Ep 5: He Stood in the Mud of the Jordan [Homily]

Homily by: Fr. Philip Merdinger
Recorded: 1/12/2020 (The Baptism of the Lord, Year A)
Gospel Reading: Matthew 3:13-17 (21)
Location: St. Lawrence Catholic Church and Newman Center at the University of Minnesota

Reflection Question: What areas of your life, of your heart, have you been resisting letting the Lord heal and make clean? Picture yourself with Jesus, standing side-by-side in the muddy Jordan River, and allow the Lord to "dunk" you in His mercy and love.

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The Christmas season ends with the baptism of Jesus because the church wants to leave us as a memory of the Christmas season, most particularly that Jesus came to be identified with us.

As background, John the Baptist, a relative of Jesus, had a mission. It was an unusual mission for his time, but he was very successful at it, and it included calling people to repent of things in their life that kept them from experiencing God's love, God's power in their lives, sins and other kinds of obstacles. And he chose as a medium to do this the Jordan River.

Well, the Jordan River is a pretty narrow river now, but in ancient times it was swimmable. Israel, the state of Israel, has been taking water out of the Sea of Galilee for many years because of the needs of the population. So the input to the river is much smaller than it was at other times. So it was swimmable. It was a river. John chose this, and he chose to offer to people that they could make a statement about their sins, their obstacles to God's grace, the stuff of life: the bad judgments, the anger, all the kinds of the stuff. Then as a sign of repentance, he would dunk them in the river.

Sometimes you see pictures of it, and it shows John the Baptist sprinkling. He didn't sprinkle. He dunked. In the modern ritual of the Roman Catholic church, dunking is the preferred form of baptism. Not for us older people. But it's the preferred form, dunking. So he would do that, and people came to him.

Other accounts of John the Baptist's mission talk about soldiers, they talk about shopkeepers, they talk about priests engaged in their religious ceremonies at the temple, all kinds of folks who wanted to express in some particular way, because it's important to be able to do that. So they would come to him, line up, and whatever words he used, we don't know, but they would get dunked, immersed, in the Jordan River as a sign of their repentance.

So who shows up but Jesus, who is sinless. There's no reason for Him to be there, no reason for Him to line up with others as though He were a sinner, as though there was something disordered in His own life, but He does it! And today's gospel talks about that. First of all, John says, "Whoa! This is the reverse of what should happen. You should plunge me into the Jordan River, not I you." But Jesus insists upon it.

And as He does that, as He is plunged into the river and He emerges from it, who does He see and hear but the persons of the Trinity: the Holy Spirit and the Father's voice, sealing, as it were, stamping the beginning of His public life. And it's there that He begins His public life. He will go from there out in to the desert to be tempted. He begins His public life.

So this is what today's gospel is about, but it's about more than that, isn't it? I mean that's a nice piece of history and it's nice to know those things, but what does it have to do with me? So we hope during this year together that we'll be able to explore more deeply every Sunday not only what the text says, but what does it have to do with me? Why should I listen to this? What should I take from it? Well, you probably can think of lots of things. I'll just mention one or two.

The one that strikes me most is that Jesus Christ decides to actually stand amongst people with disorders and sins in their lives. He actually chooses to do that. He doesn't have to do that. He himself is sinless, but He wants to be identified with the human race, with my condition, for example. I just went to confession a week ago. He identifies with my condition, the things that I resist from God, the things that I hold back from God, the things that I cling to, the little disorders in my life: nasty words, maybe a little judgment about people that's unjustified, perhaps something having to do with sensuality, all those things that kind of interrupt the life that the Lord wants me to enjoy with Him.

Jesus comes and stands in our midst. During mass, for example, you could go and think about yourself standing in that line. See yourself standing next to Jesus, see yourself coming to the Jordan River for the baptism of His relative, John the Baptist, so that you and I can see how deeply, how deeply the Lord wishes to identify Himself with our condition in everything having to do, except personal sin.

So He goes into the river. The river has muddy banks, as rivers do, and the Lord of the universe, Jesus Christ, actually plants his feet in the base, in the bottom, in the bed of the Jordan River. He stands there, the Jordan River symbolizing our sins, our difficulties of life, the disorders of our soul, things we resist from God, the things that we shy away from Him, the things we're afraid of Him about. He plants his feet in the muddy base and bottom of the Jordan River. See yourself there, because that's where we are.

And He stands there and He allows John to baptize Him, because He wants to share everything about our lives in His life, except, of course, personal sin. There is where the baptism in the Jordan takes place. It takes place in your heart. It takes place in my heart. If I am willing to say, "Lord, there are things in my life that I need to be freed from, things that I need to be washed from, so to speak, I want to be there with you, because when you go in, I go in. When you are immersed, I am immersed."

That's what this event is about, dearest brothers and sisters. So that as we hear the gospel it isn't merely a set of information, however holy, or a series of events, however gracious, but has to do with my heart and what goes on there. And so this is Jesus's move. He makes His move at the beginning of His public life. This is His move, to stand with sinners, to plant His feet in the muddy bottom of the river, allowing Himself to be washed in it as a sign of the cleanliness that He wants for you, the cleanliness He wants for me.

Please, let us not take this as an idea. Let us not take this as some kind of pretty picture. It has to do with my heart and the things that go on there, perhaps the things that I would like to be healed of, but I am not, perhaps the things that I am ashamed of and I wish they weren't there, things perhaps that have happened to me that I had no power over but have compromised my own spiritual life. All those things belong with Jesus.

And so as the Christmas season concludes, this is the final, as it were, act of it, that the Lord Jesus, born for us, now takes upon Himself all that is unhappy and disordered, sinful, all those things. All that He asks of you and me is that we go there. All that He asks is that we never fail to admit the things of disorder in our lives. Only if we do not do that, then we can partake of the cleansing power of the baptism of Jesus.

So dearest brothers and sisters, hear the word of the Lord this night. May it penetrate our hearts. May we begin this secular new year with a desire, Lord Jesus, that your word would pierce my heart, would pierce my heart, so that I would become free of the many things that you want to free me of, that I would become a person who forgives rather than holds a grudge, a person who withholds judgment rather than making it about somebody, somebody who turns from the desires of the flesh that don't belong to my state in life, and live in another kind of way.

May the baptized Jesus be with you and me as we hear the voice of the Father speaking about His beloved son. "You are my beloved son," He says. "You are my beloved son," and so, in Jesus, are we.