The Lord's Baptism, Theophany - insights from the East

Vasili Nesterenko. Baptism of our Lord. Christ the Saviour Cathedral (Moscow). 2000

The following is a slight adaptation of a passage from ”A Handbook for Church Servers”, by Sergei V. Bulgakov, 1871-1944. (Go HERE for Rowan Williams' talk on Bulgakov's life.)

In the Eastern Church this feast is called “Theophany” (“revelation of God”) because during the Baptism of the Lord the Divine All-Holy Trinity was revealed: God the Father spoke from heaven about the Son, the Son of God was baptised by John and was witnessed by God the Father, and the Holy Spirit descended on the Son in the form of a dove. This explanation of the feast is given by the Holy Church in its hymn: “When thou, O Lord, wast baptised in the Jordan, worship of the Trinity wast made manifest; for the voice of the Father bore witness to thee, calling thee his beloved Son. And the Spirit in the form of a dove confirmed the truth of his word. O Christ our God, who hath appeared and enlightened the world, glory to thee.”

Since ancient times this feast also was known as the “Day of Illumination” and “the Feast of Lights”, because God is the Light and reveals himself to illumine “those who sat in darkness and the shadow of death” (Matthew 4:16), and to save according to grace, who has now been revealed by the appearing of our Saviour” (2 Timothy 1:9-10), and because on the Eve of Theophany it was the custom to baptise the catechumens . . . during which many lamps are lit.

Besides this, the ancient Church on this day also remembered other events in which the divine worthiness and representation of Jesus Christ was expressed both during his birth, and during his introduction to preach in public after baptism: 

1) The worship of the Magi as a revelation of Jesus Christ to the Gentile world by means of a wonderful star from this commemoration the very feast of Epiphany in the Western Church received the name of the Feast of the Three Kings; in the Eastern Church though it was part of the feast, it was not expressed in the character of the feast; 

2) The manifestation of the divine power of Jesus Christ in his first miracle at the marriage in Cana of Galilee when the Lord “created the beginning of signs”; and 

3) (in the African Church) The appearance of the divine power in Jesus Christ in the wonderful feeding of the more than 5000 persons by with five loaves of bread in the desert . . .

According to the teaching of St John of Damascus, the Lord was baptized, not because he himself needed cleansing, but rather, having taken our cleansing upon himself, to destroy the heads of the serpents in the water,  “to bury human sin through water and all of the old Adam, to fulfill the law, to reveal the mystery of the Trinity and, finally, to consecrate ‘the essence of water’ and to grant us a paradigm and an example of baptism . . . it inspires in us feelings of boundless gratitude to the Enlightener and the Cleanser of our sinful nature; it teaches that our purification and salvation from sin is only by the power of grace of the Holy Spirit; it specifies the necessity of the worthy use the gifts of the grace of baptism and the protection in purity of those precious garments of which we are reminded on the feast of the Baptism by the words: ‘As many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ’ (Galatians 3:27); and it commands us towards the purification of our souls and hearts in order to be worthy of the blessed life.”

The Holy Spirit was revealed as a dove because this image most resembled both the Holy Spirit and Christ the Lord. According to the teaching of St. John Chrysostom, “the dove is a gentle and pure being and like the Holy Spirit is a spirit of meekness, that He also was revealed with the same image”; “in the form of a dove the Spirit descended as the depiction of Christ’s humanity as pure, sinless and true”. 

According to the explanation of Cyril of Jerusalem, “as then during Noah’s time the dove announced the end of the flood bringing an olive branch, and now the Holy Spirit as a dove announces the remission of sins; there, an olive branch, here, the mercy of our God.”

Another of the hymns chanted on this Feast in the Eastern Church links the Lord’s consecration of the baptismal stream with our own baptism: “The River Jordan receded of old by the mantle of Elisha when Elijah ascended into heaven; and the water was separated to this side and that, the wet element turning into a dry path for him, being truly a symbol of Baptism, by which we cross the path of transient age. Christ appeared in the Jordan to sanctify its waters.”

Naaman, the Jordan and Baptism: Monday of the 3rd Week of Lent

FIRST READING  (2 Kings 5:1-15a)

Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the Lord had given victory to Syria. He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper.

Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little maid from the land of Israel, and she waited on Naaman's wife. She said to her mistress, "Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy." So Naaman went in and told his lord, "Thus and so spoke the maiden from the land of Israel." And the king of Syria said, "Go now, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel."

So he went, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten festal garments. And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, which read, "When this letter reaches you, know that I have sent to you Naaman my servant, that you may cure him of his leprosy."

And when the king of Israel read the letter, he rent his clothes and said, "Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man sends word to me to cure a man of his leprosy? Only consider, and see how he is seeking a quarrel with me."

But when Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, he sent to the king, saying, "Why have you rent your clothes? Let him come now to me, that he may know that there is a prophet in Israel."

So Naaman came with his horses and chariots, and halted at the door of Elisha's house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, "Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored, and you shall be clean."

But Naaman was angry, and went away, saying, "Behold, I thought that he would surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and cure the leper. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them, and be clean?" So he turned and went away in a rage. But his servants came near and said to him, "My father, if the prophet had commanded you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much rather, then, when he says to you, `Wash, and be clean'?"

So he went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him; and he said, "Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel."

GOSPEL  (Luke 4:24-30)

When Jesus had come to Nazareth, he said to the people in the Synagogue: "Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country. But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land; and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."

When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. But passing through the midst of them he went away.

REFLECTIONS
Indifference and lack of faith.
(Word of Life Community)

Healing - GOD'S way - Dominican thoughts 
Naaman, the Syrian, sought healing from leprosy in the most conventional way possible: by bringing gifts of silver, gold and fine linens to the king of Israel whom he assumed could get the ear of his people’s deity; a simple exchange of goods for a cure to his ailment. As the first reading explains, he was met with indignation by the king with a literal tearing of garments; the ultimate expression of “How dare you!" 

It was the prophet Elisha, however, who turned the situation upside-down and showed not only Naaman, but the king of Israel, that trust was the key to experiencing God’s healing power. Elisha was a man of deep prayer in relationship with God; but Naaman was not ready to listen. The river was the wrong river, why seven times of washing? Why can’t this guy just wave a magic wand so I can be on my way?

It took the servants, who were probably pensively (and prayerfully) watching by the sidelines, to convince Naaman to stop fighting. I wonder if those servants knew God was using them as an instrument to bring Naaman into relationship with Him?

God finds a way to get through to us eventually, when we’re willing to be open to hearing his voice from anyone and everyone we encounter in our day. Sometimes this can be an unsettling experience. How often do I find myself in a situation where someone is speaking an uncomfortable truth? Polarization has taken on an air of familiarity in modern society. We surround ourselves with like-minded people to provide a sense of safety; so as not to rock the boat . . . but Jesus was the ultimate boat-rocker.

Jesus gave the people something unexpected. Jesus brought a message proclaiming the coming of the kingdom of God as an inner space that gives room for the Holy Spirit to allow milk and honey to flow within us and out into the world.

Today, Jesus refers to a widow and a leper as those favored by God. This message was not accepted easily. In fact, everyone present in the synagogue at the time was enraged. Jesus eventually gave his very life in payment for upsetting the delicate balance of Israeli society under Roman occupation. Those who knew him the best, probably since his childhood in Galilee, had their ears especially closed to what he was saying. Who does he think he is? He’s just the son of a carpenter.

How would we respond in a similar situation? What would we say if a friend or acquaintance suddenly started proclaiming the coming of God’s kingdom to us? The challenge we have during this Lenten season is to resist the temptation to join those who would throw the prophets in our midst off the nearest cliff, get out of our comfort zones, and listen, as Naaman eventually did, to let the Holy Spirit do its work of healing within us. What message of the Gospel am I unwilling to hear today?

FURTHERMORE . . .

The river Jordan plays a very important role in the Bible. Before it becomes the river in which Jesus the Messiah baptized, it is revealed as the river which bounds the "Promised Land." To cross the Jordan, for the people of Israel, was to enter into the fulfillment of the Lord's promises. It was to enter the "land flowing with milk and honey," the place where God would dwell with His people providing them with the endless blessings of His presence.

