WILDERNESS AND BAPTISM

by Bruno Barnhart, OSB Cam

A.WILDERNESS

Our first gospel narrative, that of Mark, begins in the wilderness of Judea where John is baptizing. The first word of Mark's gospel, 'arche' (Greek for 'beginning'; see also Jn 1:1 and 1 Jn 1:1) recalls the beginning that was the creation, in the first chapter of Genesis. To the 'chaos;' of Genesis 1:2 corresponds the desert of that exodus from Egypt which was the birth of Israel, as well as the wilderness in which the gospel story begins.

1. Mk 1:1-6

The biblical wilderness has many other associations. Jesus, like Israel, will be tried in the desert. He will return to the solitude of the wilderness to commune with his Father. This will also be the place of epiphanies: of Jesus' feeding of the multitudes and of his transfiguration.

B. THE BAPTISM OF JESUS AND CHRISTIAN INITIATION

Wilderness is the place of that beginning which is spiritual initiation: baptism, which will come to be understood as a new creation. Called 'illumination' (Greek photismos) by early Christians, baptism will be associated with the creation of light in the 'beginning' of Genesis. Jesus' baptism by John in the desert recalls the initiation of Moses at the burning bush. Details of Mark's narrative recall Abraham and Isaac, his 'beloved son' and Jacob's experience of the opening of the heavens at Bethel: his vision of the ladder with angels ascending and descending, his recognition of the 'house of God' and the 'gate of heaven'. Basic events, stories and scenes from the Hebrew scriptures rush together into this moment of the initiation of Jesus, a central point at which heavens and earth, past and future are gathered.

2. Mk 1:7-11

3. Genesis 1:1

4. Gen 22:2

5. Gen 28:10-22

6. Exodus 3:1-17

In the light of this event of Jesus' baptism, we are to read Mark's narrative. Mark's gospel was probably written to be read from beginning to end at the Easter vigil liturgy in the early church: a liturgy which would be centered in the baptism of the catechumens.

7. Mk 16:1-8

In its original conclusion, Mark's gospel ends with a very strange anticlimax. The women, frightened, will go away and say nothing of what they have seen at the site of Jesus' burial! The women's silence, the obscurity of this empty tomb, the inadequate apparition of this young man in white clothing - all is suddenly flooded with light when we realize that Mark's ending is intended to correspond to his beginning, and that the climax of his gospel (entitled 'the beginning of the good news...') is the dawning of the divine light in the baptismal event - that is, the luminous climax of the good news in in ourselves. The young man in white corresponds to the newly baptized, emerged from the font. Jesus' baptism in the Jordan corresponds both to his death and resurrection (recall Abraham and Isaac walking toward the mountain of sacrifice) and to our baptism.

Paul proclaims that the empty tomb of Jesus corresponds to the baptismal font. This is the place of new birth!

8. Romans 6:3-6

This correspondence of Jesus' baptism with our baptism, and the implication of this connection - our baptismal 'identity' with Jesus - constitute a primary principle for our sapiential (i.e. 'wisdom') understanding of the New Testament. This is a participatory understanding. As Paul will say, what we are to understand is what we have been given; or, what we have become in Jesus Christ.

At the center of Mark's gospel is the seemingly un-markan event of Jesus' transfiguration before his three disciples upon the mountain. This narrative further illuminates the meaning of our participation in the Christ-event - which has emerged from the beginning and the ending of Mark's story.

9. Mk 9:2-10

The words from the cloud and Jesus' white clothing recall the words from heaven at his baptism and the young man in the tomb. Both point, again, towards our baptism. Jesus' transfiguration, anticipating his resurrection, is not only a manifestation of his 'divine humanity' but of ours. Divinization is at the heart of the Christ-event. In the words of the church fathers, he became what we are - human - so that we might become what he is - divine.

Peter would remain on the mountain of transfiguration, and build three tents there. But no, they must descend. What is the meaning of Jesus' words, 'until the Son of man should have risen from the dead'? The descent, as Jesus now insists, is to the cross; from the threefold vision back to earth, to humanity, to death, until this 'fourth' itself be raised up in Jesus through his death and resurrection.

John's gospel and Mark's gospel, apparently as different as dawn and twilight, are deeply related. Both are rooted, from the beginning in the 'baptismal event' - to be understood at once as Jesus' baptism and as ours. John's Prologue - the text of texts for a Christian wisdom theology - opens to a new depth and fullness when we read it in this light. The two strange appearances of John the Baptist in this quasi-musical text point to the baptismal interpretation.

10. Jn 1:1-18

The center of the Prologue can be seen as 1:12, referring to Christian baptism. Then the second half of the text, verses 13 through 18 (except v.15), can be read as referring to the baptismal experience. Jesus is 'Word' and fullness of revelation, but he is also 'light' and the illumination received in baptismal initiation, in which we understand the biblical revelation. This 'glory as of the only Son from the Father' belongs not only to Jesus but to those who 'received him, who believed in his name.' It belongs to us.

To these belongs the fullness, the grace and truth - not just the truth of the law, which Paul will see as sterile, but the truth which is one with the Spirit, which imparts the Spirit. Paul sees the baptismal event as the movement from law to Spirit, from slavery to freedom, from the tutelage of childhood to the autonomy of adulthood, from separation to union.

The 'was' which belongs to the Word in verses 1 and 2, and which the Baptist attaches to Jesus in v.15 ('for he was before me'), is related also to the 'who is' of the final verse 18. Here in the Prologue, in the context of baptism, there is already suggested an identification of the 'Name' (the I AM of Exodus 3:14 and the Septuagint Isaiah (Greek ego eimi) with Jesus, who will repeatedly declare 'I am...' in the course of John's narrative. The Name - with all that means in the biblical tradition - will be transmitted to those who are baptized into Jesus. (see Jn 17:6.11.26)

The Prologue contains, compressed within its eighteen verses, the whole of John's gospel: the mystery of divinization through baptism that will be unfolded throughout the course of the narrative.

John the Baptist had announced Jesus as the one who was to baptize not just with water but with the Holy Spirit. In his first letter, John reassures the baptized that they have within themselves a fullness of knowledge which is adequate to any need that may confront them. The 'anointing' - a word which necessarily carries baptismal resonances - is also 'what you heard from the beginning.' Gospel and initiation are experienced as a single reality within the believer. Here, as elsewhere, the Christian exprience is a 'one-pointed' experience, grounded in the awakening of a new self.

11. 1 Jn 2:20-27

The baptismal event has been treated here at the beginning of our study because it is in this 'anointing', this baptismal light, that the New Testament is to be read. Within the anointing is the understanding of the Mystery.

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