The Waters Saw Him

Good — very good — are all the works of our God and Savior: everything the eye sees and the mind takes in, everything reason explains and the hand handles, everything the understanding grasps and human nature makes sense of. What beauty is richer than the circle of the sky? What shape is in fresher bloom than the face of the earth? What runs its course faster than the sun’s chariot? What chariot moves more gracefully than the moon? What work is more wonderful than the close-set mosaic of the stars? What brings in more supplies than the winds in their seasons? What mirror is more spotless than the light of day? What creature is finer than a human being? Good, then — very good — are all the works of our God and Savior. [a]

And what gift is more needed than water itself? Everything is washed with water and fed by it, cleansed by it and wet with its dew. Water carries the earth. Water makes the dew. Water gladdens the vine. Water fills out the grain in the ear, ripens the cluster of grapes, softens the olive, sweetens the date on the palm, reddens the rose and dresses the violet, and opens the lily in its bright cups. Why go on at length? Without water not one thing in the present order could hold together. That is how necessary water is: the other elements took their places beneath the highest vault of heaven, but water was given a seat above the heavens as well. The prophet himself is a witness to this, when he cries out: “Praise the Lord, you heavens of heavens, and the water that is above the heavens.”

And this is not the only thing that gives water its standing. There is something else that outweighs it all: Christ, the Maker of everything, came down as the rain, was known as a spring, spread himself out as a river, and was baptized in the Jordan. For you have just heard how Jesus came to John and was baptized by him in the Jordan. [d]

What strange things, beyond any comparison! That the boundless River who gladdens the city of God should be dipped in a little water! That the Spring without limit or end, who carries life to everyone, should be covered over by poor, passing water! He who is present everywhere and absent nowhere, whom angels cannot take in and human beings cannot see, comes to the baptism because he himself chose it. When you hear such things, dear friends, do not take them as said in the plain sense; take them as a picture of something else.

And so what the Lord did in secret, in the kindness of his coming down to us, did not escape the water. “For the waters saw him and were afraid.” They all but tore loose from their place and burst past their boundary. That is why the prophet, who had this in view generations before, asks: “What is the matter with you, sea, that you fled? And with you, Jordan, that you were driven back?” And they answered: “We have seen the Maker of all things in the form of a slave; and because we did not know the secret of his plan, we were whipped with fear.”

But we, who do know the plan, worship his mercy, because he came to save the world and not to judge it. John, the Lord’s forerunner, had not known this secret before; and when he learned that this was the Lord in truth, he cried out to the people who were coming to be baptized by him: “You brood of vipers, why do you look at me so hard? ‘I am not the Christ.’ I am a servant, not the Lord; I am a subject, not the king; I am a sheep, not the shepherd; I am a man, not God. My birth undid my mother’s barrenness; I did not make virginity barren. I was brought up from below; I did not come down from above. I tied my father’s tongue; I did not unfold the grace of God. My mother knew me; no star announced me. I am worth nothing, the least of all — but ‘after me comes one who is ahead of me’: after me in time, ahead of me because of that light of divinity which no one can approach and no words can tell. “‘One mightier than I is coming, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’ I am under authority; he has authority in himself. I am tied up in sins; he is the one who takes sins away. I apply the law; he brings grace to light. I teach as a slave; he judges as the Master. The ground is my bed; heaven is his. I baptize with a baptism of repentance; he gives the gift of adoption: ‘He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.’ Why do you give your attention to me? I am not the Christ.” [g]

While John was saying this to the crowd, while the people stood waiting eagerly to see some strange sight with their own eyes, and while the devil stood amazed at such testimony from John — there was the Lord: plain, alone, bare, with no one to present him, wearing the body of a man like a piece of clothing and hiding the dignity of his divinity, so that he might slip past the dragon’s traps. And he came to John not merely as a Lord without a royal escort; he came like an ordinary man, one caught up in sin, and bent his head to be baptized by John. So when John saw him humble himself so far, he was astonished at the whole affair and tried to stop him, saying — as you have just heard: “I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me? What are you doing, Lord? The teaching you lay down breaks the rule. I preached one thing about you, and you are doing another; the devil heard one thing, and now he sees another. Baptize me with the fire of divinity — why wait for water? Give me light by the Spirit — why wait on a created thing? Baptize me, the Baptist, so that everyone may know you are the greater. “Lord, I baptize with a baptism of repentance, and I cannot baptize anyone who comes to me unless he first confesses his sins in full. Say then that I do baptize you — what have you to confess? You are the one who takes sins away, and are you to be baptized with a baptism of repentance? Even if I dared to baptize you, the Jordan does not dare to come near you. I need to be baptized by you, and are you coming to me?” [k]

