As at Christmas and at the feast of the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord, so also at Theophany, we see that His way is one: the downward way which the Holy Virgin walked when, through her surrendering to the will of God, she brought the Creator into the world.
The Forerunner placed himself at the feet of the Lord though he was the greatest in Israel, and for this reason the Lord proclaimed him the greatest among them that are born of women. The law of humility works in John with power: he humbles himself saying that he is unworthy to stoop down and unloose the latchets of the Master’s shoes, but God raises him up to such a height, that the Creator Himself stoops down before him in order to be baptised.
In the Mother of God, the Forerunner, the Prophets, the Apostles, the Holy Fathers and all the Saints, we always see prefigured the way of the Lord, the way downwards, which brings the Creator among us and works His salvation in our life. This is the way described by Isaiah: ‘The desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose… for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water… And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean [the proud] shall not pass over it… but the redeemed and the ransomed of the Lord shall walk there’ (Cf. Isa. 35:1-10).
From the moment that the Lord appeared on earth the angels declare: ‘And this shall be a sign unto you.’ So now, once again, this is the sign: the humility of the Forerunner and the utter humility of the Lord, Who is baptised in the Jordan, the lowest geographical point of all the earth.
This downward way is humble and attracts grace which grants us also the true baptism ‘with the Holy Ghost and with fire’ (Matt. 3:11). Z.
