Mt 3, 11-17
«Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan and was baptized by him»
Jesus grows in a society of unequal people; from people pleasing to God’s eyes, to whom he grants all kinds of blessings, to people abandoned by his hand because of their sins, to whom he sends all kinds of calamities. And that conception of God propagated by the scholars and engraved in the spirit of every Israelite, was generating in him a cumulative amount of doubts that, far from diminishing, grew with time.
Because Jesus’s insides would churn at the sight of the misery, sickness, contempt, and marginalization suffered by that poor people, and he could not accept that the just God proclaimed in the scriptures could send them so much suffering for their sins. Was not the slavery that our sin subjected us to our greatest punishment?… And he felt increasingly uncomfortable within the faith and traditions of his people, and there came a moment when those doubts became unbearable and he felt the imperious need to leave that situation… To leave!…
But, where to go? What for?… I remembered the call of God to Abraham: “Go out from your country”… and to Moses: “Bring my people out of Egypt.” But Abraham was the greatest of the patriarchs and Moses the greatest leader of Israel; the deliverer, the legislator… How could a poor artisan lost in a remote region of Galilee receive a similar call?… What could come out of Galilee?
He heard that a great prophet named John was preaching and baptizing at the Jordan River, and decided to abandon everything and go to meet him. He said goodbye to his family and left. As the gospel says today: “And Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John.”
Juan was a prophet facing the system; an austere and demanding man with himself who traversed the Jordan inviting the people to turn their backs on sin. John’s great success stemmed from the unusual fact of opening a door of salvation to the common and impoverished people. To that cursed rabble whom everyone despised, he said that salvation is not reserved for the select few, but for all who repent of their sins.
Although John preached a God who relentlessly punished the wicked, as soon as they met, they got along so well that Jesus joined John’s group and stayed with him for a while. In that atmosphere of prayer and repentance, he began to sense a God very different from the one he had been taught from childhood; God is not the Judge who judges us for our sins, but the one who loves us madly and helps us to overcome sin.
«God is for us –he thought– what my parents were for me when I was very small; God is Abba»… And that filial feeling that was born in him moved him to share his discovery with everyone, because the news he could give them was the best news anyone could receive: «I have known God and he is much better than anyone could have imagined».
He returned to Capernaum with a group of Galileans he had met in the Jordan, and determined to proclaim Abba and his Kingdom of love and justice to the four winds. One Sabbath, Jesus stood up in the synagogue, went to the platform, and began to speak: «You have heard what was said to those of old… but I tell you…».
There was no longer any need to wait, the novelty of the new News was already here, with us. The new wine had begun to fill the old barrels!
Miguel Ángel Munárriz Casajús
To read an article by José E. Galarreta on a similar topic, click here
English version translated with AI