Exegesis of the Word: On Christ’s Baptism and Ours

The Baptism of Jesus is like a hinge between the Nativity and Paschal Mystery. Every aspect of Jesus’ life involves the Triune God manifesting and saving. Jesus’ Nativity and His Passion, Death, and Resurrection are two key moments of this work of God manifesting Himself and saving us. The Baptism of the Lord, however, has a special place in bringing together so many key themes and rich dimensions of Jesus’ saving revelation and work.

The themes of creation and grace come together as God’s creation of water is taken up anew by Him in His plan of salvation. Jesus is dipped down into the water and rises up as a prefigurement of Him dipping down into death and rising up in the Resurrection, in the “baptism” he ardently desired to be accomplished in the Paschal Mystery (Lk. 12:50). Jesus’ saving life is also linked to us in our own Baptism into the waters that the Lord cleansed and sanctified to wash us anew in regeneration.

All the anointings of the Old Testament of prophets, priests, and kings are fulfilled and poured out upon Jesus, the Anointed One, and from there, pours over into all the souls of those baptized into the new and everlasting covenant. Moreover, this mystery, as part of the Epiphany, involves an explicit manifestation of the Triune God as He accomplishes our salvation. Our Gospel this Sunday, then, is a richly catechetical and mystical text, radiating forth many dimensions of the mystery of Jesus Christ.

Among the spiritual senses of Scripture, the allegorical is the Christological sense in the broadest way imaginable. It involves the mystery of Jesus but also that of the Trinity, Mary, the Church, the theology of salvation, and all the various themes of theology.

The moral or tropological sense, then, helps us see how these things enter into our personal lives, from pondering the mystery of Christ and the Trinity to living in it. The Scriptural passage gets actualized in our life through the moral sense.

This moral or tropological interpretation is a common one to make with our account of the Baptism of the Lord. We see ourselves in the place of Christ, since we live out the mystery of Jesus. Through our own baptism, we are sons (and daughters) in the Son, and the Holy Spirit hovers over us too with our anointing as we hear the Father speak over us, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased.” 

Pondering this, we might even think about other related passages, stringing together pearls of choice Scriptures. For instance, we might ponder this cloud of the Holy Spirit that overshadows Jesus and, as a result, also overshadows us. Allegorically, we can find the Triune God also in the Old Testament; for instance, in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire that accompanied Israel through the desert (Ex. 13:21-22, etc.). Through this real symbol, we can grow in our conviction and perception of our own being overshadowed by this same Pillar of Cloud, through the moral sense. We are anointed ones in the Anointed One.

We can also ponder the Voice of the Father throughout the Old Testament and the Rock of the Word that, along with the Cloud, accompanies Israel through the desert (see Exodus 17 and Numbers 20)—and also accompanies us. St. Paul himself makes the point that these events were written down as “types” for us, the Cloud and the Rock who is Christ (1 Cor. 10:1-11). Praying with these passages helps us grow in this mystery of being baptized in Jesus Christ, overshadowed with the Holy Spirit, and the Father speaking the truth of our identity in Christ over us.

We might consider how using these passages helps us grow in our identity in Christ and living it out. Can we think of a recent experience of how our conviction as an adopted child of God made a difference? Are there any situations we are facing where praying with these passages and this mystery of the Rosary would help us to stand up boldly in the truth of who we are in Jesus?

The 1^st reading suggests that in this space of standing firmly in Jesus is a strength that is rooted in gentleness, precisely in this receptive stance of the Son, overshadowed with an Anointing of Love, under the gaze of His good and providential Father. Allow the readings (and the Eucharist!) to draw you into this space of Jesus’ Sonship.

Editor’s Note: This is the second article of a new CE series on “Exegesis of the Word” by Fr. Ignatius Schweitzer, breaking open each Sunday’s readings for 8 consecutive weeks. Tune in next Friday for the next article and catch up on last week’s here!

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