The River Jordan is very grimy and muddy. It is also the lowest river in the world, ending in the dead sea at 1300 feet below sea level. Yet the Jordan was important for the Jewish people, for many reasons. Most importantly, they crossed over it to take possession of the Promised Land. Their exodus from oppression in Egypt concluded at this point.

So, John baptized people in this water to symbolize both that they were leaving their sinful, murky lifestyle behind and that, once purified, they were entering the promised land of the covenant, a life of freedom in obedience to God. That’s why he was so reluctant to baptize Jesus. Jesus had no sin and was already totally obedient to God. Yet Jesus insists. He explains to John that He had to be baptized by him to “fulfil all righteousness.” In other words, it was part of God’s plan of salvation.

And, in fact, once baptized by John, the Father sends the Spirit upon Jesus and confirms His identity as the beloved Son in whom His soul delights. Now the only time the words “beloved son” were ever used in the Old Testament was with reference to Isaac. As Abraham took him to sacrifice him to God, God almost tormented Abraham by speaking of Isaac as “your beloved son, your only son, the son whom you love.” So, Jesus is being compared to Isaac except that, unlike Isaac, Jesus won’t be spared the sacrifice. Nor will God the Father, as was Abraham. Also, the words “in whom I am well pleased” take us back to the first reading from Isaiah. In it, we heard of the servant in whom God delights and who will bring justice to the nations (Isaiah 42) through His suffering (Isaiah 53). So, at the start of His public life, the baptism of Jesus is already proclaiming that He is immersing himself in the grime of human sin. He is being anointed with the Spirit by the Father to sacrifice Himself for the salvation of the world from that sin and from death. He will go “about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil”, starting from Galilee.

Baptism means immersion in water to purify the one baptised. Jesus did not need to be purified. His immersion was not therefore to take away any sin of His, but to take all our sin upon Himself, to purify the muddied waters of human existence with the cleansing waters of the river of God’s life and love. And He takes all sin on Himself not just spiritually, but physically. He carries our sins in His body. It bears reflecting deeply on this truth. The sins of every human being of all time are carried in the sinless flesh of the Incarnate Son. As St. Peter will later tell us: “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet 2:24).

So, Jesus is immersed in our flesh and in our hearts and souls out of solidarity and compassion with us in our sinful and mortal condition. Although one Man, He became one with all men and women. All who wanted to, all who believed in Him, would thereby let Him absorb all their sin and death into Himself. They would become one with Him in freedom, grace and life. Jesus does not force anyone to believe in Him or to become one with Him. He does come to all, speak to all, show all that He loves them, send His Spirit to draw them to Him: but each single person must make the decision sooner or later, one way or another, to accept or to reject Him.

St. Peter in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles makes mention of how Jesus came to “heal all who were oppressed by the devil”, as the Israelites were oppressed in Egypt. A description I read of oppression by Satan says: “Oppression by Satan, in Christian belief, refers to external spiritual attacks from demonic forces. They show themselves as persistent hardship, negative thoughts, emotional torment, or physical illness. These aim to hinder a person’s faith and life by influencing their mind and circumstances, often through deception, discouragement, and distraction. Oppression can be overcome by resisting evil, praising God, seeking divine help (in the sacraments and in Scripture), and relying on Jesus’s victory through prayer and faith.”

Although baptism unites us with Christ, then, we remain subject to oppression of all kinds, including by Satan. Let me refer particularly to Satan’s aim to hinder our faith and life through deception and discouragement. Too often, sadly, I hear people of faith say that they consider themselves too sinful or too unworthy of God; or else they have become lazy, indifferent or apathetic towards Him. They tell themselves that God can’t possibly want to love them or have them with Himself in heaven. Their tone of voice itself is heavy with discouragement and despondency. They feel oppressed by sins of the past or the present, even although these have been absolved in confession.

My brothers and sisters, if such discouragement is in anyone here or listening to the livestream, please know that it does not come from you: it comes straight from hell, from the oppression of the devil. If Jesus immersed Himself in the lowest and filthy River Jordan to bring God’s solidarity and compassion to humanity, that means that He also did it for you and me. There is no low too low for Christ to reach. There is no dirt of sin too dirty for Christ to clean. No matter how low or dirty someone feels, the solidarity and compassion of Christ is for that person. So, too, is His power of mercy to lift them up out of it and to help them experience the Spirit of God descend on them and hear the Father’s voice say to them, too, “You are my beloved son, my beloved daughter. In you I am well pleased.” We must not submit to the yoke of Satan’s oppression and his boring broken record repeatedly telling us we are no use, we can’t make it. Remember, Satan is a liar. Don’t believe him, don’t listen to him, don’t give him the time of day. Stamp on him as you would a scorpion. Instead, “O that today you would listen to the voice of the Father” calling out to you as you stand immersed in Christ and He in you: you are my beloved, I delight in you.

Christ came to raise us from the Jordan to the River of the crystal waters of life in the new Jerusalem which is above. We must want to let Him free us from any stubborn self-doubt, self-deprecation and self-demeaning and live confidently and humbly in the glorious liberty of the sons and daughters of God. That is why we He was baptized in water the Jordan. That is why He was baptized in blood on the Cross. That, too, is why we were baptized.