NO GREATER LOVE: THE LORD’S BAPTISM 

Chapter one of volume one of Pope Benedict’s Jesus of Nazareth deals with the Lord’s Baptism. 

This crucial event in the life of the Lord, and ultimately in our own lives, is described in Mt 3:13-17, Mk 1:9-11, Lk 3:21-22, and Jn 1:32-34. Pope Benedict explains why this Baptism is so important for us. Speaking of the actual rite of Baptism (immersion in water), he tells us: On one hand, immersion into the waters is a symbol of death, which recalls the death symbolism of the annihilating, destructive power of the ocean flood. The ancient mind perceived the ocean as a permanent threat to the cosmos, to the earth; it was the primeval flood that might submerge all life. The river (Jordan) could also assume this symbolic value for those who were immersed in it. But the flowing waters of the river are above all a symbol of life. The great rivers-the Nile, the Euphrates, the Tigris-are the great givers of life. The Jordan, too, is---even today---a source of life for the surrounding region. Immersion in the water is about purification, about liberation from the filth of the past that burdens and distorts life---it is about beginning again, and that means it is about death and resurrection, about starting life over again anew. So we could say that it is about rebirth. All of this will have to wait for Christian baptismal theology to be worked out explicitly, but the act of descending into the Jordan and corning up again out of the waters already implicitly contains this later development. ……. Only from this starting point can we understand Christian Baptism. Jesus' Baptism anticipated his death on the Cross, and the heavenly voice proclaimed an anticipation of the Resurrection. These anticipations have now become reality. John's baptism with water has received its full meaning through the Baptism of Jesus' own life and death. To accept the invitation to be baptized now means to go to the place of Jesus' Baptism. It is to go where he identifies himself with us and to receive there our identification with him. The point where he anticipates death has now become the point where we anticipate rising again with him.

What Pope Benedict tells us in this chapter (16 pages) gives us the very basis of Christian life. However, it is also important for us to see what death meant in the Old Testament and at the time of Christ. The first five books of the Old Testament give us the Mosaic Law and God’s plan for the people of Israel. Virtually nothing is said about Heaven and Hell. The blessings and curses of the Law deal with this life. Modern atheistic materialism thinks of death as the total extinction of the person. Everything is over since, when our body dies and decays, we are totally gone. Unlike modern materialism, the ancient world did not think of the human person as only decayable matter. God gave us an immortal spirit. On this earth, we are both immortal spirit and mortal material matter. In the philosophy of Plato, the human person is a pure spirit “imprisoned” in corruptible flesh. This is not the idea of the human person of ancient Israel. The human body made us human. We could interact with other human beings and also with God through the body. When our body dies, we still exist but not as a complete, whole, human person. In Psalm 6 we read “For in death there is no remembrance of you; in Sheol who can give you praise?” (Ps 6:5) The psalmist cannot imagine how we could give praise to God if we do not have a body in Sheol, which is the abode of the dead. In Sheol, we still exist, but not as human persons like living human persons on earth. 

In first book of Samuel, we read how the first King of Israel, King Saul, was about to engage in a battle with the enemy Philistines. (1 S 28:3-25) He was very afraid of the outcome and consulted God is many ways but did not receive an answer. Saul them sought an answer apart from God by consulting a medium to bring up the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel from Sheol. This action was forbidden by the Mosaic Law. (Lv 19:31; 20:6,27; Dt 18:11) Saul previously had driven those who did these forbidden practices out of Israel. (1 S 28:9) God did permit Samuel to speak with Saul, and he told him that he and his sons would perish at the hands of the Philistines. This did happen. Sheol was thought to be down deep in the earth and was the abode of both the good and the evil. The prophet Samuel came up from “the earth” (1 S 28:13), and the rebels against Moses were swallowed by the earth and went down to Sheol. (Nb 16:31-34) Of course, the devout in Israel did hope that the good would find happiness with God in the next life. (Ps 16:10-11, 49:15). In the later books of the Old Testament this hope became more explicit. (Ws 3:1-9). Jesus Christ’s Cross and Resurrection demonstrated that this hope of true life after death is a reality. 

How do we know that this human life after death is a reality, not only for Jesus, but also for us? First, we need to see how the Lord’s Baptism and our own Baptism relate to true life after death. As Pope Benedict pointed out, water is a symbol of death, but it is also a symbol of life. The first “baptism” of the human race was Noah’s flood where God used water as an instrument of death to cleanse the world of wickedness, leaving only righteous Noah and his family to begin the human race anew. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, the Israelites were caught between Egyptian chariots pursuing them and the Red Sea in front of them. Here water was a symbol of both life and death. Death lay before the Israelites but, Moses, through the power of God, parted the water so that the Israelites could walk below the water line and not be overtaken by death. The Israelites could then go on to their new life in the promised land. Yet water was again an instrument of death as the Egyptians foolishly tried to follow the Israelites into the parted water which then returned to engulf them.

Through His Cross and Resurrection, Jesus also passed through Death just like the Israelites but with one very large difference. Jesus was not miraculously preserved from Death, but instead confronted Death head on and conquered it. When the Israelites, passed through the Red Sea, they continued their mortal life. Our Lord, when He passed through death, did not continue in the life of mortal flesh. He also did not remain imprisoned in the abode of the dead (Sheol). He broke out into New Life in His Resurrected body. He did not return to Life as a pure spirit or ghost as Samuel did. (1 S 28:13) The Lord rose in a glorified and incorruptible human body. (Lk 24:36-43) 

The Lord’s Death and Resurrection were prefigured by His Baptism. Jesus himself refers to His Death as a Baptism. (Mk 10:38, Lk 12:50) The Lord received the Baptism of John, which was a Baptism of repentance. When the multitudes came to John to be baptized, he warned them that they must turn away from sin to a life of righteousness and virtue. (Lk 3:10-14) However, repentance is a prerequisite to follow the Lord in His Triumph over Death. It is not the whole story. The water of John’s Baptism was meant to be for cleansing and repentance. This, however, is not enough. John himself states that the one who follows him and is much greater than he would baptize “with the Holy Spirit and with fire”. (Lk 3:16) We need the “fire” of the Holy Spirit living within us in order to follow the Lord in His Triumph over Death and Sheol. St. Paul teaches us “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Rom 8:11) 

Baptism, which is given to infants before they can repent, is the beginning of the Christian Life, which is a Life of following the Lord in His Death and Resurrection to new life. The other sacraments and graces we receive as Christians complete this process of following Christ and help us to not permanently lose the Holy Spirit we received at Baptism. This is why we must avoid the error of thinking that how we corrupt our bodies by “sins of the flesh” or other sins makes no difference since we spend eternity as a “pure spirit”. This is false. We need to be ready to receive the pure, incorruptible bodies we will receive at our Resurrection. We need to make sure that the HOLY Spirit is within us and not the spirit of the world.

Baptism has been presented to young people as just an initiation into the Christian community. It is much more than just that. It is a permanent change in our relationship with God. This relationship must be maintained and expanded through other sacraments, the graces we receive through the other sacraments, and our own free will choices. All this determines where we spend eternity. Behind all this is our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who makes our own triumph over death possible. Our relationship with Him should be the priority of our lives for this relationship has permanent consequences for us all. – Jim Nugent, CFP