It is fitting today, as we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, that our readings reflect an emphasis on cleansing and purification. Baptism after all is our first cleansing as we enter into God’s family and are washed in the waters of rebirth. Yet there is much more to this than water, there is the Holy Spirit and the flame that is implanted within each of us, and that cleanses us with fire that burns away sin, and that continues to burn within us throughout our lives.
John made no pretense about whether he were the one that had been awaited and told the people plainly that he was not, and that another was coming who would be The One. While John baptized with a baptism of repentance through immersion in the waters of the Jordan, the one who was coming would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire and would cleanse the people of their sins and bring about a change within them and would ultimately be the sacrifice that would allow them to be children of the Father.
The fundamental differences in these baptisms are profound, only the one brought about through Jesus Christ allows us to be part of God’s family with the promise of inheriting a place with Him in heaven when we move to true life. John’s baptism was there to bring about repentance and so prepare the people for what Jesus would bring to them through His baptism that was of the Holy Spirit. Just as John prepared the way of the Lord through his preaching and baptisms, so He prepared the people for the Lord so that they could receive His baptism.
For each of us as Christians, the question remains after baptism, what will we do with this gift? It does not in and of itself allow us to then just do whatever we want in life and expect to be with God for eternity thereafter. By the same token there is nothing we can do to earn our way into heaven, it is completely beyond us. What this distills down to, is that through baptism we have the foundation of the Christian life, and it is then up to us to do the best we can to fulfill God’s commands in each of our lives by obeying His word, not out of fear, but out of love. It is love that God seeks from us, and we express this through our respect and awe toward Him, and by our conduct toward others who are created in His image. We cannot be duplicit in our conduct, calling ourselves Gods followers, and then living in a way that is contrary to His most fundamental commands – love of Him, and of one another. There was a wonderful quote when Jesus first encountered Nathaniel, He said, “now here is a true Israelite, there is no duplicity in him”. This is indeed high praise coming from our Lord, He is basically saying that in Nathaniel, what you see is what you get, there is no guile that masks his beliefs, motives, or actions. The same should be true of us. If we call ourselves followers of Christ, we must live this out each and every day as best we can. We will likely not be perfect in this, that is the nature of our humanity, but we must try. It is like anything else, only in striving for perfection, will we at least make improvements, show effort, and attain some modicum of success in our pursuit.
Our Lord did not ultimately need to be baptized at all, He did not have the stain of original sin, just as His mother was born without this, and His Father in heaven was beyond it. Yet it is a must for each of us, it is a foundational grace for our life in Christ. Our Lord was baptized to set the example for us, both in receiving that sacrament, but also in living it. His path of love, work, forgiveness, and humility that He lived out as an example to us is the only one that leads us toward eternal life.
The Deacons Bench 