The Baptism of the Lord

We just jumped ahead thirty years in a single week. We’re now celebrating Jesus’ baptism, which happened at the beginning of His ministry.

After all the people had been baptized
and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying,
heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon him
in bodily form like a dove.
And a voice came from heaven,
“You are my beloved Son;
with you I am well pleased.”

Luke 3: 21-22

The perennial question, of course, is: Why did Jesus need to be baptized?

I have a couple of answers to this:

  1. Because He wanted to show us what it means to dedicate one’s life to serving God.
  2. Because He was infusing His holiness into what became the Sacrament of Baptism, to help US to become holy through our participation in it.

I’m no theologian, obviously, but I love to ponder and pray about this because it’s such a deeply transformational way of thinking.

It shows me the deep connection between mind, body, and spirit. God helps me work on all three.

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