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Today’s edition focuses on the Baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist. This is only recorded direct episode of Jesus interacting with John the Baptist. To give you some context, John was inviting people to the Jordan River for a spiritual cleansing. This spiritual cleansing has been referred to as Baptism. John the Baptist was not the first to use this model of using water to wash away sin. There are many examples in Scripture of special rituals used to described spiritual washing. Two examples from the Hebrew Testament are Ezekiel 36:25 “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness.” From Isaiah 1:16 we have “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes.” From the New Testament we have Hebrews 10:22, “Our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” There are others but you get the point. This raises the question, why did Jesus request a spiritual practise that was used to wash away sin when Jesus did not sin?

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This Gospel speaks about the days after the birth of Jesus. What should have been a joyous event has a very dark layer behind it. In this account we have the Magi coming to acknowledge the birth of a king. On this note I encourage my listeners to check out the editions of this podcast published on December 29, 2024, and December 30, 2023, where I speak about the Wisemen and the role they played. The wisemen were looking for the infant who would be king of the Jews. Even though the Star that was guiding them was according to tradition, a testimony that something very special was happening, there is no indication that they actually thought or knew that they were some of the first witnesses to recognize the birth of the Messiah.

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In today’s Gospel we hear of another dream that Joesph had. If you are joining us for the first time, I urge you to listen to last weeks podcast edition where I speak about the dreams that Joseph had. I also recommend that you listen to the December 17th edition published in 2023 where I speak about Joseph’s mission. Today I want to speak about the dream that Joseph has. In the dream Joseph is warned to flee to Egypt as the king was plotting to kill the child. I want to draw your attention to fact that the angel directed Joseph to take the child to Egypt. We never learn where in Egypt or how long they would live in Egypt. I cannot help but wonder why Egypt? There were many other countries or places Joesph could have been directed to go. Don’t forget that the Jews had experienced slavery in Egypt. The book of Exodus, one of the books in the Torah is devoted to the Jews gaining their freedom and embarking on reclaiming the promised land. Passover is one of the most widely observed and venerated Jewish holidays, embodying themes of freedom, faith, and community remembrance that are central to Jewish life and spirituality. Yet, Egypt is the country chosen to protect the Messiah.

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