The Baptism: A Mission Plan

The Baptism: A Mission Plan

Scripture:

Mark 1:7-11,

1 John 5:1-9,

Isaiah 55:1-11.

Reflection

My dear sisters and brothers,

We have a text from the Gospel of Mark (Mark 1:7-11) for our reflection today.

“This is what John the Baptist proclaimed:

“One mightier than I is coming after me.

I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals.

I have baptised you with water;

   he will baptise you with the holy Spirit.”

It happened in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee

   and was baptised in the Jordan by John.

On coming up out of the water he saw the heavens being torn open

   and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him.

And a voice came from the heavens,

   “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.””

Today, we celebrate the baptism of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

We have a perennial question to ask regarding the baptism of Jesus Christ.

That is:

Why was Jesus Christ baptised before taking up his mission?

And

What do we learn from it?

Baptism is a ritual or ceremony or sacrament.

It requires three essential aspects.

They are:

1. The individual, who is to be baptised,

2. The baptiser, who acts in the name of the community of faith, and

3. God, whose name the individual is baptised in.

Traditionally, we focused mainly on the first two essential aspects: 1. The individual, and 2. the baptiser.

The individual from the aspect of cleaning from the original sin or sins and the baptiser from the aspect of initiating the entrance into a community of faith.

We have conveniently forgotten the third aspect: 3. God.

The third is the divine aspect.

It is mainly focused on in the story of baptism of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

It was a decisive moment for Jesus Christ, who was about to establish the Kingdom of God as his mission mandate.

Why?

Because, in Baptism, Jesus was united himself with God, the Father.

In other words, the baptism united the purpose of Jesus with God’s purpose.

How do we know it?

a. The Voice from heaven:

“You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11).

This was God’s approval of Jesus’ plans for his mission.

Jesus offered himself to God through the baptism as a way showing his readiness and willingness for God’s purpose.

The voice from heaven was God’s way of saying: “You are most welcome My Son. You are accepted to the fullest extent. You are My only beloved Son.

b. A Dove:

“The Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him” (Mark 1:10).

We read in the Gospel according to Saint Luke:

“The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35).

It means that ‘the holy Spirit’ is ‘the power of the Most High’.

In other words, we can understand that it is the power of God that comes down upon Jesus Christ.

This is the power that will work in Jesus in all he does during his mission.

The voice of God has approved of Jesus and the Spirit of God has empowered him.

With this confidence, Jesus can now venture into implementing his mission plans for the future knowing that he is working in union with God.

And what can we learn from this on how to proceed with our own lives’ mission and purpose after knowing that these two extraordinary aspects, determined at Jesus’ baptism go to show us the meaning and purpose of the event in the Gospel of today?

What do all these tell us about our baptism, our mission and our purpose?

Probably, we have to make a conscious effort to connect between our baptism and our mission purpose.

But, today’s Gospel text shows us that if we are to live out our baptism, the first thing we should do is to lay down all our mission and purpose at God’s feet.

Yes, dear sisters and brothers,

Like John the Baptist, who said:

“I am not worthy to stoop and loosen the thongs of his sandals” (Mark 1:7).

1. The Sandals:

We all know that the sandals are worn under our feet to safe guard from thorn and sharp stones.

Likewise, when we surrender to our Lord, Jesus Christ our entire mission and purpose, He takes care of us from all dangers and guards us from every evil that we are tempted in our lives too.

We need not remove the sandals…to surrender at his feet.

We just need to remove our pride, ego and jealousy.

We need to do this for two reasons:

The first reason is,

(a) To make sure that our plans and designs fit into God’s plans for us.