God is revealed to us in this Feast. The Gospel is revealed to us in this Feast. Christ God is pouring out His redemption, His love, His calling on our lives through this Feast, and renewing all creation as He does so. Here He is, loving us, healing us, reviving us, and saving us!
Here at the Jordan, made mystically present for us in the blessing of the waters, God reveals Himself to us as Holy Trinity, as three in one, undivided yet distinct in Persons. Here, God shows Himself to be a relationship of love, of goodness, of unity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is here who begets the Word by Whom all things are made and proclaims them “good” and declares to us and all the world His beloved Son. The Spirit is here present, filling all things, and descending as a dove.
The Jordan where Christ God is baptized is the river that for Israel has been the means of temporal rescue and salvation: Here Jacob crossed over to flee from Esau. Here Joshua commanded the priests carrying the Holy Ark of the Covenant to cross the Jordan so the Israelites could enter the Promised land—and the Jordan parted for them as the Red Sea had for Moses when Israel fled Egypt. Here Elijah took his mantle and struck the water, dividing it, so he and Elisha could cross.
Christ by His baptism in the Jordan sanctifies this water and makes it the means, not only of our healing but that of the renewal of all creation. All creation is sanctified by means of Christ’s Baptism, beginning with the most basic element of that creation—water. It was the mystical waters that were separated to form the heavens and the earth. With the sanctification of water, all creation becomes good again; it becomes what it first was, it returns to its first beauty. And likewise, we too, through Baptism can become what God, in His great love for us, first created us to be—truly alive, deified, communing with the relationship of love that is the Holy Trinity.
Do you see how amazing this manifestation, this Theophany, of God is? It is that same Logos (the Word) of God Who created all things that became incarnate and entered into human nature as man and redeems it as God. Christ is baptized into the water and the water is made pure.
Christ is baptized here at the Jordan to give us the sealing and gift of the Holy Spirit. If those who touched the hem of His garment were healed, how much more are those who are baptized into Christ and put on Christ through the waters that Christ has made the laver of regeneration?
In all things pertaining to our salvation and the redemption of the race of man, Jesus Christ has gone before us so that He can enliven and redeem that which is fallen and dead. As St. Athanasius says, “that which is assumed is healed.” That which Christ takes on to Himself, being Life itself, is healed. Christ, by taking on baptism, has made baptism the means for us to get ourselves into that sanctified and vivified human nature that Christ assumed, healed, made alive and whole again as it was first created to be.
Christ is truly the “new Adam” and He invites us—all of us—to become co-heirs with Him, that we too by Him may be triumphant over sin and death.
Brothers and sisters, we’re preoccupied by so many things, but this is the one thing needful—that we put on Christ in Baptism and then live out our baptism day by day, moment by moment, and grow in relationship, in communion with the living God. This is the Gospel. This is the most important truth for us to consider and apply as we begin 2013.
All that God created is very good. It is our cooperation with sin that leads to darkness, despair, and death in the world and in our creation, which we are called to love and steward. Conversely, as we live out our baptism, as we sanctify ourselves by this holy water, as we guard ourselves against further pollution and stain of sin, our light glows brighter, our love grows stronger, and those around us, including the creation, are affected, healed, changed, renewed, invigorated.
It’s for this purpose that Christ calls us to baptism. Renew in your heart your baptism and zeal for the Lord this day! If you are oppressed by worries, passions, habitual sins, if you feel stuck in a spiritual rut, may this water strengthen you by the Holy Spirit to lead you to repentance, healing and salvation.
For this reason, we not only take this water into our homes, but we, as the family of God in this local church, ask that our houses be blessed as well, that we in our ‘small churches,’ the family, may make Christ King another year and strive to make our homes a place of spiritual refreshment, renewal, and blessing.
As we partake of this holy water, pray that it will work noetically in our hearts, to quicken our souls, to call us to remembrance of God’s love for His people, His Church, His love for you. May this holy water defend you against the snares of the evil one, may it focus you again—moment by moment—on Christ, and may your homes become a sanctuary from this world and a place of brightness and light as it is blessed with this holy water. I hope to come to bless each of your homes this Theophany and impart Christ’s blessing on you, your family, and home.
“Today the waters of the Jordan are transformed into healing by the coming of the Lord. Today the transgressions of men are washed away by the waters of the Jordan… Today we have been delivered from darkness and illuminated with the light of the knowledge of God. Today the blinding mist of the world is dispersed by the Epiphany of our God. Today the whole creation shines with light from on high. Today error is laid love and the coming of the Master has made for us a way of salvation. Today things above keep feast with things below, and things below commune with things above.”
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Theophany 2013
