The Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ: An Anglican Perspective

The First Sunday of Epiphany

The First Sunday of Epiphany occupies a distinctive place in the Anglican liturgical year. It is not a Principal Feast and not a Red-Letter Holy Day. It is the Sunday that always opens the Season of Epiphany, and it has a name: the Baptism of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The BCP 2019 appoints a collect on page 601 and lectionary readings on page 719 for this Sunday, giving it a theological emphasis so concentrated and so important to the Church’s self-understanding that it stands apart from every other Sunday in the season.

The Baptism of Our Lord is the Sunday of the Trinitarian declaration. At the Jordan, the Father speaks, the Son stands in the water, and the Spirit descends as a dove. All three persons of the Trinity are present and active in a single moment — a moment that is simultaneously the public commissioning of Jesus for his ministry, the fulfillment of the prophetic Servant Songs of Isaiah, and the ground of the Church’s own baptism into Christ. The Season of Epiphany is the season of manifestation, and the Baptism of Our Lord is its opening declaration: this is who he is, this is what he has come to do, and this is what it means for all who follow him into the water.

The Biblical Event

The Gospel reading for Year A is Matthew 3:13–17, the fullest account of the baptism. John is baptizing in the Jordan and protests when Jesus comes to him: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” (Matthew 3:14, ESV) Jesus’ response is precise: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15, ESV) Jesus is not being baptized because he needs forgiveness. He is being baptized to fulfill all righteousness — to identify completely with the humanity he has assumed, to take his place among the sinners for whom he has come, to consecrate the water with his presence so that his people may be baptized into him. He enters the Jordan as the second Adam entering the waters of creation — and, as the Fathers observed, thereby sanctifying those waters for all who would be baptized into him. Gregory of Nyssa and Cyril of Jerusalem both speak of Christ’s descent into the Jordan as the moment the waters of baptism were consecrated for the Church’s use: the water he entered became the water that gives life.

What follows is the Trinitarian declaration: “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.’” (Matthew 3:16–17, ESV) The heavens are opened — the same heavens that closed at the fall, the barrier between God and his creation, now torn open. The Spirit descends. The Father speaks. And what the Father says is the sentence that the entire Epiphany season will spend its Sundays unpacking: this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Everything that follows in Jesus’ ministry is the demonstration of what this declaration means.

Year B appoints Mark 1:7–11, the most compressed account — Mark’s characteristic urgency pressing immediately from John’s preaching to the descent of the Spirit. Year C appoints Luke 3:15–22, where Luke frames the moment within the people’s expectation: the crowds are wondering whether John might be the Christ, and John corrects them — the one who is coming is mightier than he, will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire — and then the baptism itself unfolds. In Luke’s account Jesus is praying when the heavens open and the Spirit descends in bodily form like a dove. Prayer and the opened heavens: Luke’s portrait of the baptism is the portrait of the one who lives in constant communion with the Father, and whose communion is now declared publicly for all who have ears to hear.

The Theological Significance

Isaiah 42:1–9, the appointed Old Testament reading across all three years of the lectionary, is the First Servant Song — and it is the direct prophetic source of the Father’s words at the Jordan: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.” (Isaiah 42:1, ESV) The Father’s voice at the baptism — “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” — is the fulfillment of this verse. Chosen, delighted in, Spirit-anointed: every word the Father speaks at the Jordan is a word Isaiah placed on the Servant. The one standing in the Jordan is the Servant Isaiah saw, and the Spirit descending on him is the Spirit Isaiah promised. The baptism is not an isolated event but the fulfillment of the prophetic arc of the Old Testament.

Psalm 89:1–29, the appointed psalm across all three years, is the great Davidic covenant psalm: “I have found David, my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him, so that my hand shall be established with him; my arm also shall strengthen him.” (Psalm 89:20–21, ESV) The baptism of Jesus is his anointing — the Spirit descending on him is the oil of consecration, the public commissioning of the Davidic King. The word Christ means anointed one, and the baptism is the moment the anointing is publicly enacted. What David’s anointing by Samuel foreshadowed, the Spirit’s descent at the Jordan fulfills.

Acts 10:34–38, the appointed Epistle across all three years, is Peter’s speech to Cornelius in Caesarea — the first Gentile household to receive the Gospel. Peter summarizes the Gospel story by beginning at the baptism: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” (Acts 10:38, ESV) The baptism is the beginning of the Gospel. Everything Jesus does — every healing, every teaching, every confrontation with the powers of darkness — flows from this anointing. Peter does not begin his summary with the Incarnation or with the Sermon on the Mount. He begins at the Jordan, because the Jordan is where the public ministry begins and where the prophetic promises are publicly enacted. The Baptism of Our Lord is the first chapter of the Gospel Peter preaches.

The three appointed readings — Isaiah, Psalm 89, Acts 10 — are the same in all three years precisely because their theological testimony is too foundational to vary. The baptism is the Servant’s commissioning, the King’s anointing, and the Gospel’s beginning. The lectionary does not rotate these readings across years. It plants them firmly in place and calls the Church to return to them annually.

The Baptism of Christ and the Baptism of the Church

The Baptism of Our Lord is not only the story of what happened to Jesus at the Jordan. It is the story of what baptism means for every Christian. The collect makes this connection its very center: the Father who revealed Jesus to be his Son at the Jordan is the Father who, through water and the Spirit, makes the baptized his adopted children. The Spirit who descended on Jesus at his baptism is the Spirit who descends in Christian baptism. The water that Jesus entered is the water into which the baptized are immersed.

Romans 6:3–4, though not the appointed Epistle for this Sunday, articulates the connection that the collect presupposes: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:3–4, ESV) Christ’s baptism and Christian baptism are not two separate events that happen to use the same water. They are part of a single story. He went into the water to fulfill all righteousness on behalf of those who cannot fulfill it themselves. They go into the water and are united to him — to his death, his resurrection, and his Spirit-anointed life.

