All Things Made New

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God is one. Amen.

We celebrate today Theophany—the baptism of Jesus Christ by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. The word “theophany” is formed from two words, “theo” meaning “God” and “phany” meaning “showing” in both Greek and Latin. So, we are celebrating something of great significance—the “showing of God”—the revelation of God—to all of humankind. The Gospel today from the third chapter of the Gospel of St Matthew describes the actual baptism of Jesus Christ. The epistle from the second and third chapters of the Letter of St Paul to Titus describes why Jesus Christ has appeared to us in this way and what that means for us today.

John the Baptist certainly was surprised when Jesus Christ asked John to baptise Him, as set out in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 3, verses 13 to 17. John said: “I need to be baptised by You, yet You come to me?” Jesus Christ replied to John: “‘Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting to fulfil all righteousness.’ Then [John] consented.” So, what does that mean, “to fulfil all righteousness”? For the Jews in first-century Palestine, “to be righteous” meant to obey the Law—all the many laws set out in the opening 255 pages of The Orthodox Study Bible containing the first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. St John Chrysostom explains why “this baptism is fitting.” He preached: “The whole law is fulfilled by ‘all righteousness,’ by which all the commandments [of God] are performed. [This Gospel] is in effect saying, continued St John, paraphrasing Jesus, “‘Since then we have performed all the rest of the commandments, this baptism alone remains. I have come to do away with the curse that is appointed for [not obeying] the law. So I must therefore first fulfil it all… This is the very purpose of my assuming flesh and coming to you,” concluded St John Chrysostom, explaining why Christ chose to be baptised. Thus, the revelation of Jesus Christ in His baptism freed the Jews from the Law and also fulfilled the Law, offering salvation not only to the Jews but to all humanity.

Chromatius, a fifth-century friend of St Jerome, offers a quite practical explanation of the baptism of Jesus Christ: “The Lord did not want to be baptised [only] for his own sake, but [also] for ours, in order to fulfil all righteousness. Indeed, it is only right that whatever someone instructs another [person] to do, [they] should first do [themselves]. Since the Lord and Master of the human race had come, He wanted to teach by His example what must be done for [those who wish] to follow their Master” concluded Chromatius.

An anonymous Church Father links “all righteousness,” to all “that belongs to human nature.” For “without doubt according to the demands of human nature: people need to be baptised, [because] according to the carnal nature [we] are all sinners. Even as [Christ] fulfilled the righteousness of baptism, He fulfilled also the righteousness of being born and of growing, of eating and drinking, of sleeping and relaxing. He also fulfilled the righteousness of experiencing temptation, fear, flight and sadness, as well as suffering, death and resurrection: that is, according to the requirement of the human nature He took upon Himself, He fulfilled all these acts of righteousness,” concluded this Church Father. In other words, it was the whole person and the whole life of Jesus Christ that was baptised; and it is the same for each of us. The impact of our baptism continues throughout our lives, uniting us to God.

The Gospels of St Matthew, St Mark and St Luke all point out that “when Jesus was baptised, He went up immediately from the water, and behold the heavens were opened and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on Him; and lo, a voice [came] from heaven, saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” St Augustine preached of these verses: “Here then we have the Trinity presented in a clear way: the Father in the voice, the Son in the man, the Holy Spirit in the dove….Here the recognition of the Trinity is conveyed to us so plainly that it hardly leaves any room for doubt or hesitation.”

Now, when each of us were baptised we did not hear the voice of the Father, nor did we see the Son nor the dove representing the Holy Spirit. However, as that anonymous Church Father points out: “Those who enter the water as carnal children of Adam the sinner immediately come up from the water as persons who have been made spiritual children of God,” he concluded. So, what does it mean for each of us today that in our baptisms we have “been made spiritual children of God”?

The epistle today from St Paul’s Letter to Titus, chapter 2, verses 11 to 14 and chapter 3, verses 4 to 7, explains: “The grace of God has appeared, giving salvation to all human beings, training us to reject impiety and worldly passions, and to live sober, upright and godly lives in this world, [as we await] the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us … to purify for Himself a people of His own who are zealous for good deeds…. [For] when [in His] kindness and love for humankind … God our Saviour appeared, He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which He poured out upon us through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that we might be justified by His grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.”

The words of St John Chrysostom about this “washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” offer a fitting conclusion to this sermon. St John wrote: “Strange isn’t it, how we … were so drowned in [sin and] wickedness that we could not be purified? We needed a new birth! For this is implied by ‘regeneration.’ For as when a house is in [ruins] no one places props under it nor makes any addition to the old building, but [instead] pulls it down to its foundations and rebuilds it anew. So in our case, God has not repaired us but made us anew [through baptism].”

And so, we ascribe as is justly due all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, always now and ever and unto the ages of ages.              Father Emmanuel Kahn