By Romanus

At Christmas, the Word of God appears in the silence of the night, alone, with only a few chosen souls present, witnesses of the Mystery, but without knowing the true nature of the Child just born. On the day of His Baptism, the Word makes Himself known to all, at the beginning of His public ministry, the fulfillment of the divine plan of salvation, confirmed by the voice of the Father and the light of the Spirit, descending upon Him in the form of a dove.

These events, although separated by thirty years, are united in the liturgy of the universal Church, East and West, in one great festive season, a common celebration of the manifestation of the Word Incarnate to men.

Until the 4th century, Christmas, the adoration of the shepherds and the Magi, all of the childhood events of Our Lord such as his circumcision and presentation into the Temple, His Baptism and His miracle at the wedding at Cana, symbol of the mystical nuptials of the Bridegroom and the Church, were celebrated in one great feast, the Epiphany, a “manifestation from on high,” the “shining forth” of God to the world in the human form of Jesus of Nazareth.

In Egypt and Cappadocia, the feast was fixed on January 6th, the winter solstice according to their astronomical calendar, celebrated by the pagans as the feast of Sol Invictus, the “Unconquered Sun.” From the 5th century, the Christian celebrations were separated: Christmas was transferred to December 25, the corrected date of the solstice in those times, while the Baptism remained on January 6. The same happened in the West, although the Epiphany became more the feast of the adoration of the Magi, while the other aspects became less central, but still to this day memorialized in the Roman liturgy:

“This day is the Church joined unto the Heavenly Bridegroom, since Christ hath washed away her sins in Jordan; the wise men hasten with gifts to the marriage supper of the King; and they that sit at meat together make merry with water turned into wine, alleluia” (Benedictus antiphon at Lauds).

In the ancient world, the term “epiphany” was used to refer to a manifestation or appearance of a divine or superhuman being, for example, when a Roman emperor made a rare visit to a far-flung province. Some deluded rulers even applied the term to themselves, as Antiochus IV Epiphanes (“god manifest”), king of Syria, who was brought back to reality by the rebellion of the Maccabees.

The Eastern Church has preferred to call the feast the Theophany, “the shining forth and manifestation of God.” The emphasis is on the appearance of Jesus as the human Messiah of Israel and the divine Son of God, One of the Holy Trinity with the Father and the Holy Spirit—and all these mysteries were visibly manifested on the occasion of Christ’s Baptism.

Thus, in the baptism by St. John in the Jordan, Jesus identifies Himself with sinners. He appears almost naked, as deprived of dignity, made brother of those who require the remission of their sins. He assumes our sins and submits to the Law, a submission that will be completed by the gift of His life on the Cross for our salvation. It is not only a gesture of infinite condescension, but also an act that inaugurates a new reality: the Son becomes the Messiah that rescues all men by His submission to the Law.

He manifests Himself as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn. 1:29), the “Beloved” of the Father whose messianic task it is to redeem men from their sins (Lk. 3:21, Mk. 1:35). And He is revealed as well as One of the Divine Trinity, testified to by the voice of the Father, and by the Spirit in the form of a dove—a dove that, as the one that returned to Noah’s ark, is a sign of reconciliation between God and men.

This is the central epiphany depicted in the icon, as it is described in the Gospels of St. Matthew, St. Mark and St. Luke.

“Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan, unto John, to be baptized by him. But John stayed him, saying: I ought to be baptized by thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering, said to him: Suffer it to be so now. For so it becometh us to fulfill all justice. Then he suffered him. And Jesus being baptized, forthwith came out of the water: and lo, the heavens were opened to him: and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him. And behold a voice from heaven, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt. 3:13-17).

At the top of the icon, a semicircle indicates an opening of the heavens, signifying the Father, whose voice is heard. On a ray of light, the Holy Spirit descends upon Christ in the form of a dove. Thus, the Most Holy Trinity is at once revealed.

The paradox that Jesus Christ might be revealed as God through an act of submission to a mere man, John, is shown well in the icon. Though John is baptizing Christ, it is the former who is shown bent over in reverence to the latter. In other icons, John is shown with his face turned toward heaven and beholding the miracle of the Theophany; either way, despite being the baptizer, he is not central to the scene.

Sometimes the iconographers present, near to the Forerunner of Christ, a tree with an axe laid at the root, recalling John’s sermon of repentance to those who came to him:

“For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire” (Mt. 3:10).

On the bank opposite to John the Baptist, angels incline toward Jesus, reverently holding the cloths over their hands that are a sign of touching something sacred, waiting with reverence to accept the newly revealed Son of God.

In the middle—the moment of revelation itself.

Despite being the one submerged in the Jordan, Jesus is shown as though hovering over the waters, standing up and staring straight at us. He appears almost as wide as the river Jordan itself; indeed: it is as though it is Jesus Christ, rather than the river, which cuts a swathe through the rocky wilderness on either side.

Although standing in the middle of the Jordan, the waters do not submerge Him. The prominence of Jesus’ body over the water shows that it is not Jesus being reborn, but it is actually creation being renewed. This renewal begins at the very moment when the Most Holy Trinity manifests itself to men to accomplish their redemption. God turns again towards the primeval waters, touches them by the body of the Word, purifies them and makes them an instrument of His salvation.

The waters also appear as a “flowing tomb” which surrounds Jesus on all sides, emphasizing that He was immersed as a sign of His burial, as Baptism signifies the Lord’s death, as St. Paul states:

“Buried with him in baptism, in whom also you are risen again by the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him up from the dead” (Col. 2:12).

The icon of the Theophany, as well as depicting the Holy Trinity, also answers the question of St. John the Baptist: “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” The answer is in what Jesus does with His hands. Whilst in Western art Jesus is shown as submitting to John’s authority, in the icons of the Eastern Church, Christ’s hands are not shown in prayer, but with His left hand pointing to the waters, which He is blessing with His right hand.

These details make the point that, rather than the waters of Jordan cleansing Christ, it is Christ Who cleans the waters to make of them an instrument of His sanctifying power.

This is why in the bottom of most Theophany icons, little creatures, representations of the waters of the Jordan and of the sea, appear to be fleeing from the feet of Christ. This is a reflection of the words of the Psalmist regarding the Messiah:

“When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarous people: Judea was made his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea saw and fled: Jordan was turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like the lambs of the flock. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou didst flee: and thou, O Jordan, that thou wast turned back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams, and ye hills, like lambs of the flock? At the presence of the Lord the earth was moved, at the presence of the God of Jacob: Who turned the rock into pools of water, and the stony hill into fountains of waters” (Ps. 113).

The icon of the Theophany contains a rich theological teaching. It shows us the revelation of Christ to the world: how His gesture of humility reveals His true nature, divine and human. And this first manifestation does not stop with Christ: it is the revelation of the Trinity, made explicit for the first time. Finally, this revelation of the divine life is, at the same time, a revelation of the true nature of the world to the eyes of faith.