In the New Testament, with it spiritual and mystical fulfillment of the Old, to cross the Jordan was to enter into the Kingdom of God, to experience the fullness of the life of the age to come. The fact that Moses was not blessed to cross the Jordan thus became a symbol of the fact that the Law by itself could not save Israel or the world. It had to be Joshua, which literally means Savior, and is the Hebrew form of the Greek word Jesus, who leads the people across the Jordan and into the promised land, thus symbolizing the saving action of the new Joshua, Jesus the messianic Savior, in the covenant of grace (see Joshua 1:12).

When Joshua came to the Jordan the streams parted at the presence of God's people, with the priests bearing in their hands the Ark of the Covenant. As the waters of the sea parted to allow God's people to pass through as if on dry land at their exodus from Egypt, so also at the entry into the land of promise, the river of Jordan made way for God's people to pass through into the place of their final destination (Joshua 3:11-13).

The Lord also commanded Joshua to take twelve stones out of the river Jordan and to place them together in one place in a pile where the people had passed through, to remain "to the people of Israel as a memorial forever" of what the Lord had done for them (Joshua 4:8-10).

After the people passed through the Jordan River, "the waters of the Jordan returned to their place and overflowed all its banks, as before." (Joshua 4:18) This miraculous wonder became part of the living memory of Israel, and the event was celebrated in the worship of God's people ever since. The psalms which recall the divine action are sung at the Church's festival of the Epiphany as prefigurations of God's final act of the salvation of all people in the death and resurrection of His Anointed, the Beloved Son who was baptized in the same Jordan streams.

"What ails you, O Sea that you flee O Jordan, that you turn back?... Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob" (Psalm 114:5,7)

The river Jordan was also parted by the passage of Elijah and Elisha, an event also recalled at the liturgy of Epiphany. (2 Kings 2) And it was from the Jordan that Elijah was taken up into heaven in order to return again, as the tradition developed, to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah. (See Mt 17:9-13) It was also in the Jordan that Naaman the Syrian was cleansed from his leprosy, a sign referred to by Jesus as a prefiguration of the salvation of all people, not only those of Israel. (Lk. 4:27) In the account of Naaman's cure the special significance of the Jordan is stressed once again.

"He [Naaman] went down and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean." (2 Kings 5:13,14)

Can we not be washed in just any river and be clean? God answers, No. Only in the Jordan, in the baptism of Christ, are we cleansed from all of our sins. Only through the Jordan do we enter into the land of the living, the Promised Land of God's kingdom. Only by the sanctified waters of the Jordan does God sanctify us forever.

The River Jordan turned back of old,

Before Elisha's mantle when Elijah ascended.

The waters were made to part in two,

So the wet surface became a dry path.

This was in truth a symbol of baptism

By which we pass through mortal life.

Christ has come to the Jordan to sanctify the waters.

- Troparion of the prefeast of Epiphany.

(Fr. Thomas Hopko, in his book "The Winter Pascha")

PRAYER

I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt,

rank me with whom thou wilt;

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low by thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things

to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine.

So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.

John Wesley (1703-1791)

Jesus sanctified the waters

St Chromatius was most likely born at Aquileia, and - in any case - grew up there, raised by his mother who had been widowed. He was ordained to the priesthood, and in 387 or 388 after the death of Valerianus, became bishop of Aquileia. He was widely respected and in constant communication with other bishops, especially St Ambrose, St Jerome and St Rufinus. A scholar himself, it was as a result of his active encouragement that these three friends wrote many of their learned works. He was a peacemaker, seeking to bridge the gap between Jerome and Rufinus when they were in dispute. Chromatius was a successful opponent of Arianism, and he gave important support to John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, when he was unjustly oppressed. Chromatius was well known as a Bible teacher. In 1969 thirty-eight sermons of his were found and published. Chromatius  died in c. 406/407.The following is from his Tractatus XII In Math. III, 13-15 (CCL 9A, 244-246), from Word in Season (2):

Since Jesus was to give a new baptism for the salvation of the human race and the forgiveness of sin, he deigned to be himself baptized first, not in order to put off sins, since he alone had not sinned, but in order to sanctify the waters of baptism that these might wash away the sins of believers. For the waters of baptism could never have cleansed believers of their sins, unless they had first been sanctified by contact with the Lord’s body. He was baptised, therefore, so that we might be washed clean of sins. He was immersed in the water so that we might be cleansed of the filth of sin. He accepted the bath of rebirth so that we might be reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, for as he himself says elsewhere: Unless reborn of water and the Holy Spirit, no one shall enter the kingdom of heaven.

