Gospel Reflection Jan 12 – Deacon Paul Zemanek
Sunday, January 12
The Baptism of the Lord
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
Gospel:
The people were filled with expectation,
and all were asking in their hearts
whether John might be the Christ.
John answered them all, saying,
“I am baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I is coming.
I am not worthy to loosen the thongs of his sandals.
He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
After all the people had been baptized
and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him
in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven,
“You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased.”
Gospel Reflection:
With the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, we bring to a close the Christmas Season and the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. It marks the transition from Jesus’ birth and His early life until His mission of redemption and salvation.
Today Jesus came to John to be baptized. When He stepped into the Jordan River and into His mission of redemption, as Jesus emerged from the water and the heavens opened, God the Father and the Holy Spirit revealed their presence as the three persons of the Holy Trinity.
And so, friends, if the baptism performed by John was meant to be a sign of repentance of sin and a conversion to a new way of life, why then did Jesus need to be baptized since He is the sinless Son of God? Why did this sinless person who is fully human and fully divine line up with all of the other people and be baptized?
Jesus is God and He did not need to be baptized for His own sake, but He wanted to be baptized for our sake. It is for our sake that Jesus took the weight of all of our sins upon Himself, so we can be freed from them and have a new start, a new hope, a new life. It was through our baptisms that we received the grace that Jesus won for us on the cross, and it is the way that God reestablished His friendship with all of humankind, one person at a time.
Deacon Paul Zemanek