. The exterior realism of the descent of the Spirit is underlined – probably in order to communicate to his readers his deep conviction of the reality of the Holy Spirit (something he will emphasize greatly in the Book of Acts).
One day Jesus “will baptize in the Holy Spirit and in fire,” when he will send his Spirit on the disciples gathered in the Upper Room, and afterwards when through them he will pour out his Spirit on “all flesh.” But meanwhile he humbly submits to the baptism in water of John the Baptist, like a mere Jew of his time. His glorification must pass through humbling. And it is because he has thus identified himself with the anonymous crowd, he the only-begotten son of the Father, that the Father bears witness to him at the Jordan by proclaiming him his Son, his Messiah whom he has anointed with the Spirit. This event anticipates the paschal mystery, as do all the mysteries of Christ’s life. And so, it is for us a teaching on the very essence of Christian life. Any Christian life is humbling and glorification. Humbling through a joyful and loving acceptance of service of others all along daily life. Humbling in the anonymity and grayness of ordinary life in the imitation of Jesus at Nazareth. Humbling of one’s own will by concretely acknowledging in one’s behavior the sovereign dominion of God. Humbling in the never-ended struggle against one’s natural selfishness, one’s tendency to dominate other people, one’s innate desire for lazy comfort and ostentatious luxury.
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With Jesus being baptized we must accept our ordinary situation in an ordinary crowd and make of this ordinary man’s existence a humble following of Jesus. But this humbling will be for a time only. For one day, if we live as sons of the Father this ordinary life of ors, the Father will say to us: “You are my son, I have begotten you today” – and he will introduce us forever into his glorious intimacy. Already, if we seek to live out faithfully our daily life as sons of the Father, he draws us to him and confirms us in this life of love by his consolations, his lights, and his varied graces. Already our life as followers of Christ enables us to say with St. John: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 Jn 3,1).
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At the baptism of Jesus, the Heavens are opened: between God and man a new intimacy becomes possible. There is no barrier between Christ and God; there has never been any barrier between them. What is new is that Christ, while mingling with the crowd of sinners among whom he has just been baptized, like them a pilgrim on his way to the heavens which open up to him, this same Christ can talk with his father without anything impeding their communication. The barrier which sin had raised between God and us is now definitely abolished, since now a man remains permanently face to face with God. Closed by our sin, the heavens reopen to allow the Spirit to come down on a man who welcomes him unreservedly. Henceforth then, through this man Jesus, any man has free access to the Father.
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Is while he was praying that Jesus received the testimony of the Father and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. For us too, prayer is a privileged moment for encountering the Father and for receiving the fullness of the Spirit.