First Sunday after Epiphany; The Baptism of our Lord; 9 January 2022; Epiphany 1C (RCL); Isaiah 43:1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17, 21-22.
Luke doesn’t actually narrate the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan. In fact, the verse that the Gospel reading skips over today tell us that Herod shuts John up in prison. So, narratively at least, John is in prison before Jesus is baptized! This fits with Luke’s three-fold division of history: the age of the prophets (up to and including John the Baptist); the age of Jesus; and the age of the Spirit and the Church. Luke will remove Jesus from the scene before the Spirit shows up, unlike John’s Gospel which has Jesus breathe the Spirit on the disciples.
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