Questions about baptism should abound this week. Why must Jesus be baptized if he is without sin? What is the larger message presented in his baptismal event? What does the baptism of Jesus mean for us as individuals—and for the collective body of Christ?

Depending upon the tradition and method, baptism has variations in significance and meaning. In its simplest form, baptism as “re-birth” into something new connotes turning away from something old. This is not in the binary sense of new/old, good/bad but rather, how is order created out of dis-order? How does God assert God’s power and presence to tame formlessness?

From Genesis 1 to Mark 1, we’ve arrived full circle. We return to the early waters over which God’s ruach (Spirit) hovers; and in one sweep, something new is created. In Genesis it is day and night. In Mark, it is the Christology of Jesus as Messiah. In Jesus’ baptism, Christ does not turn (metanoia) away from sin in repentance (teshuvah). Rather, he turns toward ministry. His baptism is the cue to order the next three years of his life—the teaching and healing that will change everything on his way to death. “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well-pleased” is a foreshadowing of the Good Friday and Easter Sunday fulfillment to come.

The image of God’s voice hovering over the Genesis creation waters and Mark’s baptismal waters resides with me and in me. On a moonlit beach walk, in my finite human brain, I see a sliver of Epiphany Light—and encounter what it may have felt like to be there to witness such majesty and mystery out of the ordinary.