To celebrate at the beginning of the Epiphany season the Baptism of Jesus is an ancient liturgical custom. It is among the most ancient liturgical feasts of the Church, predating any liturgical celebration of Christ’s Nativity - meaning, it is older than the Church’s celebration of Christmas. And the Church’s liturgical art in icons of Christ’s baptism dates as far back as the early 200s. What all this tells us is how important the Baptism of Jesus Christ by the hand of Saint John the Baptist is to the Christian faith.
The season of Epiphany weaves together several events of Christ’s life: His Nativity, the visit of the Magi, the beginning of His public ministry, the manifestation and revelation of God as Trinity, finding of Jesus in the Temple at age 12, the miracle at the wedding of Cana - in a grand sequence of liturgical celebration. These events have in common the one radical change that had come upon the world: God had united Himself to mankind to show mankind how He has overcome the dominion of evil and death and to give to mankind the Holy Spirit. And the Church does regard Our Lord’s baptism as a kind of beginning. Evidence of that includes the fact that S. Mark’s Gospel account in effect begins with the Baptism; that His Baptism is the first earthly event described in S. John in his Gospel; and that S. Peter declares in the Upper Room after the Ascension, in Acts 1, that witnessing the Baptism is necessary to be considered to be the replacement of Judas in the ministry of the Twelve Apostles.
This importance of the event in the River Jordan is shown also because, historically, the event is named the Theophany, the showing-forth of God. It is the first public revelation of God as Trinity. Jesus of Nazareth, proclaimed by the Father to be His beloved Son, with the Holy Spirit alighting upon Christ as a dove and anointing Him, all before the eyes of the ever-enlightening heart of Saint John the Baptist. Hence the ministry of John Baptist includes being the bearer of the truth of the most holy Trinity.
Perhaps the aspect of the Baptism most pregnant with significance is that of the Holy Spirit. For one, the Holy Spirit affirms that Jesus is in fact the Christ, the prophesied Messiah. Anointing in the Old Testament brought about the descent of the Spirit of the Lord to consecrate someone as a prophet, priest, or king. In 1 Sam. 16, Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed David in the presence of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David.
Secondly, the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ like a dove. A dove is a gentle, soft, tender bird. In the Song of Solomon the lover associates her beloved with the dove, as beautiful, lovely, perfect, flawless. The dove is also associated with innocence; it is guileless. In Christ’s own words: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as a dove.” Thus to associate the Holy Spirit’s descent with a dove at Christ’s baptism says much about the nature of His coming messianic ministry. It can be seen to describe the tone of Christ’s whole ministry upon earth. He will not be a military commander, conquering the occupying Romans with force as so many contemporary Jews expected the Messiah to do. Instead, Christ is being anointed to conquer with love, and ultimately, with His own sacrifice on the Cross.
Another aspect of the dove is that it was one of the creatures that Jews were allowed to offer for sacrifice at the Temple. Thus the descent of the Holy Spirit like a dove hints at the future sacrifice of the Messiah, though not for Himself, nor only for the Jewish people, but for all. He is both the Sacrifice and He who sacrifices.
Another is that a dove brought to Noah the olive branch as evidence that the waters of the great flood were subsiding and therefore that salvation and a new world were at hand. This tells us that Christ’s coming was to usher in a new life, a new creation, a new way of being. Just as Noah and his family entered a world full of grace, so do Christians through Baptism.
Lastly the Spirit remained upon Christ, something John the Baptist saw with his eyes. John the Baptist says that it had been revealed to him that he could identify Christ as the one upon whom he would see the Spirit not only descend but also remain: in John 1.33: “The one who sent me, to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” In the Old Testament, the Spirit would descend upon the prophets to inspire them temporarily, but in the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell permanently within Christians.
Let us therefore, dear brothers and sisters, celebrate this great event of spiritual revelation, the public coming-forth of Christ, the Theophany of God the Trinity, and the descent of the Holy Ghost, in Whom we live and move and have our being, all in praise of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus ...