A New Creation

Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Are you tired of all these reboots of old stories which Hollywood likes to churn out? Aren’t we treated to the same-old stuff? Well, it doesn’t seem to be so. Reboots tend to be a tried and tested concept that comes with a built-in audience. Life might not come with an undo button but there seems to be a redo button. And Hollywood loves pressing it. There is irony in this. In an age which craves for the new, we can never underestimate the power of nostalgia and Hollywood understands that and capitalises on it. Be it a gender-swapped update or a familiar story retold with bigger CGI effects or more famous actors assuming the roles, or tweaks to the story-line, the audience keeps on coming back for more.

Well, if there is a story that deserves retelling, it must be the stories we find in the Bible, celebrated in our liturgy year after year and we don’t seem to get tired of it. The reason being is that with every retelling, something new emerges. With the coming of Christ, all things are made new! The birth of a child is not a completely new beginning but it changes everything. The birth of this Christmas baby has indeed transformed the whole of creation and given it a fresh start!

Such is the story of the Baptism of Christ. It is such an important event that it is recorded in all four of the Gospels. Saint John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus and the one chosen by God to proclaim His coming, was preaching in the wilderness and was baptising all who would respond to his call to repentance. John was directing the people toward the one who would baptise them with the Holy Spirit. But then the story takes a divine twist – the one who should be doing the baptising comes to John at the Jordan and requests to be baptised by the latter. Initially, John hesitates as he recognises the awkwardness and irony of the situation. But then Jesus tells John, “Leave it like this for the time being; it is fitting that we should, in this way, do all that righteousness demands” John concedes and baptises the Lord.

What seems scandalous, that is to suggest that the only Sinless One required purification at the hands of a mortal, is now transformed into something marvellous. At his Baptism, the Saviour chooses to be with us where we are, to enter into solidarity with us, sinners as we are. His whole mission and destiny is contained in this single profound action. The Baptism of the Lord is the culmination of Christmas and the preamble to the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. Christ descends into the waters as the Eternal Word leapt down from the heavens. Christ goes down into the Jordan as on Calvary He will sink into the chaotic waters of death. At the baptism, our Lord would enter into the death-dealing waters and transform them into life giving waters.  On the Cross, He will enter the darkness again and this time transform it into the radiance of the Resurrection light, offered to us all as joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.

There is something essentially new about this old story that has been retold countless times. The Baptism of our Lord Jesus Christ also heralds and marks the dawn of the New Creation. As they gathered around the Jordan River shore, those watching Jesus' baptism must have been overwhelmed by the picture God was creating. It was the refreshingly good news that God was making new His old creation. The Church, from ancient times, had always recognised the striking similarities between Jesus’ baptism and the creation of the world. We see the themes of water, the Spirit, God’s approval and creation in both accounts, with the story of Baptism providing an innovative twist to the story.

In Genesis 1, before God undertook the project of creation, there was water in its formless state, a symbol of chaos and disorder. But at baptism, we see Jesus descending into the water, taming its currents, putting order into chaos, drawing out life from this watery grave. In Genesis 1, the Spirit hovered and moved over the water. At the baptism of Jesus, the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descended upon Jesus. At the completion of creation, at the close of the Sixth Day, God registered His pleasure and approval of His work of creation – “It is very good.” But now at Jesus’ baptism, God’s pleasure and favour will be directed to His Son, Jesus. In the first account of creation, God made a new world that had never existed before. In the New Testament, Jesus emerges from the waters to usher in a new world order where love and restoration would prevail over evil and destruction.  In a world craving for novelties, Jesus is that Something New, a newness that can never become obsolete.

The fact that the Baptism of the Lord introduces something radically new may not necessarily appeal to everyone’s taste. Not because we are not fascinated with novelty. We live in an age of constant innovation. The newest technologies and gadgets hit the news every week; we're constantly awaiting the next movie blockbuster, the next episode of our favorite television show, the latest in a series of novels; and the internet is a constantly brewing stew of all things new—new social media, which we constantly scan for whatever is new in our friends and family's lives. We crave and obsessively consume what’s new, perpetually, in the hope that the new will make us new.

But the newness of the Baptism of the Lord is unlike the modern novelties of our times. As Pope Francis reminded the candidates about to receive Confirmation, “You see, the new things of God are not like the novelties of this world, all of which are temporary; they come and go, and we keep looking for more. The new things which God gives to our lives are lasting, not only in the future, when we will be with him, but today as well.”

New technologies and sciences are fantastic, with undreamed of possibilities for healing and solving problems of famine and poverty, and the Church has called us to make use of the plethora of communication tools at our hands to preach the Gospel, but no technology, no insight of neuroscience or psychology or quantum physics, no retelling of old stories or reboot of old movies can change that we are all Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve who have inherited Original Sin; no innovation in technology or medicine can change that it is only by the Cross that we can be redeemed and our sins forgiven. Our Lord came to announce this perennial novelty at His Baptism.

A simple rehashing of a tale often leaves the audience questioning ‘what was the point?’ But for us Christians, we can’t have enough of the greatest story ever told. Ultimately, in a modern world that thrives on novelties, there is only one innovation, one new thing that never loses its novelty, one new thing that matters. He is the Word made Flesh, the Son of God sent by the Father for the redemption of the world. This New Man, who was the Word that was there in the Beginning, came to make all things new. There is no need for a new message, or a new idea or a new plot. The old, old gospel is the newest thing in the world; in its very essence it is forever good news. In fact, the concept of novelty is built into the term “gospel” – euangelion – “good news”. In Christ the Old, the Ancient is ever New.