The preparation for the ministry

Thirty years of hidden life come to an end when John appears in the wilderness. Before Christ begins to teach, a man is sent to prepare his way, to baptise him in the Jordan and to point him out to Israel. Then come the trial in the desert, the first testimony, the first disciples and the first sign. Everything here prepares and inaugurates.

A voice in the wilderness

John preaches in the wilderness of Judea, clothed in camel’s hair, feeding on locusts and wild honey. He calls to conversion, for the kingdom of heaven is near. Questioned about himself, he refuses every title and acknowledges only a function: “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord.” John 1:23. He is the last of the prophets, the one who points with his finger to what the others had announced from afar.

The baptism of repentance

The crowds go down to the Jordan and receive from John a baptism of water, confessing their sins. This baptism does not yet take away sin: it disposes them for the coming of the one who will take it away. John himself marks the distance between his gesture and the gift to come: “I baptise you with water; he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Matthew 3:11. He counts himself unworthy to untie the strap of his sandals.

The baptism of Jesus

Jesus too comes to the Jordan to be baptised. John refuses, judging himself the lesser of the two, but Jesus compels him: “Let it be so for now, for it is fitting that we should thus fulfil all righteousness.” Matthew 3:15. The one who has no sin enters the water of sinners and sanctifies it. As he comes up, the heavens open.

“He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And behold, a voice from heaven said: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:16-17

The three Persons appear together: the Father who speaks, the Son in the water, the Spirit who descends. The baptism of Christ opens the revelation of the Trinity at the threshold of his public life.

The temptations in the desert

The Spirit himself leads Jesus into the desert, where he fasts forty days and forty nights before facing the tempter. At the threshold of his mission, the new Adam enters into combat with the enemy. The trial exercises his obedience: tempted in all things as man is, he remains without sin, and this obedience, which he will carry to the Cross, makes him the spotless victim whose offering is accepted. Having himself known the trial, he will be able to help those who are tempted. The tempter attacks him on three grounds. To hunger, he offers the changing of stones into bread; Jesus answers with a word drawn from Deuteronomy: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Matthew 4:4. On the pinnacle of the Temple, Satan urges him to throw himself down and invokes Scripture in his turn, the psalm that promises the just the guard of the angels (Psalm 91:11-12), making a promise of God into a snare; Jesus answers that one does not put the Lord to the test. Before all the kingdoms offered at the price of an act of worship, he drives him away: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.” Matthew 4:10. Where the first man had given way, the new Adam holds firm; where Israel had murmured in the desert, the Son remains faithful.

Behold the Lamb of God

Back near the Jordan, John sees Jesus coming toward him and at last points him out openly: “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29. The word gathers together two figures: the lamb slain at the Passover, whose blood turned death away from Israel, and the Servant announced by Isaiah, who bears the sins of the multitude (Isaiah 53:12). John testifies that he has seen the Spirit rest upon him and bears witness that he is the Son of God.

The first disciples

The next day, two of John’s disciples follow Jesus on his word. To their question he answers: “Come and see.” John 1:39. Andrew, one of the two, goes to find his brother Simon and brings him to Jesus, who looks at him and announces the name he will bear: “You are Simon, son of John; you shall be called Cephas.” John 1:42.

The following day, Jesus calls Philip, who finds Nathanael and tells him they have met the one of whom Moses and the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth. Nathanael objects: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” John 1:46. Philip answers simply: “Come and see.”

Jesus sees Nathanael approaching: “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile.” John 1:47. Nathanael asks how he knows him; Jesus answers: “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” John 1:48. Nathanael recognizes in this a more-than-human knowledge and confesses: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.” John 1:49.

Jesus replies: “Because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree, you believe? You will see greater things. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” John 1:50-51.

These words take up a narrative from Genesis. Generations earlier, the patriarch Jacob had fallen asleep in the course of a journey. He saw in a dream a ladder set up from the earth to heaven, on which the angels of God were ascending and descending, and the Lord stood at the top. On waking, he recognized the presence of God in that place: “This is the house of God, this is the gate of heaven.” Genesis 28:17. That ladder joined the earth to heaven, and through it passed all communication between God and men.

In saying that the angels ascend and descend on the Son of Man, Jesus puts himself in the place of the ladder: he is himself the link between heaven and earth. God and man are united in his person, and it is through him that heaven opens to men and men reach God. What Jacob had glimpsed in a dream, the disciples will see accomplished in Christ.

The wedding at Cana

Three days later, Jesus, his mother and his disciples are invited to a wedding at Cana in Galilee. The wine runs short, and Mary points it out to her son: “They have no wine.” John 2:3. He answers that his hour has not yet come, but she turns to the servants with entire confidence: “Do whatever he tells you.” John 2:5. Six stone jars for the purifications stand there, each holding two or three measures (about 80 to 120 litres). Jesus has them filled with water, and the water drawn out is found to have become wine, better than the first. John names the meaning of the episode.

“This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee; he manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.” John 2:11

The first sign saves the joy of a wedding. Through his mother’s intercession, Christ gives in abundance a new wine, an image of the new Covenant he comes to open.