The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Sunday, January 10, 2021

Mark 1:7–11

This is what John the Baptist proclaimed: “One mightier than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”  It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

In the early days of the Church, the Baptism of the Lord was celebrated at the same time with the commemoration of the visit of the Magi and the miracle at the wedding feast at Cana.  Over time, however, the visit of the Magi overshadowed the other two events until they virtually disappeared from the Missal.  Pope Pius XII established a distinct celebration for the Baptism in 1955.  Pope Paul VI set the celebration on the Sunday after the Feast of the Epiphany.  Although it is right for the Baptism to be remembered as part of the Epiphany, it deserves its own feast, for this event marks the beginning of the Lord’s public life.  

“One mightier than I is coming after me.”  John the Baptist is aware that many people consider him “mighty”.  They due so on account of his wild appearance, his manner of life, and his fearless speaking to the Jewish leaders.  He fears no one.  And he knows through divine inspiration that he has been sent to announce the coming of the Son of God.  He tells the people that the one mightier than him “is coming after me”.  The Lord may be said to come “after” John in that John preceded him in time, and also in that he will exceed all that John has done, at the same time continuing in reality the work John has begun in sign: “I have baptized you with water; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”  John goes further in telling the people how much more powerful the one who comes after him will be than himself: “I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.”  Even keeping in mind the customary use of hyperbole  among the ancient Jews, John makes an extraordinary statement here.  He equates himself with this man’s lowest household slave.  We, in our cities in which animals are not allowed to run wild, where littering is against the law and is generally frowned on, and where public sewage systems keep the streets free of filth, may have a hard time appreciating how disgusting a pair of sandals would get after a day’s wear in ancient times.  John says “I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals”, not “I am only worthy to do so”.  He is less than worthy to do this for this man: he is a worm before him.  We note John’s humility, and we also tremble, for if the powerful, imposing John the Baptist is not worthy to perform such a menial service for this man, what about us?  “And who shall be able to think of the day of his coming? and who shall stand to see him? for he is like a refining fire, and like the fuller’s soap” (Malachi 3, 2).

“I have baptized you with water.”  The Greek word from which we derive the verb “to baptize” does not have any religious or sacramental connotation.  It simply means “to wash”.  We should try to look at John’s baptism as the Jewish leaders did, or as the people who came out to John.  They saw this washing as a ceremony or a sign.  It was a prophetic action, like the one the Lord commanded of Jeremiah: “Go, buy a potter’s earthen flask . . . Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city.’ ” (Jeremiah 19, 1, 10).  The sign of washing took its meaning from the Jewish ceremonial washings which rendered a person or thing ritually clean from its previous unclean state.  The Jewish leaders connected John’s washing with the work that Elijah or the Messiah would do, perhaps through their reflecting on the verse from Malachi already quoted, which speaks of refining and of washing with “fuller’s soap”.  “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”  Neither the Jewish leaders nor anyone else would have known what this meant at that time.  If asked about the Holy Spirit before the coming of Christ, they would have said, “We have not so much as heard that there is a Holy Spirit” (cf. Acts 19, 2).  It is through the Holy Spirit that John can speak in this way, without himself fully understanding what the words meant.

“It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John.”  The Evangelists present the Lord’s coming as natural and inevitable.  Mark gives us no background information at all for Jesus to prepare us for his coming to be baptized.  He just appears.  St. Mark, setting the appearance of the Lord immediately after he quotes John the Baptist, charges his account of the baptism with urgency.  Indeed, Mark shows Jesus as “driven by the Spirit” (cf. Mark 1, 12) throughout his Gospel, through which he underlines the Lord’s zeal for the Father’s will and for our salvation.  “And was baptized in the Jordan by John.”  Whereas St. Matthew quotes John as protesting that the Lord should baptize him, not the other way around, Mark does not.  Perhaps St. Peter, on whose reminisces Mark based his Gospel, did not know of this.  Or perhaps Mark was streamlining his account in order to go on quickly to the main point of the story for him, which directly follows this verse.

“On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.”  There is some question here as to whether Mark meant that it was Jesus or John the Baptist who saw this, and whether anyone else did.  The words of the Father, as recounted in Matthew 3, 17, are, “This is my beloved Son, etc.”, which do not seem addressed to Jesus but to John.  Mark gives as the words of the Father, “You are my beloved Son, etc.”, which seems directed at Jesus, although it could be said that John heard the Father speaking to the Son.  This would seem more likely, and also that other bystanders heard this as well, since otherwise it would not have been recounted.  As to the question of whether the Father said “This” or “My”, it is simply a problem of recollection and it does not affect the meaning of the incident for us, which is that the Father identifies Jesus of Nazareth as his beloved Son.

“He saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.”  The ancient Jews believed that the roof of the sky was a crystal sphere in which  the stars were set, and under which the sun and moon went around the earth.  If the sky was “torn open”, we should imagine it as a cracked dinner plate rather than a rent curtain.  The majesty of heaven would have blasted through the tear in a nearly blinding display.  Down from the heavens comes not destruction but the Holy Spirit “like a dove”.  The form of the dove recalls Genesis 8, 11, when the dove returning to Noah with the olive leaf signified reconciliation between God and the human race.  The “tear” in the heavens brings to mind another tear: “And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Mark 15, 38).  In both cases, the rending signifies the opening of heaven to the human race, the sign of this at the beginning of the Lord’s public life, and the actual opening at the end of it.  The Holy Spirit “descended” upon the Lord st this time.   Since the Father and the Son are in the unity of the Holy Spirit from all eternity, the Holy Spirit does not “descend” upon him here, but the sign as well as the voice from heaven show the union of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  The Father identifies Jesus of Nazareth as his Son and also expresses his pleasure in him.  The Father’s pleasure in his Son is from all eternity, and it is announced here in order to draw the human race to him.  The Father also speaks this way to all at the time they are baptized and so become his adopted children: “You are my beloved son”, “You are my beloved daughter”.