The celebration of baptism of Jesus is the introduction of Jesus to his public life and ministry. His life is known and announced by Gabriel, the Angel of God, before and after his birth. So, his birth was celebrated by a choir of Angels, by the shepherds who were invited to participate to the feast by the same Angels. At the same time, other people like Simeon and Anna the prophets celebrated the coming of Jesus to life.

After the episode that tells his loss in the temple, his adolescent life is less known. Seeing these celebrations, sometimes we imagine that Jesus was baptized as infant as often we do today. No. Reality is that after all these experiences of infant Jesus, the information we have about Jesus is very limited apart from the episode in the temple when he was twelve years old. And so to invoke the baptism of Jesus is to keep in mind that Jesus was a young man who was officially introduced in public life through his baptism. This was the occasion for him to be given an identity by his Father and at the same time to give a presentation of himself and so, begin his project of life and ministry. Jesus, who was an adult and observed John performing a baptism of conversion, chose to follow the ordinary person, who was humble enough to go to John and get baptized in order to receive from God the forgiveness of sins. Jesus follows the normal process by which He will receive a baptism of conversion, even though he does not have sins. At this point, John the Baptist recognized the difficulty of baptizing him since he was not in need of it. Jesus will convince him to let the normal process take its way, saying: “Leave it like this for the time being; it is fitting that we should, in this way, do all that righteousness demands.” Righteousness for Jesus is to go through all the processes as an ordinary mortal human being. It is God who shows to humanity that the human being is made in the image of God. God is able to live as a mortal human being and to accomplish God’s will. So, the signs that accompany Jesus baptism are eloquent. Firstly, the opening of the heaven demonstrates that God is no longer faraway from men and women of this world. That is, human beings are connected with the heavens because Jesus opened them to humanity. Secondly, God’s spirit that descends upon Jesus in the form of a Dove shows us how the human being is filled with the presence of God and is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, God’s voice is asking to follow Jesus because he is God’s beloved, on whom his favour rests. And so, the first mission of a believer is to listen to Jesus. As missionaries working in a specific context as Sierra Leone, the baptism of Jesus is a reminder to all God’s workers and believers that through Jesus the Heavens are open. Every baptized person is made in the image and likeness of Jesus. As a person receives baptism, the heavens open for him, God sends his spirit to dwell upon him. The voice from Heaven is a reminder that he is now God’s beloved son in the image of Jesus. All this is a gift to those who believe in Jesus, as John (the evangelist) tells us: “But to all who did accept him he gave power to become children of God”. John 1; 12. Baptism makes us children of God in Jesus image and likeness.