While John did indeed baptise our Lord and Saviour, in a deeper sense he was baptised by Christ, for Christ sanctified the waters, John was sanctified by them; Christ bestowed grace, John received it; John laid aside his sins, Christ forgave them. The reason? John was a man, Christ was God. For it is God’s prerogative to forgive sins, as it is written: Who can forgive sins, except God alone? This is why John says to Christ: I ought to be baptised by you, and do you come to me? For John needed baptism, since he could not be without sin; Christ, however, did not need a baptism, since he had committed no sin.

In this baptism, then, our Lord and Saviour washed away the sins first of John and then of the entire world. It is for this reason that he says: Allow it to be so now. For it is fitting that we should fulfil all justice. The grace of his baptism had been mystically prefigured long ago, when the people were led across the river Jordan into the promised land. Just as at that time a way was opened for the people through the Jordan, with the Lord going on before, so now through the same waters of the river Jordan access has for the first time been given to the heavenly path by which we are led to that blessed land of promise, that is, to possession of the kingdom of heaven. For the people long ago Joshua, son of Nun, was their leader through the Jordan; our leader through baptism to eternal salvation is Jesus Christ the Lord, the only-begotten Son of God, who is blessed forever and ever. Amen.

The Epiphany signs

Songs of thankfulness and praise,

Jesu, Lord, to thee we raise,

Manifested by the star

To the sages from afar;

Branch of royal David’s stem

In thy birth at Bethlehem;

Anthems be to thee addresst,

God in Man made manifest.

Manifest at Jordan’s stream,

Prophet, Priest, and King supreme;

And at Cana wedding-guest

In thy Godhead manifest;

Manifest in power divine,

Changing water into wine;

Anthems be to thee addresst,

God in Man made manifest.

Manifest in making whole

Palsied limbs and fainting soul;

Manifest in valiant fight,

Quelling all the devil’s might;

Manifest in gracious will,

Ever bringing good from ill;

Anthems be to thee addresst,

God in Man made manifest.

Sun and moon shall darkened be,

Stars shall fall, the heavens shall flee;

Christ will then like lightning shine,

All will see his glorious sign;

All will then the trumpet hear,

All will see the Judge appear;

Thou by all wilt be confest,

God in Man made manifest.

Grant us grace to see thee, Lord,

Mirrored in thy holy Word;

May we imitate thee now,

And be pure, as pure art thou;

That we like to thee may be

At thy great Epiphany,

And may praise thee, ever blest,

God in Man made manifest.

Words: Bishop Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885)

Tune: St George’s Windsor, by Sir George Job Elvey (1816-1803)

Christ is baptised . . . to make the water holy

Here is a beautiful passage on the Lord’s baptism by St Maximus of Turin (c.350 - 415). Little is known of his life, except that he became the first Bishop of Turin in 397, and held a council of Gaulish bishops there in 398. But over a hundred of his sermons still exist which show him to have been an evangelist bishop who liked to use Old Testament typology and the Christian liturgy to explain the centrality of Christ. 

Christ is baptised, not to be made holy by the water, but to make the water holy, and by his cleansing to purify the waters which he touched. For the consecration of Christ involves a more significant consecration of the water.

For when the Saviour is washed, all water for our baptism is made clean, purified at its source for the dispensing of baptismal grace to the people of future ages. Christ is the first to be baptised, then, so that Christians will follow after him with confidence. 

I understand the mystery as this. The column of fire went before the sons of Israel through the Red Sea so they could follow on their brave journey; the column went first through the waters to prepare a path for those who followed. As the apostle Paul said, what was accomplished then was the mystery of baptism. Clearly it was baptism in a certain sense when the cloud was covering the people and bringing them through the water.

But Christ the Lord does all these things: in the column of fire he went through the sea before the sons of Israel; so now, in the column of his body, he goes through baptism before the Christian people. At the time of the Exodus the column provided light for the people who followed; now it gives light to the hearts of believers. Then it made a firm pathway through the waters; now it strengthens the footsteps of faith in the bath of baptism.