When listening to today’s Gospel some of you might have been thinking, “I’ve heard this before, well, ///// you most likely have. The story of “The Baptism of Jesus” is familiar to most of us and is contained in all four gospels (Mt., Mk., Lk., and John). Last Sunday, on the feast of Jesus Baptism, we heard St. Matthews account and today we have St. John’s description. When this occurs in the Bible, the story appearing more than once. Biblical scholars will study the similarities, known as parallels, and differences in the versions to get a deeper overall meaning of the story.
I won’t be doing that with the entire Gospel reading! One reason is I just don’t have the expertise and the second is the Vik’s are playing the early game this afternoon.
But I would like to share with you a little of the basic structure of John’s gospel and look at just one example of a parallel that is in all four gospels just about word for word. That is Verse 32 it reads “ I saw the Spirit come down like a dove from heaven and remain upon him”.
To began with, the main body of John’s Gospel is divided into two parts; one called the book of signs and the other the book of glory. The book of signs contains the things Jesus did that gave witness, ///were signs////, that he was the Son of God. The book of glory tells of the coming of the kingdom, //////the glory of the Son of God////. The gospel reading we have today is from the book of signs.
We also need to keep in mind that a lot of imagery is used in the bible; and that symbolism is addressed to a group of people, mostly Jewish, with Old Testament, background. The first part of the verse, “I saw the Spirit come down from Heaven like a dove”. Was very significant to them because it related to two very well know stories The Exodus, the story of the Hebrews being freed from oppression and lead out of Egypt to the promised land. And the other being Noah’s Ark, /// a great big boat lots of rain 40 days and forty nights////. I’m sure you heard both the stories.
Anyway, “Charlton Hesston”……….. Moses in the story of the Exodus after leading the people into the desert goes were, to receive the Ten Commandments from God? He goes up////////up the mountain, as did other ancestors of the Jewish people; so for them God was up in the heavens, up there.
The dove of course comes from the story of Noah’s Ark. When he Noah sends out a dove to see if it could find any sign that the flood was going down. When the doves return with an olive branch this, for Noah, was a symbol of the new creation that awaited them. So when we combine these two images of God being up in heaven and the dove we have John, in his gospel, telling the people in a way they understood, that God in heaven has sent someone to guide them to a new creation.
But then comes the part of the verse that is probably the most noteworthy, “I saw the Spirit come down from Heaven like a dove and remain on Him”. This told John’s readers then and us now ///that there is a solid eternal link between God the Father and God the Son; Jesus is the Spirit of God that remains with us. Jesus is the one upon whom we place our trust and hope for the fullness of life, as we also connect to the Father though the Son, as we receive Him when we come to the table of His Word and Body so that He may remain in us.