^ Euskin, Modern Painters ( Works, iv. 268).
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I.
The Circumstances of the Baptism.
Before we attempt to enter into the meaning of the Baptism of Jesus, whether for Himself or for us, it will be well to bring before our minds the events that took place on the occasion of it, as they are reported by St. Luke. These events are: (1) the Prayer, (2) the Opening of the Heavens, (3) the Descent of the Spirit, and (4) the Voice.
i. The Prayer.
There is one peculiarity about the life of our Lord Jesus Christ which everybody must have noticed who has carefully read the four Gospels, namely, that He was a man of much prayer. He was mighty as a preacher ; for even the officers who were sent to arrest Him said, " Never man spake like this man." But He appears to have been even mightier in prayer, if such a thing could be possible. We do not read that His disciples ever asked Him to teach them to preach, but we are told that, " as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray." He had no doubt been praying with such wonderful fervour that His disciples realized that He was a master of the holy art of prayer, and they therefore desired to learn the secret for themselves. The whole life of our Lord Jesus Christ was one of prayer. Though we are often told about His praying, we feel that we scarcely need to be informed of it, for we know that He must have been a man of prayer. His acts are the acts of a prayerful man ; His words speak to us like the words of one whose heart was constantly lifted up in prayer to His Father. You could not imagine that He would have breathed out such blessings upon men if He had not first breathed in the atmosphere of heaven. He must have been much in prayer or He could not have been so abundant in service and so gracious in sympathy.
1. St. Luke informs us that Jesus rose out of the waters praying. This is a solemn hint as to the spirit in which all Divine ordinances ought to be received! When we come to the
I50 THE BAPTISM OF JESUS
font seeking baptism either for ourselves or for others, when we sit at the Lord's Table, when we are on our way to church, when we open God's holy Word — as we take part in every such ordinance — we may learn from Jesus how to conduct ourselves : the best state of mind is, to be engaged in prayer.
2. What may we suppose He was praying for? If we remember the nature of the ordinance in which He was partici- pating and the stage of His own development which He had reached, can we doubt that He was praying for the coming of the Kingdom of God and for strength to play His own part in its inauguration ? That generally.
But now, more particularly, what should He have been praying about? Clearly, if He came to St. John as claiming to be no exception to the multitude, He would fashion His prayer after the likeness of that of the multitude. And of what kind were their feelings and utterances as they descended into the waters of Jordan ? They were " confessing their sins." They had been moved to do something outside the Law, because they felt a burden which no law could remove — "the weary weight of all their unintelligible " selves. When every commandment had been kept, there still remained the consciousness of not having realized their own capacities, of having fallen below the level of what they might have been, what they were intended to be. This is the guilt born of our very dignity ; it haunts the worthiest most ; it is felt even by the meanest of us in hours of self-scrutiny. What could the carpenter's Son know of it ? Little or nothing, if He were playing a part — pretending to heroism ; much, if He were a genuine man; much also, if He were genuinely Divine; very much, therefore, if He were genuinely both — God and Man in one Person. Then He could have intense perceptions, would enter into the minds of others, and understand through sympathy what He did not learn by experience ; then, knowing no sin. He could be " made sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him."
ii. The Opening of the Heavens.
The answer to His prayer came suddenly and impressively. While He was yet speaking, His Father in heaven heard, and
ST. LUKE III. 21, 22 151
three wonders happened : first the heavens were opened ; secondly the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, descended on Him ; and, thirdly, a voice came from heaven, saying : " Thou art my beloved Son ; in thee I am well pleased."
1. What is meant by the opening ? The language used by the Evangelists is very graphic, suggesting that there was the appear- ance of a rent being made in the blue vault, by which the invisible things which lie within were disclosed. But what does this mean to us, who are well aware that the visible heaven is not what it was thought to be by the infant mind of the race — the floor of a celestial palace, the occupants and furnishings of which might be seen if an opening were made in the ceiling of our earthly abode ?