The springs of salvation...
At last, water everywhere!
On this Sunday’s Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, it is
perhaps not surprising that our readings are filled with water imagery: water is richly symbolic in Biblical
tradition, beginning with Genesis.
Potentially chaotic, water is also life-giving, and thus, in the Book of
Isaiah, as a part of the eschatological banquet, the gift of water is one way
God meets the needs of the people: All you are thirsty, come to the water! But is it just a question of quenching
physical thirst? Or do we thirst for
more, thirst for relationship, thirst for God?
To participate in God’s final banquet, we need to do just that: we must thirst for relationship so much that
that relationship changes how we perceive ourselves, such that we define ourselves
first in relation to God. And the rain and snow that come down and water the earth – a powerful metaphor for God’s Word
– is another form of God’s love, also sent to quench our thirst; it, too, is
life-giving, the springs of salvation
from which we will draw water joyfully,
as in this week’s canticle from Isaiah.
Why, then, does Jesus come to be baptized? He is, after all, already in relationship with
God. But as the first letter of John reminds us, Jesus came through water and blood, moving through
baptism to death. The waters of John the Baptist’s baptism are significant,
then, because through them Jesus participates in relationship not just with
God, but with humankind. Through
baptism, Jesus enters into the fullness of our reality, embracing humanity
entirely, becoming one with all of humanity so that he might work for the
salvation of all by taking our sins to the cross, dying and then rising.
Our own baptism is a sacramental participation in that
relationship, our own dying and rising, and from it flows our relationship not only
with God, but with each other. The first
letter of John reminds us that God’s love is made present through the community that
results from obedient relationship with God:
we know that we love the children
of God when we obey God and keep his commandments. Likewise, baptism unites us as a people
joined by covenant to God, so that we, like Jesus, might embrace our identity
in Christ, becoming conduits of God’s liquid love for the world.
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
Image source: Wordle.net
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