“Touching Your spotless head, the hand of the Baptist trembled. Not daring to minister to You, the river Jordan turned back. Since it stood in awe of Joshua, the son of Nun, how could it not fear You his Maker? But You, our Savior, fulfilled Your plan to save the world by your Epiphany….O God Who Loves Mankind!”
These past few weeks, we have been celebrating two of the most important feasts in the history of our Salvation. It was at the Nativity of Christ that the Church as a whole proclaimed “God is with us!” and revealed the truth, that our Lord humbled Himself to become His creation. In so doing, he raised up our fallen flesh so that we could live up to our potential as adopted Sons and Daughters of God Himself.
We then gathered again together to celebrate Christ’s Holy Theophany…Where God revealed Himself to the world. We heard in the Compline service how all of creation, even the waters of the river Jordan, stood in awe as God…the creator of the world…now begins the process of restoring mankind and the rest of creation.
When God Himself came into the midst of the waters to sanctify them…it wasn’t the first time that He had chosen the Jordan River to do so! The Old Testament story in the book of Joshua reminds us how this had happened thousands of years before God became Incarnate. The Israelites had spent years in the desert, waiting to come into the promised land on the other side of the Jordan. Moses had died, and now the nation was in the hands of Joshua. God commanded the priests to take the Ark of the Covenant and put it on the shoulders of the priest. Scripture then says:
“…when the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord dipped in part of the water of the Jordan (which was overflowing all its banks about the time of the wheat harvest) then the upstream waters stopped flowing downstream, and a solid wall of water formed over a great distance, as far as the region of Adam. The lower part came down into the Sea of Araba, the Salt Sea, until it came to a complete stop; and the people stood opposite Jericho. So the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all the children of Israel crossed on dry ground until all of the people crossed the Jordan.”
This simple story, with a tremendous miracle, sometimes gets overlooked in the Old Testament, but it reveals some incredible truths that we should take with us from this Feast. The first one is that Christ’s Baptism in the Jordan was prefigured centuries before it actually happened! The Ark of the Covenant represented the Womb of Mary…it held the Ten Commandments, the word of God within it, just as the Theotokos held THE WORD within her.. The feet of the priests in the water also prefigured Christ, the High Priest, coming into the same river to be baptized by John.
But perhaps the most potent reminder, is that this Old Testament story shows us exactly what Christ’s Baptism would do for the world. Before the waters were turned back, the natural flow of the waters of the Jordan emptied out in the Dead Sea…a body of water where nothing can live. In that sea, there are no fish and no plant life. The fresh water that once flowed down the Jordan turns from something that is life sustaining to water that if it is swallowed in large quantities could also lead to death.
What happened with the Ark entered into the Jordan? The natural flow towards death stopped. What’s more, they welled up at a region called “Adam”, which in Hebrew means “Mankind”. Having been given new life in the waters of baptism, our lives echo the flow of the river in the Scripture. Mankind ceases to flow towards death and changes its course towards eternal life.
Dear ones, what have we done with this gift of Life that our Lord gives us at Holy Theophany? What have we done with our baptism…with the very direction of our Lives that is meant to move towards Life, but instead so often finds itself being swept away with the world towards death.
In the Gospel today, in what are our Lord’s first instructions to us, he says: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand.” We are reminded that the word repentance doesn’t mean “feel sorry”. Christ isn’t telling us: “Feel bad for what you have done, because the Kingdom is here.” Rather, he says: “Metanoiate”…Change the flow of your life.
St. Isaac the Syrian reminds us: “This life has been given to us for repentance; do not waste it in vain pursuits”. This is a “new years resolution” that should be at the forefront of everything that we do dear ones. When we wake up in the morning: “What can I do to walk towards you today O Lord?” When we are in the middle of the day: “What sins, internally or externally, have stopped me from walking towards Life so far today?” When we lay our heads on our pillows tonight: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me for all of the ways I failed to repent today.”
The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. Let us begin our journey within it with a heart that is full of repentance.