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Passing Through Waters

Daily Devotional • January 13

Saint John the Baptist in a Landscape, Giovanni Corente (Italian, active 15th century) | ca. 1480 (early Renaissance)

A Reading from Mark 1:1-13

1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ.

2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,

“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
    who will prepare your way,

 

3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
    ‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
    make his paths straight,’ ”

4 so John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And the whole Judean region and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him and were baptized by him in the River Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals.8 I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

9 In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove upon him.11 And a voice came from the heavens, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

12 And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. 13 He was in the wilderness forty days, tested by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him.

 

Meditation

“Meet people where they are.” It’s an instinct that seems prevalent in the contemporary Church.St. John the Baptist takes a different perspective. He actually leaves civilization and goes to proclaim the coming Christ in the wilderness, calling the children of Israel to leave behind their slavery to sin and follow him into the unknown.

The parallels with the Old Testament here are likely not unintentional. Just as the Baptist here is calling the children of Israel out of a broken and decadent civilization, God once called the people of Israel out of Egypt into the wilderness. When that people, having wandered for forty years, came to the banks of the Jordan, God caused them to stand up in a heap and they passed through the river’s waters into the promised land. Upon their arrival, they circumcised those born in the wilderness, celebrated the Passover, and feasted upon the fruit of the land.

Today St. John the Baptist still stands in the wilderness calling those who have ears to hear out of their broken civilizations. We still pass through the waters of the baptism to point them in the direction of the promised kingdom. Baptism marks us as Christ’s own forever, just as circumcision marked the people of Israel as God’s children. And, like the Israelites, having celebrated the Passover in the liturgy, we can finally feast on the bread and wine of the promised land.



James Cornwell is an assistant professor of psychology and management who lives in the Hudson Valley north of New York City. He and his wife, Sarah, have five children.

Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:

The Diocese of Lango – The Church of the Province of Uganda
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Brooklyn, New York

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