Gospel for Sunday, January 12: Luke 3:15-22
Baptism Of The Lord
15 Since the people were waiting and all were wondering in their hearts about John, whether he was not the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water; but there comes one who is mightier than I, to whom I am not worthy to untie even the lace of my sandals: he will baptize you in Holy Spirit and fire.
21 When all the people had been baptized, and while Jesus, having also received baptism, stood praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily appearance, as of a dove, and there was a voice from heaven, “You are my beloved son; in you I am well pleased.”Lk 3:15-22
Dear sisters and brothers of Misericordia, I am Carlo Miglietta, a doctor, biblical scholar, layman, husband, father and grandfather (www.buonabibbiaatutti.it). Also today I share with you a short thought meditation on the Gospel, with special reference to the theme of mercy.
John the forerunner
Luke in the infancy “narrative” (1:5-80) had left John “in the wilderness”; from here he now resumes to speak of his mission, only unlike Matthew and Mark the forerunner is not stationary in one place but moves “throughout the region of the Jordan” (3:3), rather populated at the time by the building activity of Herod the great and Archelaus: he is not so much a hermit retreating to the wilderness as an itinerant prophet.
John’s mission is that of all prophets: to bring the people back to their God. Conversion is the usual theme of prophetic preaching. In fact, one is never fully oriented toward the good, toward God and neighbor; there is always something or much to be changed, rectified, perfected. John’s cry, “Prepare the way of the Lord, straighten his paths,” never resounds in vain for those who listen to the Word of God, which is always a sharp, double-edged sword that has much to sever, uproot in the hearts of men, especially the believer (cf. Is 49:2; Heb 4:12).
John accompanies his preaching with an invitation to undergo a symbolic rite that in itself did not accomplish but indicated the change of life that the penitent set out to bring about.
“Baptism” consisted of immersion and re-emergence in and from the waters of the Jordan. By such a gesture the man signaled to those present that a spiritual ablution was taking place in his innermost being, a renunciation of his old habits with the intention of bringing in a new regimen of life, made up of humility, goodness, meekness, and loyalty.
Luke would like to dispel “possible misunderstandings between the person of the Messiah and that of his forerunner, which suggest how modest, humble the figure and appearance of Jesus must have been, if years after his first manifestation and affirmation the Baptist could still be confused with him” (O. Da Spinetoli). John’s gospel (1:8,19-34) will be very explicit in pointing out that John the Baptist is not the Messiah. Making a comparison between Luke and Matthew (both dependent on the Q source) we find that:
- Luke omits John the Baptist’s announcement that the kingdom of God is at hand (Mt 3:2) and reserves this proclamation for Jesus (Lk 10:9, 11).
- Luke suppresses the description of the Baptist in the role of Elijah (Mt 3:4; Mk 1:6) and the account of the Baptist’s activity, especially the fact that they flocked to him from every region to be baptized (Mt 3:5).
- In the statement, “Coming after me is He who is stronger than I,” Luke dismisses the danger of Jesus being considered a disciple of the Baptist or perhaps even an intimate friend of his. Luke considers John the last and greatest of Israel’s prophets, but clearly outside the glorious messianic era that begins with Jesus (Lk 16:16; Acts 13:24): in these texts the evangelist asserts that John came “before his [Jesus’] coming.”
The figure of the Baptist is all leaning toward another character and another baptism “in the Holy Spirit and fire.” In relation to Christ, John feels similar to a slave of the lowest level: untying the lace of his sandals was an act that a master could not demand of his Jewish servant because it was considered too humiliating.
The Baptism of Jesus
The narrative of Jesus’ baptism is in the literary narrative-apocalyptic genre.
The baptism that Jesus introduces is “in the Holy Spirit and fire” and no longer like the simple purification practiced by the Baptist. We have, thus, the true portrait of the forerunner, who rejects all messianic temptation, cultivated perhaps by his disciples, in order to stake everything on Jesus. Meanwhile, almost to complete the portrait, Luke anticipates the news of the Baptist’s imprisonment by Herod Antipas for his adultery with Herodias. In a sense, here Luke takes leave of John: he will not have him appear again and will omit the account of his martyrdom, which he also read in Mk 6. There will be no shortage of references, however: Lk 7:18-33 will present him active even from inside his prison, while Lk 9:7-9 will assume him already put to death.
The baptism of Jesus by John concludes the portrayal of the forerunner. Compared to Matthew and Mark, Luke introduces two elements into this great epiphany of Jesus as God’s “beloved Son”: the first is prayer, a theme dear to the evangelist, while the second is the visibility of the Holy Spirit’s presence under the “bodily” sign of the dove.
“The heavens were opened“: the heavens are opened to allow communication between the world of the divine and humans. The most appropriate Old Testament reference seems to be Is 63:19: “Oh, if you would open the heavens and come down! Before you the mountains would tremble!” This is a verse in which the speaker asks God to reopen the heavens, manifest Himself, and descend among the people so as to bring about a new exodus. This hint at the Isaiah passage suggests an important meaning to Jesus’ baptism: after a long period of silence on God’s part and on the part of his Spirit, the expected time now begins, in which God again gives himself to people and speaks again.
“He descended upon him the Holy Spirit in bodily form (“somatikò”), like a dove“: that is, in a tangible way.
- This could be an allusion to the dove that returned to Noah’s ark (Gen 8:8-12): a sign of peace between God and man.
- The oldest traditions (Hos 11:11; Ps 68:14) depict the new people of Israel and the eschatological community with the image of the dove. Luke means that Jesus could almost reach out and touch the new community being formed around him, which would be possible in a very special way when Pentecost would fulfill the promise of Jesus’ baptism.
- For others, the image suggests God’s love coming down to earth (Chr. 2:14; 5:2): the Lucan expression would be a false interpretation of the Aramaic-Palestinian translation reported by Mark, where the expression “like a dove” was an adverbial form referring to the Spirit’s descending movement.
- For others, it recalls the Hebrew tradition that saw a dove in the Spirit hovering over the waters at creation (Gen 1:2): with Jesus a new creation begins.
“From heaven came a voice“: ‘from heaven’ does not so much mean provenance as authority. It is a common biblical style that recurs in various forms, and refers to a message or action that expresses God’s hopes and determination (Ex 19:9; 1 Sam 3:4 ff; 7:10; Ps 29).
“You are my beloved Son“: the words ‘my Son’ are a deliberate New Testament substitution of the Hebrew ‘ebed’ (servant). For the servant of the Lord is both an ideal individual and the representative of the entire community (Is 42:1). Jesus is fully embodied in the eschatological community, even to the point of being baptized like all other men; but he also embodies in the singular uniqueness of his person their most sublime ideals and hopes. Because of his total union with every weakness, the Servant Jesus must subject himself even to human death so that he can infuse life into every sphere of human existence. This association of Jesus’ baptism with his future death and resurrection emerges clearly in Lk 12:50 (Mk 10:38). It seems that in Luke the expression “My Son,” supplemented by the earlier reference to the Holy Spirit, is a confession of Jesus’ divinity.
Happy Mercy to all!
Anyone who would like to read a more complete exegesis of the text, or some insights, please ask me at migliettacarlo@gmail.com.