In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
(Mark 1:9-11)
Mark’s Gospel begins with a defining moment in Jesus’ life; when he leaves Nazareth and journeys south to the wilderness of Judea to join the multitudes being baptized by the wild prophet, John.
For thirty years Jesus had grown, watched and waited in Nazareth; faithfully, quietly, living the simple duties of home and the carpenter’s shop. Over those thirty years Jesus had learned the grace of waiting on God and had learned the wise wisdom of the Prophets- God decides the when and how of things. Jesus knew when John emerged on the scene that the moment of following God in a whole new way had come. This was God’s cue; it was time to move, to go. His time in Nazareth was over and everything within him knew it.
What made John’s preaching and baptizing in the desert of Judea Jesus’ cue to leave his life in Nazareth? It is quite profound really. Never in all history before this had Jews submitted to being baptized. The Jews knew and used baptism, but only for converts who came into Judaism from some other faith. It was natural that the “unclean” converts should be baptized, but no Jew had ever thought that he, a member of the chosen people, a son of Abraham, assured of God’s salvation, could ever need baptism. Baptism was for sinners, and no Jew ever conceived of himself a sinner shut out from God. Now for the first time in their national history Jews were realizing their own sin and their own urgent need for God. Never before had there been such a unique national movement of penitence and search for God. Here was a movement back to God; and with that Godward movement Jesus was determined to identify himself.
And so he went to the Jordan to join the Godward movement that John was leading.
This is a defining moment for Jesus and we should pay close attention to what he is doing. Jesus, who is without sin, stands in line with sinners waiting to be baptized by John. As he starts his public ministry, he chooses to enter into solidarity with sinful humanity. He chooses to stand in the line, to be one of, to be with, to walk forward alongside those who are seeking God. He does not appear with great fanfare in powerful might, announcing a new order. On the contrary; he comes quietly, powerless, practically hidden, with the many sinners who are receiving a baptism of repentance.
His years of cultivating a listening heart, his years of waiting expectantly on God, his deep trusting of God’s inner movement within him, his choice to come to the Jordan, his way of simply being with others is affirmed by the voice he has come to call Father: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
For Reflection:
What meaning does your own baptism have for you?
At what times(s) in your life have you felt God’s special touch of affirmation and assurance?
What will assist you in cultivating a listening heart for God’s movement in your life?
