The baptism of Jesus:
I always like reading Isaiah, It seems to me that Isaiah is closer to God and is positive. In our first reading we are given a gimps of what is to come in the messiah.
In the gospel reading from Matthew I quote: When Jesus had been baptised, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”
At the back of the nave just before the door is an embroidered hanging of the dove descending.
In first-century Israel there were two seasons: rainy (from late September to late April) and dry (early May to early September). During the rainy season people stayed indoors. Dur¬ing the dry season, people could be out and about. Jesus and his disciples were typi¬cal Mediterranean’s.
The baptism of Jesus indicates it was the beginning of the dry season, when the Jordan and its streams would have been filled with the winter rains.
In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus’ ministry lasts one dry season.
He dies at Passover, a harvest feast celebrated at the begin¬ning of the next dry season.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus’ ministry covers a period of three dry seasons because he makes three trips to Jerusalem to observe the springtime feast of Passover.
I find this difficult to understand as both Matthew and John were with Jesus during his ministry. It must be the way Matthew wrote his gospel.
In the baptism, a public event witnessed by everyone pre¬sent, God personally proclaims a relationship of father and son with Jesus. Without this public declaration, Jesus would have found it difficult to start his ministry.
From the earliest times, the followers of Jesus were embar¬rassed by his submission to John’s baptism. John the Baptist, explained that his baptism was for the purpose of repentance. Jesus did not need to repent.
It is surprising that the Jews came to John. As the children of Abraham they considered them selves as not in need. Only converts went through a form of baptism.
With the voice from heaven, it implies that Jesus is baptised because God wills it. God is pleased by Jesus, which in turn suggests that Jesus deserves obedience from his followers and specks to us that we too must be obedient to Jesus.
Luke is the only writer in the new testament that is a Gentile and not a Jew.
In his Gospel he describes the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; in you I am well pleased.”
In our reading from Luck’s Acts of the Apostle’s, The topic is God’s saving action through Jesus and his apostolic witnesses on behalf of the Israelites and every nation. Jesus mediates God’s plan of redemption to all nations in his ministry, death and resurrection.
One motif that joins these verses with the gospel for today’s feast is who is pleasing to God. The voice from the sky at Jesus’ baptism identifies him as pleasing to God.
Peter’s statement about Jesus ends with the observation that he was able to heal “for God was with him” also.
Let us also endeavour to be pleasing to God and his Son.
(Some reference material taken form the writings of John J Pilch)
Trevor Brooker