St. Gregory Nazianzen: Baptism of the Lord
"But John baptizes, Jesus comes to Him (Mt 3:14) ...perhaps to sanctify the Baptist himself, but certainly to bury the whole of the old Adam in the water; and before this and for the sake of this, to sanctify Jordan; for as He is Spirit and Flesh, so He consecrates us by Spirit and water. (Jn 5:35) John will not receive Him; Jesus contends. “I have need to be baptized by You” (Mt 3:17) says the Voice to the Word, the Friend to the Bridegroom; (Jn 3:39) he that is above all among them that are born of women, (Mt 11:11) to Him Who is the Firstborn of every creature; (Col 1:5) he that leaped in the womb, (Lk 1:41) to Him Who was adored in the womb; he who was and is to be the Forerunner to Him Who was and is to be manifested. “I have need to be baptized by You;” add to this “and for You;” for he knew that he would be baptized by Martyrdom, or, like Peter, that he would be cleansed not only as to his feet. (Jn 13:9) “And You come to me?” This also was prophetic; for he knew that after Herod would come the madness of Pilate, and so that when he had gone before Christ would follow him. But what says Jesus? “Allow it to be so now,” for this is the time of His Incarnation; for He knew that yet a little while and He should baptize the Baptist. And what is the “Fan?” The Purification. And what is the “Fire?” The consuming of the chaff, and the heat of the Spirit. And what the “Axe?” The excision of the soul which is incurable even after the dung. (Lk 13:8) And what the Sword? The cutting of the Word, which separates the worse from the better, (Heb 4:12) and makes a division between the faithful and the unbeliever; (Mt 10:35) and stirs up the son and the daughter and the bride against the father and the mother and the mother in law, (Mi 7:6) the young and fresh against the old and shadowy. And what is the Latchet of the shoe, which thou John who baptizest Jesus may not loose? (Jn 1:27) thou who art of the desert, and hast no food, the new Elias, (Lk 7:26) the more than Prophet, inasmuch as you saw Him of Whom you prophesied, thou Mediator of the Old and New Testaments. What is this? Perhaps the Message of the Advent, and the Incarnation, of which not the least point may be loosed, I say not by those who are yet carnal and babes in Christ, but not even by those who are like John in spirit.
"But further— Jesus goes up out of the water...for with Himself He carries up the world...and sees the heaven opened which Adam had shut against himself and all his posterity, (Gn 3:24) as the gates of Paradise by the flaming sword. And the Spirit bears witness to His Godhead, for he descends upon One that is like Him, as does the Voice from Heaven (for He to Whom the witness is borne came from thence), and like a Dove, for He honours the Body (for this also was God, through its union with God) by being seen in a bodily form..."
~St. Gregory Nazianzen: Oration on the Holy Lights, (Oration 39:15-16).
The Baptism of Christ, by Annibale Carracci.
Oil on canvas, 1584; San Gregorio, Bologna.
