As late as the end of the first century, scholars believe, there were those who still believed that John the Baptist was the Messiah. Thus, the Gospel authors go out of their way to stress the superiority of Jesus over John. It was a bit of an embarrassment to early Christians that Jesus was baptized at all. Did the Son of God need to be baptized?
There is a clear development of the emphasis on the superiority of Jesus as we move through the Gospels. In the first Gospel written, Mark, around 70, the baptism of Jesus of Nazareth is the way Mark begins his Good News. Jesus' identity as Son of God is firmly established in the waters of the Jordan. Writing 20 or so years later, Matthew and Luke expand the story. They have the nativity stories, which we hear every Christmas season, wherein Jesus is clearly established as God's Son. Matthew has John try to talk Jesus out of being baptized. Thirty or so years after Matthew and Luke, we have the Fourth Gospel's account. Here John the Baptist points out Jesus to his disciples as "the Lamb of God," but there is no description of Jesus' baptism. In the Gospel of John, Jesus' Sonship existed before anything was created, and all that was created was through him.
The early Church wrestled with many events in the life of Jesus as they pondered and prayed on their meaning in light of the dramas of salvation.
Is this not true for us as well? Today's disciples of the Lord can wrestle long and hard to answer the question, "What does it mean to be a son or daughter of God?" Today's disciples also need to probe, as Jesus did, what God's will is for us. Where and in what way does God wish to place us for proclaiming the kingdom of God?
As we end the Christmas season today, as well as start a new year, it seems appropriate to take stock of our relationship with God. The infancy narratives proclaimed throughout this season demonstrate that Jesus is fully divine and fully human. Being fully human, Jesus, like us, would have gradually come to realize his mission and even his relationship with God his Father.
Our own change and growth would mirror that of Jesus. We reflect our growth by the decades we lived. If you are 10 years old, you are certainly a very different person than at birth. Now you have self knowledge and 10 years of life experience. If you are 60 years old and have lived your decades in the Lord sacramentally and reflectively, you have self-knowledge and a stronger relationship with Christ and His Church. What you possess, then, is the gift of wisdom. An example of this is often found in the less anxious attitudes of grandparents when their grandchildren screw up-compared to the reaction of their own children (the parents) to the circumstances.
As we grow and change through life, giving back should increase, too. Thus we live out our Baptism and manifest the kingdom of God within and around us. Two popular saints of our time, Mother Teresa and Therese of Lisieux, invite us to do small things with love. We need not be as dramatic as St. Paul or as St. Francis Xavier.
Another saint of our times, St. Pope John XXIII, elected in 1958 at age 77 and expected to be an interim pope, called Vatican Council II that would change the way the institutional Church related to the world and pronounced that through Baptism all followers of Christ are called to holiness. John XXIII did change history, but it's the little things the pope did with much love that we remember most: his sense of humor, his view of the papacy as that of a loving father of his children, his visits to orphanages and jails.
So the question can be asked: How can we the baptized live out our Baptism today? A popular saying of St. Francis can go a long way: "Preach the Gospel always. If necessary, use words." This advice is appropriate for today's feast!
By our Baptism, we have died and been raised with Christ. Then at every Eucharist we attend, he supplies us with food and drink to strengthen our place in the kingdom of God.
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