And what does the Lord say to him? “Let it be so now, for this is how it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Let it be so now, John. You are not wiser than I am. You see as a man; I know beforehand as God. It is fitting that I do this first and teach it so. I do nothing unfitting, for I am clothed in honor. Are you surprised, John, that I have not come in my dignity? The purple robe of kings does not suit a man in private life, but a soldier’s splendor suits a king well enough. Have I come to a prince, and not to a friend? “Let it be so now, for this is how it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. I am the one who fulfills the law; I want to leave nothing missing from its full accomplishment, so that after me Paul may cry out, ‘Christ is the fulfilling of the law, for righteousness to everyone who believes.’ Let it be so now, for this is how it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Baptize me, John, so that no one may think little of baptism. I am baptized by you, a servant, so that no king and no man of rank may think it beneath him to be baptized by the hand of a poor priest. Let me go down into the Jordan, so that they may hear my Father’s testimony and know the power of the Son. Let it be so now, for this is how it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” [m]

Then at last John let him. And when Jesus was baptized, he came up at once out of the water, and the heavens were opened to him; and look — the Spirit of God came down like a dove and rested on him. And a voice from heaven said: “This is my beloved Son; in him I am well pleased.”

Do you see, dear friends, how many great gifts we would have lost if the Lord had given in to John’s urging and refused baptism? Until then the heavens were shut and the region above could not be reached. We would have gone down to the parts below, but we would not have gone up to the parts above. But was that all that happened — that the Lord was baptized? He also made the old man new and put the scepter of adoption back into his hand. For at once “the heavens were opened to him.” [p]

The visible was reconciled with the invisible. The ranks of heaven were filled with joy. The diseases of earth were healed. Hidden things were made known. Enemies were made friends. For you have heard the words of the evangelist: “The heavens were opened to him” — and that on account of three wonders. When Christ the Bridegroom was baptized, it was fitting that heaven, the bridal chamber, should open its shining gates. And in the same way, when the Holy Spirit came down in the form of a dove and the Father’s voice went out everywhere, it was fitting that “the gates of heaven should be lifted up.” And look — the heavens were opened to him, and a voice was heard, saying: “This is my beloved Son; in him I am well pleased.”

The beloved brings love to birth, and light without matter brings to birth light that cannot be approached. “This is my beloved Son” — he who was shown on earth and yet was never parted from the Father’s side, who appeared and yet was not seen. For appearing is another matter, since to look at them the one baptizing here is the greater and the one baptized the lesser. That is why the Father sent the Holy Spirit down from heaven upon the one who was being baptized. [r]

In Noah’s ark the dove stood for God’s love toward people; so now too the Spirit came down in the form of a dove, carrying as it were the fruit of the olive, and rested on the one to whom this testimony was given. Why? So that the Father’s voice would be shown reliable, and so that a prophecy spoken long ages before would be confirmed. And what prophecy is that? “The voice of the Lord is on the waters; the God of glory thundered; the Lord is upon many waters.” And what voice? “This is my beloved Son; in him I am well pleased.” This is the one people call the son of Joseph, and who by his divine being is my only Son.

“This is my beloved Son” — he who is hungry, and yet feeds tens of thousands; who is tired, and yet gives rest to the tired; who has nowhere to lay his head, and yet holds up all things in his hand; who suffers, and yet heals suffering; who is struck in the face, and yet gives the world its freedom; who is pierced in the side, and yet mends the side of Adam.

Now give me your closest attention, I ask you, for I want to go back to the spring of life and look at the spring that gushes with healing. The Father of immortality sent the immortal Son and Word into the world, and he came to the human race in order to wash it with water and the Spirit; and giving us new birth into a soul and body that cannot decay, he breathed into us the breath of life and put on us armor that cannot decay. If, then, a man has become immortal, he will also be God. And if he is made God by water and the Holy Spirit, after the new birth of the pool, he is found after the resurrection from the dead to be a fellow heir with Christ as well. [v]

So this is what I preach: Come, all you families of the nations, to the immortality of baptism. I bring good news of life to you who are still lingering in the darkness of not knowing. Come out of slavery into freedom, out of tyranny into a kingdom, out of decay into what cannot decay. “And how are we to come?” How? By water and the Holy Spirit. This is the water joined with the Spirit: the water by which paradise is watered, by which the earth is made rich, by which plants grow and animals multiply — and, to put the whole thing in a single word, by which a person is born again and made alive. This is the water in which Christ himself was baptized, and into which the Spirit came down in the form of a dove.

This is the Spirit who at the beginning “was moving over the face of the waters”; by whom the world moves; by whom creation holds together and everything has life; who worked with power in the prophets, and came flying down on Christ. This is the Spirit who was given to the apostles in the form of tongues of fire. This is the Spirit whom David was asking for when he said: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” [x]

Of this Spirit Gabriel also spoke to the Virgin: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” By this Spirit Peter spoke that blessed word: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” By this Spirit the rock of the church was made firm. This is the Spirit, the Helper, who is sent because of you, to show that you are a child of God.