“You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.” Luke 3: 15-16, 21-22
John the Baptist’s arrival at the Jordan river where he urged people to adopt a change of mind and heart and baptized almost endless lines of people created such extremely high expectations in the crowds who came to engage with him that it was rumoured that he might well be the Messiah. When the Baptist quashed that rumour, expectations that the Messiah’s coming was nigh rose even higher. Almost the only times that we, in our day, are part of crowds that have a communal experience of heightened expectation are at sporting events or pop concerts. There were feverishly high expectations among the young people of Sydney during the days leading up to the arrival of the Beatles in June 1964. The people of Australia had high expectations when Queen Elizabeth II visited us in 1954, less than a year after her coronation. The Catholic community had great expectations when Paul VI was the very first Pope to visit our shores in November 1970. As a community, we’re more inclined to have low expectations of visiting notorieties from abroad and politicians from home.
When the Baptist, chatting with two of his disciples, spotted Jesus approaching, he did not choose to identify him as the Messiah or a superstar. He merely said: “Look, here comes the lamb of God” – a descriptor hardly intended to raise great excitement in his companions, let alone anybody else.
None of the four evangelists demonstrate great excitement about the actual baptism of Jesus by the Baptist. Luke simply says that Jesus’ baptism was the very last one which John the Baptist performed. Mark stated as a fact that Jesus was baptised by John and Matthew recorded that the Baptist was reluctant to baptise Jesus until Jesus insisted that he do it. John merely implied that Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist. All four Evangelists refer to the voice from heaven being directed to Jesus as confirmation by God that Jesus had embarked on the mission that he himself (Jesus) had discerned in prayer was the appropriate one for him to pursue. That was the only fanfare that paved the way for him. John the Baptist, in debating with the Pharisees, claimed to have seen God’s Spirit descend on Jesus and proceeded to identify Jesus as “the Son of God” (John 1: 32-34). Luke’s variation was that God affirmed and commissioned Jesus only after his baptism and when he was at prayer: “While Jesus, after his own baptism was at prayer, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily shape, like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: ‘You are my Son, the Beloved; my favour rests on you’” (Luke 3: 21-22).
The fact that Luke has told us that Jesus was praying when God’s Spirit came down on him is a clear indicator that the manner in which he lived and carried out his mission emanated from his reflection and his prayerful relationship with God. At our baptism, we too were touched by God’s Spirit. The consequence of that is not so much the fact that our baptism has linked us to Jesus, but how we give expression to the mission which we share with him. While our Baptism gives us the identity of follower of Jesus, more important is the mission to which it calls us. Our anointing at Baptism was a clear statement that we, too, are beloved daughters or sons of God. It has only been in our lives as adults that we have come to realise that we are commissioned by the God who loved us into life to reflect God’s love to our world through mercy, love, forgiveness and compassion. Just as Jesus had to discern how best to live out the mission with which God entrusted him, so we, in our turn have to decide how best to discern and give expression to the vocation we have chosen through listening to the guidance of God’s Spirit.
A little over 59 years ago, Pope Paul VI released the Vatican II Document entitled Gaudium et Spes (Joy and Hope). It is the Pastoral Constitution for the Church in the modern world. It is a guide for all of us on how to engage with our world on the challenges we all face. It calls us to engage with our world with integrity, compassion and humility, recognising that every person we encounter is created in the image of God, and, consequently, to be treated with dignity and respect whatever their views, prejudices, race, religion and gender. Among other things, it points out that Jesus, like all of us, had to discern how God’s Spirit was prompting him to identify his gifts and direct them to reflecting the love of God to everyone he encountered. Gaudium et Spes, referring to Jesus, states: “Through his incarnation, Jesus has united himself in some fashion to every human being. He worked with human hands, thought with a human mind, acted by human choice and loved with a human heart.” (Gaudium et Spes #22)
The manner in which Jesus preached, taught and engaged with people was very different from the way in which John the Baptist went about his mission. The Gospel writers draw that distinction through their many references to Jesus’ taking time for quiet contemplation and prayer. They make no mention of John’s doing likewise, even though he could not have acted as he did without taking time to pray. They were two different personalities, and there is no mention of Jesus ever being a disciple of John the Baptist. Clearly, in Luke’s understanding, it was the inspiration of God’s Spirit following Jesus’ baptism by John that launched Jesus into his mission that was very different in character and style from the Baptist’s mission. Jesus reverenced God present in everyone with whom he engaged. Inspired by the same Spirit breathed upon us in our baptism, our role is to bring compassion, justice, reconciliation and love through servant leadership to whatever corner and community of the world that have been entrusted to us and our care. Our baptism has not given us notoriety. Rather it has given us a mission.
