A WHISPER ECHOING HEAVEN
For the early church, this gospel incident provided something of a puzzle. Why would Jesus, the sinless One, submit to baptism by John? Why be immersed in the waters of the River Jordan as though he were a repentant sinner? The answer gives us great hope. Right from the start of his public ministry, Jesus wanted to be identified with the great mass of humanity who are sinful. In other words, this being plunged into the waters of the Jordan was for Jesus a great act of solidarity with you and with me. He wanted to identify with those of us who have become conscious of the fracturing of our relationship with God, and have sensed the need to turn our lives in a better direction.
But what I want to focus on is Jesus' mystical experience as he emerged from the waters of the River Jordan. ‘Suddenly the heavens opened.’ Heaven and earth are communicating again! If heaven appeared closed to humankind it is now open again in this great act of solidarity by our saviour.
‘And he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on him.’ Jesus was a Jew. He would have been steeped in the first lines of the Jewish scriptures which portray the Spirit of God hovering over the waters of chaos. He would have also been aware of the great story of Noah. When the dove fluttered over his ark he knew that the earth was safe for humanity again.
So, it is not surprising that Jesus, a Jew, experienced the presence of the divine Spirit of God ‘in dove-like fashion’, ‘like a dove does’ – a sense of being hovered over by this Divine presence.
All this was a prelude to a heavenly intuition: ‘and a voice spoke from Heaven: “This is my Son, the beloved, my favour rests on him.”’ In the Jewish tradition this sort of sensation is called the bat qol, the daughter of a voice, a whisper echoing heaven. All these sensations had a great impact on Jesus, leaving him with a deep sense of intimacy with his heavenly Father which enabled him, humanly speaking, to persevere throughout his ministry.
This is part of what it meant for Jesus to be baptised in the River Jordan. But what does this Gospel mean for us? Each of us has shared in the baptism of Our Lord. Each of us has been incorporated into His baptism.
At whatever age you received baptism, the heavens were opened: divine love and power streamed from heaven to earth. At that moment, heaven and earth were as one in each one of you; the Holy Spirit, Divine lover of humanity, hovered gently over you;
and deep down, at the intimate wellspring of your life, the Divine voice was heard whispering:
‘You are my beloved daughter’ or ‘You are my beloved son,’ ‘My favour rests on you.’ That is our true identity as adopted brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ.
Of course our Heavenly Father in his boundless compassion finds other ways to communicate divine life to billions who never get the opportunity to be baptised, or even to hear the gospel. But, oh what a special privilege! What a great gift to have been incorporated into the baptism of the Lord. What a difference it would make if we re-called each morning the heavenly whisper at our baptism and then re-echoed it in our lives.
© Fr Michael Tate; mtate@bigpond.com, https://www.liturgyhelp.com/calendar/date/2026Jan11/0/HomMiTa