Chapter 5 - Jordan

God Stood in Line

Father Martin’s description of the contemporary Jordan River is a bit of a shocker:  bright, slimy green, like a can of Mountain Dew.  Polluted.  Not very appealing. 

That said, the chapter is very rich in content and very inspirational.  Like this passage:

Jesus somehow came to realize that baptism was what God the Father had desired for him—to fulfill ‘all righteousness.’  Perhaps this meant publicly aligning himself with John’s Ministry.  Perhaps before he began his own ministry, he wanted, in a sense, to pay tribute to that of his cousin, as a way of underlining his solidarity with the Baptist’s message.  Jesus may also have wanted to perform a public ritual to inaugurate his own ministry.

But there is another possibility, which is that Jesus decided to enter even more deeply into the human condition.  Though sinless, Jesus participates in the ritual that others are performing as well.  He participates in this movement of repentance and conversion not because he needs it, but because it aligns him with those around him, with those anticipating the reign of God with the community of believers.  It’s an act of solidarity, a human act from the son of God, who casts his lot with the people of the time.  The divine one is fully immersing himself. . . .in our humanity. 

At the Baptism, Jesus was taking sides with us.  God stood in line (p. 106).

Like many Christians, I have often pondered why Jesus needed to be baptized.  Father Martin first asserts that Jesus is baptized out of respect for John his cousin and the movement he has inaugurated on the banks of the muddy Jordan to signal the dawn of a new age and the need for repentance. As a missionary strategy, it is wise to pay tribute to the person whose message our Lord will take up and expand as he begins his public ministry.

Beyond that, Father Martin asserts that Jesus chooses baptism to enter more deeply into the human condition.  The image of God standing in line moves me.  If I were going to preach an Advent homily/sermon I would title it, “The God who Stood in Line.”  That says it all.  By accepting baptism, Jesus threw in his lot with us. 

All of our lives are important, even the parts of the past that we have ignored, downplayed, or forgotten.  If we open the door to our past, we will discover God there, accompanying us in both happy and sad moments.

As a convert to Catholicism, I especially appreciated Father Martin’s discussion of “the past.”  When we convert from something, or when we want to leave the past behind and move forward to the future, sometimes, if only in our minds and memories, we close the door to “the past”—whatever the past is.  In this chapter, he helps us to appreciate the Lord’s past, his childhood and adolescence, as being as important to our understanding of him and the Jesus who came to be baptized in the Jordan, propelling him into ministry and ultimately, the cross.  In the spiritual life, it’s important not to forget our past, for if we look back, we see God at work.  

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Questions to Ponder:


1.  Using what scholars call the "criterion of embarrassment," the baptism of Jesus is often said to be one of the most historically attested events in the Gospels.  Why do you think Jesus decided to be baptized?

2.  At the Jordan River, Jesus received a dramatic revelation of his identity.  He also heard himself pronounced as "beloved."  Have you ever  had similar experiences--that is, of understanding who you are called to be and of feeling loved by God?

3.  In the testing in the desert, Jesus was tempted to go against the person he was called to be, his "true self."  Have you ever been tested in this way?



Steven Olson

                      This video shows the Baptism Site of Jesus referred to in the chapter:

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