THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD

Born Again Of The Spirit.

T oday, as the season of Advent and Christmastide comes to a close, we consider an incident which may have caused
embarrassment in some quarters of the early Church: Jesus' baptism in the Jordan river. This incident, rather like the story of the woman caught in the act of adultery, reveals something rather shocking and scandalous. Since the baptism instigated by John the Baptist was expressly for repentance and Jesus had no sin, why did the Lord insist on being baptized? In Matthew's record of the incident John the Baptist basically protests and resists this action of the Lord's. In response, the Lord calms him down and tells him that this step of baptism was necessary to fulfil all righteousness (Matt. 3:15).
The reason Jesus was baptized was to identify fully and completely with the human race he came to redeem and save. Jesus' baptism marks the day when he publicly identified with sinners. He was about to take upon himself the work of being the Saviour of the world. He would do so by identifying with sinners and taking their sins upon himself. So, when sinners were in a queue to be baptized, Jesus joined the queue. At the moment of Jesus' baptism God revealed himself as Three
Persons in One God, Blessed and Holy Trinity. In words spoken from heaven, God the Father affirmed his love for his beloved Son; by his appearance in the form of a dove the Holy
Spirit hovered over the Son as he had hovered over the earth at creation; and by embracing baptism in the Jordan, the Son identified himself with the human race.
“Lord Jesus, in baptism we are immersed and assimilated into your death and resurrection. Teach us to go down into the depths of our baptism and discover therein the amazing grace and blessing you have given us -for through our baptism we are born again of the Spirit and are made children of God.”
(excerpt: catholicbibleschool.org)