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By Andrew Murray SM
A question that must come to mind when we contemplate the occasion of the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist is why did Jesus submit
to baptism? The question is present in one way or another in each of the synoptic Gospels. John proclaimed that he baptised with water but that one would come after him who would baptise with the Spirit. Again, John
recognised Jesus and protested that Jesus should baptise him, but Jesus insisted that the normal pattern be kept.
Part of the answer is that Jesus, though he was God, came to be one like us. Change and
salvation came into the world not in the person of a mighty god, a powerful king or a fierce warrior but in the person of one who, until he began to act, was little distinguishable from the rest of us. As he took on
full human form with all its weakness, so he accepted baptism from John. His ministry began quietly, though from the beginning recognised by the Father.
In Isaiah 42, the song of the servant of Yahweh takes
up this theme. “He does not cry out or shout aloud, or make his voice heard in the streets. He does not break the crushed reed, nor quench the wavering flame.” Then, however, it takes a different turn. “Faithfully
he brings true justice; he will neither waver, nor be crushed until true justice is established on earth, for the islands are awaiting his law.”
How is it that one so mild could bring justice to the world? If
he was meant to bring justice, how is it that 2,000 years later people still go hungry and nations are ravished by wars? Would not a powerful king or a fierce warrior have been more successful?
To answer
these questions, we have to recognise that there are many kinds of justice. There is the justice according to which we expect to be paid when we are employed to do work. There is the justice according to which we
expect that all human beings will have enough to eat. There is the justice according to which we expect that nations will live at peace with one another. Beneath all of these, however, there is a more profound form
of justice according to which every human being can expect to be recognised as a human being and as loveable by other human beings. It is this last, I believe, that Jesus primarily came to establish.
This is
the justice that exists wherever that love that regards each human being as outstandingly precious exists. Even in the direst of situations it exists where Christians live as Christians and where noble souls
minister to those that suffer.
We continue to fight for all forms of justice, but this form, which underpins all others, can exist wherever the law of love exists.
Father Murray teaches
philosophy at the Catholic Institute of Sydney.
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