This coming Sunday in the Baptism of the Lord. In our celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, we draw an excerpt from the Gospel of Luke (3:15-16, 21-22) which describes, in quite succinct terms, the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.

¹⁵ Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were asking in their hearts whether John might be the Messiah.

In describing the expectation of the people, Luke is characterizing the time of John’s preaching in the same way as he had earlier described the situation of other devout Israelites in the infancy narrative. In Luke 3:7-14 Luke presents the preaching of John the Baptist who urges the crowds to reform in view of the coming wrath, and who offers the crowds solutions to their cries, “What should we do?” His responses always center on reforming their social conduct, not as an end to itself, but as evidence of their repentance. It all builds to their wondering if John might indeed be the Messiah. Yet John’s response steers them in a different direction.

This coming Sunday in the Baptism of the Lord. In the previous post we discussed the history of the feast and noted that the gospel is not a continuous pericope of Luke’s gospel, leaving out some verses so as to focus solely on the Baptism of the Lord. In today’s post, we lightly treat all the verses so that we understand the flow of Luke’s story.

As regards the flow of Luke’s gospel, our reading follows on immediately after the events recounted in the readings for the Feast of the Holy Family. Luke tells the story of Jesus, a child of 12, accompanying Mary and Joseph to Passover in Jerusalem. Long story short, Jesus stays behind when his parents and the pilgrims from Nazareth start the journey home. Upon realizing Jesus was not with the returning pilgrims, Mary and Joseph return to Jerusalem, search for their child, and find him in the Temple: “sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers.” (Luke 3:46-47) Upon being found, Jesus offers: “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (v.49)  The family returns to Nazareth where “Jesus advanced [in] wisdom and age and favor before God and man.” (v.52) We “turn the page” and it is now some 18 years later and we come upon John, son of Elizabeth and Zechariah, in the wilderness preaching a baptism for the forgiveness of sin (Luke 3:2-6).

Luke began the section on the Nativity and Infancy stories by placing them in the flow on history. Here at the start of Jesus’ public ministry and messianic mission, Luke tells is the historical context:

In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias was tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas (Luke 3:1-2)

With the context set we come to John in the wilderness. Luke casts the call of John the Baptist in the form of an Old Testament prophetic call and pointedly connects John’s ministry to the prophecy of Isaiah: 

“A voice proclaims: In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be lifted up, every mountain and hill made low; The rugged land shall be a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” (Isaiah 40:3-5)

Compare that text with Luke’s account:

⁴ as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah: “A voice of one crying out in the desert: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.⁵ Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low. The winding roads shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth,⁶ and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’” (Luke 3:4–6)

[…you can see how these verses might be natural lead-in to the apocalyptic tone of the 4 verses extracted from the proclaimed gospel, especially verses such a v.9: Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.]

Where Matthew uses Isaiah’s text in his quest to show Jesus fulfills many OT prophet promises, in making that same connection, Luke will add this to his theme of the universality of salvation, which he has announced earlier in the words that Simeon proclaimed about the infant Jesus at the Dedication ceremony in the Jerusalem Temple (Luke 2:30-32).

And this brings us to the gospel reading for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Image credit: Baptism of Christ |Pietro Perugino, 1482 | Sistine Chapel, Vatican City | PD-US

Before we delve into the scripture readings for the day, a brief note on the history of the feast day. Originally the baptism of Jesus was celebrated on Epiphany. At that time, the Feast of Epiphany commemorated the coming of the Magi, the baptism of Christ, and the wedding at Cana. The common theme being the “theophany” of the Lord to the nations and the people of Israel.

Over time the emphasis of the visit of the magi during Epiphany so minimized the Baptism of Jesus and the wedding at Cana, accommodations were made to the (western) lectionary of Sundays and Feast Days. In the West the celebration of the baptism of the Lord came to be commemorated as a distinct feast from Epiphany. In the Eastern Catholic tradition Epiphany is celebrated on January 6th regardless of the day of the week on which it falls. In the Western Catholic tradition Epiphany is celebrated on the first Sunday following January 1st.

In 1955, the Feast of the Baptism (in the West) was established as the Sunday after Epiphany with one caveat. If Epiphany is celebrated on Sunday, Jan. 7 or 8, the Baptism of the Lord is the following Monday – and part of the Christmas season – and “Ordinary Time” begins the following day.