This is why the Baptism of Our Lord Sunday is a natural occasion for the renewal of baptismal vows in the congregation. Many Anglican parishes observe this practice, inviting the baptized to stand and reaffirm the promises made at their baptism while the minister sprinkles the congregation with water as a reminder. The renewal is not a re-baptism. It is a remembering — a returning to the Jordan, to the moment the Father’s voice declared sonship and the Spirit descended, and a fresh reception of the identity the baptism conferred.

The BCP 2019 Collect and Preface

The BCP 2019 appoints the following collect for the First Sunday of Epiphany on page 601: “Eternal Father, at the baptism of Jesus you revealed him to be your Son, and your Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove: Grant that we, who are born again by water and the Spirit, may be faithful as your adopted children; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” The collect addresses God as Eternal Father — not merely Father in a general sense, but the Father whose eternal fatherhood was declared at the Jordan. The petition holds the baptism of Jesus and the baptism of the believer in a single movement: at the baptism of Jesus you revealed him to be your Son, so grant that we who are born again by water and the Spirit may be faithful as your adopted children. The Son by nature and the children by adoption share the same Father, the same Spirit, and the same water. The collect asks not that we would have a mystical experience of this truth but that we would be faithful — that the life the adoption confers would be lived accordingly.

The Preface of the Epiphany, found on page 153 of the BCP 2019, is used at the Eucharist on this Sunday as throughout the Epiphany season: “Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who took on our mortal flesh to reveal his glory; that he might bring us out of darkness and into his own glorious light.” (BCP 2019, p. 153) The preface on the Baptism of Our Lord Sunday speaks with particular precision: the one who took on mortal flesh to reveal his glory stood in mortal water to reveal who he was. The glory that the Incarnation concealed is the glory the baptism began to disclose. The darkness from which he came to bring us is the darkness that the Father’s voice at the Jordan began to dispel.

The Baptism of Our Lord in Anglican Worship

The Baptism of Our Lord has long been observed as the First Sunday of Epiphany in many Anglican provinces. The specific collect, title, and fixed lectionary structure it carries in the BCP 2019 reflect the form the day has taken in the current Anglican calendar. White vestments are worn on this Sunday, appropriate to its festal character as a Sunday of divine declaration. The day stands at the hinge between the Christmas and Epiphany seasons: the Incarnation announced at Christmas and the Magi’s arrival on Epiphany are now given their Trinitarian interpretation. The one born of the Virgin Mary and worshiped by the nations is the Son whom the Father declares and the Spirit anoints at the Jordan.

The Baptism of Our Lord is one of the traditional days appointed for the administration of Holy Baptism, alongside Easter Vigil, Pentecost, and All Saints’ Day — a tradition the BCP 2019 continues. Scheduling baptisms on this Sunday connects the individual’s baptism to the baptism of Christ in the most direct way the liturgical calendar allows: the candidate enters the same water, by the same Spirit, as the one whose baptism the day commemorates. Thus the baptism of the believer is visibly united to the baptism of the Lord. The Baptism Sunday provides one of the most natural opportunities in the Anglican year for teaching on the theology of baptism. The connection the collect draws between Christ’s baptism and Christian baptism — the Spirit descending on Jesus, the believer born again by water and the Spirit — is the pastoral and doctrinal heart of the day. Parishes may incorporate the renewal of baptismal vows, a baptism if one is scheduled, or simply a sustained engagement with the baptismal covenant in the sermon and prayers. In any case, the Sunday calls the congregation to remember who they are: adopted children of the Eternal Father, anointed with the same Spirit who descended at the Jordan, commissioned by the same voice that declared the Son’s identity.

Observing This Sunday

The Baptism of Our Lord always falls on the First Sunday of Epiphany. When the Epiphany falls on a Sunday, the following Sunday is the First Sunday of Epiphany. The collect is on page 601 of the BCP 2019 and the lectionary readings are on page 719.

To observe this Sunday: pray the collect from BCP 2019, p. 601, and let the movement it describes shape the day — from the Father’s declaration at the Jordan to the petition for faithfulness as adopted children. Read Isaiah 42:1–9 and hear the Servant Song that the Father’s words at the Jordan fulfill: behold my servant, in whom my soul delights. Read Acts 10:34–38 and hear Peter begin the Gospel at the Jordan: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Read the Gospel for the year and sit with the opened heavens, the descending Spirit, and the Father’s voice.

If your parish renews baptismal vows on this Sunday, receive the renewal as the collect invites: not as a performance of recommitment but as a return to the water, to the Spirit, to the identity conferred in baptism. You are an adopted child of the Eternal Father. The Spirit who descended at the Jordan descended in your baptism. The same voice that declared the Son’s identity is the voice that calls you his child. The Baptism of Our Lord is the Sunday the Church is invited to remember what its own baptism means.

Conclusion

The Baptism of Our Lord is the Sunday on which the Epiphany season opens its theological hand and shows what it is holding. The child in the manger, the star that guided the Magi, the voice that said “and his glory will be seen upon you” — all of it converges at the Jordan, where the heavens open and the Father speaks and the Spirit descends and the whole of the season’s question is answered before the season has properly begun: this is my beloved Son. The Church that hears that declaration and is born again by water and the Spirit is the Church that can spend the rest of the Epiphany season learning what it means — and can arrive at Lent, finally, as adopted children who know whose they are.

“Eternal Father, at the baptism of Jesus you revealed him to be your Son, and your Holy Spirit descended upon him like a dove: Grant that we, who are born again by water and the Spirit, may be faithful as your adopted children.” (BCP 2019, p. 601)