The Theophany of the Lord: Homily 1: History of the Feast and Its Moral and Dogmatic Lessons (Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko)

1. The Feasts of the Lord

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko 

III. The Theophany of the Lord

Homily No. 1: Setting Forth the History of the Feast of the Lord’s Theophany, with Moral and Dogmatic Lessons

I. Now Jesus Christ, having according to His human nature reached the age of thirty years (Luke 3:23), came to the River Jordan — where Saint John the Forerunner was preaching repentance, preparing the Jews to receive the promised Redeemer — and received baptism from John in the waters of the Jordan.

And when Jesus, having been baptized, came up out of the water, the heavens were opened to Him, and John saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest upon Him. And behold, a voice from heaven, saying: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:15–17).

II. a) By His baptism — that is, His immersion in the waters of the Jordan — Jesus Christ openly begins His ministry for the salvation of the human race, before the eyes of men. By His baptism He elevates John’s baptism into a saving Mystery, and by His own example establishes that all who believe in Him should be baptized and by baptism seal their vow henceforth to serve with all their strength the one God, glorified in three Persons.

b) The Holy Spirit descended from the opened heavens upon Jesus in the form of a dove, as a testimony that Jesus comes from God the Father — that He is the promised Christ, “who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33) — and as a foreshadowing that upon all who believe in Jesus Christ and, according to His command, receive baptism, He — the Holy Spirit — also descends.

c) The voice from heaven, the voice of God the Father, bore still clearer witness as to who it was that received baptism from John. God the Father proclaimed from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” God the Father testifies of Jesus Christ that He is not a prophet like the prophets of old, nor an angel, but “the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father — He has made Him known,” in whom rests His Fatherly good pleasure. Thus God the Father bears witness concerning Jesus Christ that He is the true God, that all people must believe in Him, love Him as the beloved Son of God, follow His teaching, and place all their hope in Him; for in Him is the good pleasure of the Heavenly Father, and no one can come to the Father except through Jesus Christ (John 14:6).

d) Jesus Christ had not yet begun His preaching, and yet during His baptism in the Jordan the most exalted mystery of the Holy Trinity is solemnly revealed: God the Son, in human nature, receives baptism; God the Holy Spirit descends upon the Son in the form of a dove; God the Father bears witness to His beloved Son. Thus the most exalted mystery of the Holy Trinity — the foundation of our faith and hope — was wondrously revealed to mankind at the baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan.

III. Brethren! Thus this present great feast reminds us of the great works of God upon the earth — the baptism of the Son of God in the waters of the Jordan, the descent of the Spirit of God upon Him, and the testimony of the Heavenly Father concerning Him.

The Feast of Theophany reminds us also of the great benefactions of God received by each of us. Following the example and command of Christ the Savior, we too were baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, which deigned to be manifested at the Jordan on the day of the Lord’s Baptism. In the Mystery of Baptism, the Spirit of God invisibly overshadowed us as well and rebirthed us into a life of grace. In this great Mystery we too were granted the great right to be children of God, by the grace of the Lord Savior, as the evangelist of Christ teaches: “But as many as received Him (Christ, the Son of God), to them He gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12).

Remembering our baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity, we must also recall what vows we made then before God and the Holy Church. Having renounced the devil and all his works, we promised throughout all the days of our life to serve with all our strength the one God, worshiped in three Persons, and always to fulfill His holy will, which Jesus Christ revealed to us in the Gospel and His Holy Apostles in their Epistles.

The Lord Savior said: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work” (John 4:34). So also for us the fulfillment of God’s will — the keeping of Christ’s commandments — is our true and necessary food, which nourishes our immortal soul, strengthens it in a pious and virtuous life, prepares it for eternal life in the heavenly dwellings, and even on earth grants it true rest as a pledge of eternal blessedness, according to the word of the Lord Savior: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Amen.

(Compiled from the Sermons of Eusebius, Archbishop of Mogilev, vol. II, ed. 1870.)

Appendix to Homily No. 1

Dogmatic and Moral Thoughts Taken From the Service of the Feast of the Lord’s Theophany

1) “Thus says the Lord to John: Prophet, come, baptize Me who created you and illumine you by grace, and do not doubt. Leave the rest for now, for I have come to fulfill all righteousness” (Sticheron at the Sixth Hour).

The Lord Jesus Christ, having clothed Himself in human nature and “appearing in form as a man,” in all things like us sinners except for sin — innate in us from our mother’s womb — had no need to wash away this sin in the waters of baptism. Yet it was necessary for the Lord, as the Founder of our faith, to fulfill all righteousness on earth; and by receiving baptism from John in the waters of the Jordan, He establishes by His example the Holy Mystery of Baptism and sanctifies by it all who enter the community of believers. Later, in His conversation with Nicodemos, He commands: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Baptism is the door by which we enter the Church of God, founded by Jesus Christ on earth.

2) Illumined by the light of Baptism, "walk as children of light" — “testing what is acceptable to the Lord,” teaches the Apostle Paul (Eph. 5:10). Those being baptized, as they are immersed in the waters, bury there their old man and come out of the water for a new spiritual life. “All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life. You also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts” (Rom. 6:3–4, 11–12). It is necessary for us to put off the old man with its former manner of life, and to be renewed in the spirit of our mind, “and to put on the new man, created according to God, in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph. 4:23–24).

3) “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4:30), that is, the day of Baptism. After Baptism, believers received the gifts of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of the Apostles’ hands. The laying on of hands is now replaced by the Holy Mystery of Chrismation, by which we are sealed immediately after Baptism and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit — whom we must not grieve by corrupt thoughts and deeds.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.