A call for discipleship: Mission of Love and Service, Model for Christians.
Baptism of the Lord
READINGS OF THE DAY: Is 42:1-4, 6-7; Ps 28 (29); Acts 10:34-38; Mt 3:13-17
Jesus' baptism in the Jordan (cf. Matthew 3:13-17) is a story of revelation: it helps us understand who Jesus is and indirectly who the Christian is. The introductory words of the prophetic oracle are crucial: "Behold my servant" (Isaiah 42:1). They indicate the object that is dear to God and which He intends, precisely, to make known to us. The subsequent sentences tell us what the servant possesses (the Spirit), the mission entrusted to him, and the style with which he must fulfill it. Each of these individual aspects deserves our full attention.
Who is the servant? In writing this word, the prophet was certainly thinking of the people of Israel (or rather, the group of pious and true believers), but he was also thinking of the Messiah. By saying "behold my servant," God wants to speak to us both about the Messiah and his people, about Jesus and his Church.
Servant: the word evokes obedience and submission, it is a mission to be accomplished not in one's own name nor in one's own style, but in dependence and on behalf of another. This is true, however, our passage multiplies the expressions to also recall another aspect, namely, friendship: "in whom I delight," "my chosen," "whom I uphold" (v. 1). Therefore, servant and more than a servant. At Jesus' baptism, the heavenly voice rightly changed the term "servant" to "son": Jesus is submissive and docile to the Father's will, obedient, but he is more than a servant, he is a son. And the same can be said of the Christian: servant and son.
The mission that God entrusts to his servant (that is, to Israel and his Messiah, to Jesus and his disciples) is described with three fundamental features. It is, first of all, a universal mission," addressed to the "nations" and the "islands." The servant takes responsibility for the entire world because he knows that his God loves all humanity. With one conviction, namely, that those far away are waiting for someone to speak to them about that God they don't yet know but who they are seeking and need.
A mission - and this is the second trait - that favors the "prisoners," so to speak, that is, the poor, the weak: it is certainly open to all, but precisely for this reason it gives preference to those who are most neglected. The servant takes on the defense of those who are defenseless, becomes an advocate for those without an advocate, becomes love for those without love. A mission, finally, whose essential content is "right." The word occurs three times, and it is a biblical word with a rich and multiple meaning, richer than the one it usually has in our languages. It indicates justice in the sense of putting things right, of impartial laws, of equal treatment for all, but it also indicates the spread of the truth and knowledge of the Lord: for this reason the servant is called "a light to the nations" (v. 6).
And all this with a style: the servant does not seek clamor, does not make loud and showy gestures, does not quench and destroy, but revitalizes and encourages; he is humble, simple, and discreet. Yet he is firm and confident: "he will proclaim justice with truth" (v. 3). The servant's style is tolerance, discretion, non-violence. It is the style of Jesus, as Matthew emphasizes in his Gospel (cf. 12:1-21), but unfortunately, it is not always the style of his followers: "James and John said, 'Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?'" (Luke 9:54).
We have left out the most important and characteristic trait: "I have put my Spirit upon him" (v. 1). It is the root of all other aspects. And only the Spirit - is the force capable of taking an ordinary man, a mean and selfish man like all the others, and transforming him into a "servant" and a "son," joyfully aware of being loved, dedicated to a mission that goes far beyond his own personal interest. The transformation of a man into a "servant" and a "son" is a miracle: the miracle, precisely, of Christian birth and baptism.
Guided by the words of the prophet and the Gospel of Matthew, we have continually moved from Jesus to disciple, and certainly not to confuse matters: Jesus is one thing, and we are another. But it remains true that the baptism of Jesus is the model of our baptism, and that to understand who we are, we must look to him.
Happy Feast of the Baptism of the Lord!
†John I. Okoye
Bishop of Awgu
