An Open Heaven

During the holidays, a wonderful thing happened at a local eatery.  At breakfast a couple paid their bill.  They also paid the bill for the next couple that had sat next to them.  The couple who came next to pay their bill were told of the anonymous benefactor who had paid their bill.  They reciprocated by happily paying for the next diner’s bill.  The gesture generated a chain reaction.  For the next five hours, dozens of customers were told that their bill had been paid and were wished a Happy Holiday.  They in turn were glad to pay for the next diner’s bill.  This generosity couldn’t be sustained and it eventually ended. Soon the local eatery returned to serving diners and people went about their business as usual.

With the Baptism of our Lord (Luke 3:15-22), a similar event of “paying it forward” or having one’s bill paid for, occurred.  This Epiphany “manifestation” of our Lord’s grace and mercy placed Jesus – the Almighty God, incarnate, in the midst of sinners, though He Himself was sinless, shoulder to shoulder immersed in the sins of the world and placed upon Him – in order that He might now become the very “lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29), as John the Baptist pointed out to his followers earlier.  These in turn came to Jesus and would become His disciples.

What is remarkable is that before this, heaven was closed.  Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden following their disobedience.  God’s promise of a Savior, the offspring of the woman (Genesis 3:15), was all that remained for hopeful mankind.  God’s promise to Abraham and his descendants of God’s blessings remained a covenant promise, but years passed where captive Israel languished and God’s people succumbed to Assyrian and Babylonian captivity, eventually languishing under Roman domination and exploitation.

The Law still required obedience, sacrifices continued to be performed, and many waiting for the consolation of Israel and the fulfillment of God’s promise of deliverance.  And then the herald John came preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins, awaiting the coming mightier one (Mark 1:4). People were in expectation, wondering if John were the One himself.  But he denied these rumors, ever pointing to the mightier One who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16).

And when John’s ministry ended with imprisonment (Luke 3:19-20), Jesus’ ministry began with His baptism.  The Scripture declared that following His baptism, while He was praying, “the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, ‘You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased” (Luke 3:21c-22). 

Jesus now “pays our bill” by submitting to “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4).  He didn’t need to but He was baptized in our stead, on our account, as our substitute, “paying it forward,” charging our debt to His account.  Since we could never afford such a debt, Jesus payed it forward by His innocent suffering and death on the cross and His triumph over the grave in His resurrection.  The closed heaven was not open because of His gracious goodness, His submission to the Father’s will, to be our Substitute, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). 

St. Paul, who received such a “bill paid” on that Damascus Road, gushed with joy at God’s generosity that would just keep giving, when he wrote, “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21).  An open heaven is God’s gift to all who turn to Him, trusting that for Jesus’ sake, their “debt is paid” and that in Baptism we are grafted into Christ and made members of His body, the Church.  Happy New Year!