A couple of weeks ago I had time for a single decade of the Rosary, and it being Thursday, I chose the first Luminous Mystery: the baptism of Jesus by John.
I don't know very much about how other Christian denominations (who have different views of sacraments and sacramentals) understand John's baptism, exactly how it fits into the economy of salvation, or precisely what it accomplishes when Jesus undergoes it. I'd like to know more.
John the Baptist appears in all four Gospels. Here is the version of his baptism from Mark 1 (this is the NRSVCE):
John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins....
He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased." And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.
And here it is from Matthew:
In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying,“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
...People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire....”
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water.
In Catholicism, it's a matter of considerable mystery with some room for contemplation (hence its inclusion among the mysteries of the Rosary). A few things we have as settled doctrine:
- John's baptism is not the same as today's Sacrament of Baptism; it's not a sacrament at all. It's not a channel of grace that's promised to anyone who, properly disposed, undergoes it. It's something else.
- Like a sacrament, though, it is a sign: a sign of relationship, conversion, and preparation. "He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared." (Luke 1:17)
- John baptizes with water for repentance. He rebukes people who present themselves for baptism, ostensibly claiming the sign of repentance, but whom he knows to be living in a way that is not "in keeping with repentance."
John's baptism is not just something that John does to people; the people come and ask for it, and those who are properly disposed are permitted to willingly undergo it, publicly before the crowd.
So what is it, exactly? Is there a simple way of understanding John's baptism of the people? Is something like it accessible to us even today?
I think there is: to undergo John's baptism is to make an act of contrition. It is short of a sacrament, yet it is a sign of repentance; includes acknowledgment of one's sins; and its effects are really only accessible to those who, well, mean it.
Schoolchildren typically learn a memorized form of an Act of Contrition, with the intent that they can call on it all their life as a prayer of supplication and sorrow for sins. A childlike version is: "My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart. In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good, I have sinned against you whom I should love above all things. I firmly intend, with your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin." This may well have been the same sentiment in the hearts of many who waded with John into the water. And I think it's a good reason to keep John in mind when we say an act of contrition ourselves, whether in or out of the sacrament of confession.
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That is what I think John's baptism means for the ordinary person. So what does it mean for the stainless Son of God to wade into the water and be baptized by John? What does it mean for God to make an act of contrition? God, who can neither be dishonest in his signs and messages, nor... have sins in His past for which He might be sorry?
Why does Christ display repentance?
The answer John is given when he protests is: "Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness" (Mt 3:13). We can read this fifteen ways till Tuesday and it is going to be very hard to extract much out of this answer beyond, well, reassuring John, who sounds rather alarmed at being put in the position of baptizing the Messiah.
No, really, John. It's "proper." At least for "now." It will fulfill "all righteousness."
What are the effects?
Jesus's baptism by John is seen to mark the beginning of His public life, so one effect is to inaugurate His public ministry. According to the Catechism (par. 536), it also represents "the acceptance and inauguration of His mission as God's suffering Servant"; "He allows himself to be numbered among sinners;"...he anticipates (willingly, as the others willingly made their act of contrition) the "'baptism' of His bloody death."
Jesus entering the water sanctifies the water for us as a sign of repentance and conversion. Since it is linked to His willing acceptance of His saving death, it imbues the water of our Baptism with our own willingness to die to self and to make of our lives a sacrifice.
I think I understand this, but I'm often still stuck on "but why is Jesus pretending to be, you know, personally contrite? Is there something just a wee bit dishonest about this? "God is not a human being, that he should lie, or a mortal, that he should change his mind" (Num 23:19).
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And yet...
...there are a handful of lines here and there in which "God repented." And sometimes the "repentance" is sealed, so to speak, with an act.
And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him to His heart. "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground... for I am sorry that I have made them." (Gen. 6:6-7)
God depicts the flood as an act of contrition, a sign of regret. (Later followed by something better: the sign of the covenant and promise to Noah.)
"I regret that I have made Saul king, because he has turned away from me and has not carried out my instructions... I am sending you [Samuel] to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king."
God depicts the withdrawal of the kingdom from Saul as an act of contrition. Later followed by something better: the anointing of David.
There are some other mentions: the Psalmist says, e.g. in Ps 106, "Yet he took note of their distress when he heard their cry; for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented. He caused all who held them captive to show them mercy." And the prophet Amos declares, of various plagues, "The Lord repented, concerning this," presumably ending the plagues. These could definitely be read more as the human perspective on what's going on in God's mind, though; it's not as strongly worded as putting the words "I regret" directly in the mouth of the Eternal. And then there's God repenting of threatening to destroy the people in Exodus, in response to Moses' plea.
What I'm saying is, it's there: God allowing himself to be depicted as a being who repents and relents, like a creature in time. It might be only human misunderstanding of the way that mercy and justice interplay, and that's how it's come down to us, because that's the best way it could get through our heads how mercy works.
Here is the thing: we are creatures in time, and so we have the capacity to repent and relent, to admit our wrongs, or to show mercy. But none of us is guaranteed to do so; we refuse the opportunity often, and perhaps some people never learn to!
And how could we learn unless we are taught?
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When my children ask me about various Old Testament stories, "But did this really happen?" I usually prefer to be a bit circumspect about it. The correctness of the answer depends, after all, on what the child understands their question to mean.
In appropriate context I will tell them, of course, that Scripture is a different kind of book from a history or a science text or a morality tale, and that all those kinds of books can be true in different ways and with different kinds of language.
But if I am pressed personally ("do you really believe this really happened?" ) I answer: I believe with all my heart that God wanted us to know this story, and he wanted us to know it for a good reason.
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By that standard it doesn't have to make sense that God "repented" or "was sorry" for various of His early acts, and it doesn't have to make sense that Jesus says it is "proper" for John to baptize Him with a baptism of repentance. If nothing else, He must have wanted us to know a story that depicts Him enacting something that is proper to him—mercy—by a means which models a way that is more proper to us—repentance.
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