It’s still strange: Why did Jesus ask for the baptism proposed by John? It’s disturbing. Jesus is sinless and John’s baptism is a baptism of conversion. Jesus could have started his teaching a little earlier and said to his people: “You are right: be baptized by John, you must be converted”. But, not at all: Jesus does not teach anything, he performs an astonishing, confusing act. Why then?
The Gospel gives us three answers.
First of all. By doing this, Jesus tells us – gives us a sign – of why he came to earth; he came for sinners, for us and let’s admit that it does us good!
But if he came for us, he wants to meet us on the ground; he plays on the go, you could say. It is really the whole mystery of the Incarnation that we have been meditating on since Christmas. “I do not take you from above, says God, I take you from below. » Jesus comes to free us from the evil that binds us. After having performed this act, then, he will be able to say his first words which will be: “Convert”. Concretely, what does that mean? Jesus wants to restore man’s life by communicating to him the life of God. It’s not miserabilism: it’s an oxygen tank. This too, we have been celebrating since Christmas according to the old adage: “God became man so that man might become God”
Then Jesus came to teach us true baptism: that in the Spirit. Jesus cannot only give the life of God, but he gives his Spirit, that is to say his way of thinking:
He gives the Spirit of the prophets, this spirit makes the Good News spoken and understood; He gives the Spirit who creates fraternity between the disciples of the same Lord; He gives the Spirit who will break down the boundaries between the nations. It is therefore our missionary life which is revived today. I cannot receive the Spirit of the Lord without being a concrete witness of God’s love where I live. These are the two uprights of the cross with which we sign ourselves. I receive the Spirit from above, so that in my turn, as Jesus did, I give it below. This love of the Father received by Jesus and in the Spirit is always to be given to my brothers and sisters. I invite us to think about it this week, each time we make the sign of the Cross: I receive in order to give.
Finally, this baptism brings us into the intimate life of God. Today, the Father calls Jesus “his Son” and that is no small thing. The baptism of Jesus is an announcement of ours: From now on, we become the children of God. You will certainly say: “But, I am already baptized”. No doubt, but this connection is constant. The Father says, “Today I have begotten you.” In the same way that one should not say “I was baptized” but rather “I am baptized”; in the same way, we must not say “I have become a child of God”, but “I am a child of God”. It is at every moment that the Lord generates us in an ever new relationship, like everything that lives.
