2 – The Baptism of Jesus

Luke put a lot of theological significance into the two brief verses describing Jesus’ baptism by John (3:21-22). At first there was nothing unusual about the scene. It was an ordinary baptism following a strong sermon. Jesus appeared to have been in the midst of the candidates coming for baptism. The ceremony over, Jesus seems to have been alone, praying. That too was probably not particularly unusual.

In Luke’s gospel, however, whenever Jesus is said to be praying that does have special meaning. Prayer signals that something important is taking place.

In this instance, Sharon Hinge states that Jesus' prayers become "a window to the divine presence.” She notes three images that follow in Luke’s account: the heavens open, the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus in the form of a dove, and a voice from heaven announces that God is pleased with Jesus, who is God’s beloved Son.

Unlike our space age understanding of what is ‘up there,’ heaven had special meaning in biblical times. Heaven was understood in a physical sense as a series of inverted bowls protecting the earth from the waters above (Gen. 1:6-7). For the heavens to open would be an extremely threatening experience because the waters would flood the earth as in Gen. 7:1-10. That would have been interpreted in great fear and awe as an act of God.

In Luke’s description of this moment, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven. As in the Nativity stories, the Spirit has a special role in all of Luke’s narrative too. By the time Luke was writing the gospel, (presumed to be in the late 80s CE) the physical symbol of the Spirit as a dove had come into common use in the early church. The earlier Gospels, Mark and Matthew, were less concrete in saying that it was like a dove. Luke emphasized the physical form of the symbol by the single word “bodily.”

The third image Luke included in this brief incident was the voice of God from heaven. The words were not unique. They had been drawn from a blending of Isaiah 42:1 describing the Servant of God and the royal psalm sung at the coronation of a new king, Psalm 2:7. Jewish tradition held that the king was referred to as both God’s servant and God’s son. That double role was to be what Jesus subsequently undertook as his ministry. It will reappear again and again in Luke’s narrative, as it already had in the message of the angel Gabriel and Mary’s Song (Luke 1:35; 46-55). And quite intentionally so. In these two verses Luke was reiterating who Jesus is and how closely related he is to God.

The baptism was Jesus’ authorization to proceed with his public ministry. It might be seen today as his ordination in the same way that ministers (and/or priests) are set apart by their ordination. In the Roman Catholic tradition, this kind of authorization is regarded as a sacrament. While Protestants do not share the same sacramental meaning of an essentially liturgical act, a person’s baptism can be seen as not only inclusion in the membership of the church but as authorization to be a disciple of Jesus in the world. In ancient times, this was especially true when baptism was primarily for adults.In more recent times and in many Reformed churches, confirmation serves the same purpose for every church member.