Baptism of Jesus Explained - 5 Things to SHARE about Jesus' Baptism by his Cousin John the Baptist as Celebrated after Epiphany!
1. The Baptism of Jesus Explained (Celebrated January 7 or 8 in 2024 depending on your location):
Jesus Christ was baptized by his cousin John the Baptist. This event is recounted in three of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. It is considered to have occurred at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, today located in Jordan.
Jesus Christ was baptized by his cousin John the Baptist. This event is recounted in three of the Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke. It is considered to have occurred at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, today located in Jordan.
2. This is celebrated as a solemnity on the Sunday after Epiphany. The baptism of Jesus is one of the Luminous Mysteries of the Rosary. Baptism was foreshadowed in the Old Testament when the Israelites passed through the Red Sea hoping to enter the Promised Land, showing how baptism is the gateway, the initiation into God's family with the goal of entering into eternal life with him in heaven.
3. The baptism of Jesus was at the start of his ministry, shortly after the start of the ministry of John the Baptist. In the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, the Holy Spirit is depicted as descending upon Jesus immediately after his baptism accompanied by a voice from Heaven, but the accounts of Luke and Mark record the voice as addressing Jesus by saying "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased", while in Matthew the voice states "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. "
4. After the baptism, Jesus was tempted in the Judean desert while fasting for forty days and nights.
Jesus submits himself entirely to his Father's will: out of love he consents to this baptism of death for the remission of our sins. The waters were sanctified by the descent of Jesus and the Spirit, a prelude to the new creation.
5. The Catechism explains, through Baptism the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates his death and resurrection. The Christian must enter into this mystery of humble self-abasement and repentance, go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be reborn of water and the Spirit so as to become the Father's beloved son in the Son and "walk in newness of life";
Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with him; let us go down with him to be raised with him; and let us rise with him to be glorified with him.
Everything that happened to Christ lets us know that, after the bath of water, the Holy Spirit swoops down upon us from high heaven and that, adopted by the Father's voice, we become sons of God. (CCC 535-537)
3. The baptism of Jesus was at the start of his ministry, shortly after the start of the ministry of John the Baptist. In the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, the Holy Spirit is depicted as descending upon Jesus immediately after his baptism accompanied by a voice from Heaven, but the accounts of Luke and Mark record the voice as addressing Jesus by saying "You are my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased", while in Matthew the voice states "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. "
4. After the baptism, Jesus was tempted in the Judean desert while fasting for forty days and nights.
Jesus submits himself entirely to his Father's will: out of love he consents to this baptism of death for the remission of our sins. The waters were sanctified by the descent of Jesus and the Spirit, a prelude to the new creation.
5. The Catechism explains, through Baptism the Christian is sacramentally assimilated to Jesus, who in his own baptism anticipates his death and resurrection. The Christian must enter into this mystery of humble self-abasement and repentance, go down into the water with Jesus in order to rise with him, be reborn of water and the Spirit so as to become the Father's beloved son in the Son and "walk in newness of life";
Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with him; let us go down with him to be raised with him; and let us rise with him to be glorified with him.
Everything that happened to Christ lets us know that, after the bath of water, the Holy Spirit swoops down upon us from high heaven and that, adopted by the Father's voice, we become sons of God. (CCC 535-537)
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