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The Baptism of Christ During the 4th century B.C., the conquests of Alexander the Great brought the Hellenistic world into existence. Many Jews resisted the new culture, especially the forced religious syncretism—the mixing of Greek gods into Jewish monotheism. In the 2nd century B.C., this resistance resulted in massacres and the desecration of the Temple, and sparked the Maccabean Revolt. Judea won independence for a time, but came under Roman rule in 63 B.C. During these years of struggle, the Jews began to look afresh at Torah, while others pursued philosophy, mystery cults, astrology, and more, searching for transformation and a way to the divine. In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea. John was the last “Old Testament” prophet, the messenger whom Isaiah prophesied would come to prepare the way of the Lord. He was miraculously born to old Zacharias and Elizabeth (a cousin of Jesus’ mother, Mary). As an adult, he retreated to a life in the desert, living on locusts and wild honey. About A.D. 28 he began preaching repentance for the forgiveness of sins, and baptizing penitents, prompting some to identify him as Elijah, or possibly the messiah himself. John explained that he was only the herald of a greater One who was to come. When Jesus came to the Jordan to be baptized, John proclaimed him to be the awaited One, the Lamb of God who would redeem the world, and baptize not with water, but with the Holy Spirit and fire. When Jesus came out of the water, the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Soon afterward John was imprisoned and beheaded without a trial, but his work was complete—Christ had been revealed and his mission had begun. This scene in the central, and largest, of the stained glass windows portrays “the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ,” and is the introduction from which the rest of the Story unfolds. Its location behind the baptismal font at the entrance to the nave gives physical expression to the truth that we enter the Church and become members of the Christian family through the sacrament of baptism—the introduction from which our own stories as believers unfold.
Like Stars Appearing: The Story of the Stained Glass
Windows of St. George's Episcopal Church, Dayton, Ohio | |||
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