Baptism Sunday I Bob Reid

On Baptism Sunday churches all over the world celebrate Jesus' baptism. When Jesus comes for baptism, John the Baptist is shocked. He thinks that Jesus should be the one baptizing him. John's is a baptism where people are coming to confess their sins. Jesus is the lamb of God without sin. But Jesus will go into the water along with the mass of broken humanity not because he needs to but because of his oneness with us. In this way, the baptism of Jesus is a continuation of the incarnation: God with us all the way to the bottom of what it means to be a frail human being. In the homily we hear this theme of Jesus's solidarity with us and about how we are implicated in Jesus' baptism. It is all good news, from start to finish.