Mark 1:10 “As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.”

Jesus is the “Christ” which means “the anointed one.” You may remember that there were three jobs or “offices” that people in Old Testament times began by having oil poured over their heads: Prophet, Priest, and King. Jesus came to be the great fulfillment of all three, and his baptism is also his anointing. Now he was officially Israel’s Prophet, Israel’s Priest, and Israel’s King. The only difference is, as the Apostle Peter says in Acts 10, Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit instead of oil. He received a much higher anointing for a much higher task.

The Spirit brought with him the gift of power for his ministry. Immediately following Jesus’ baptism we hear that the Spirit led him into the wilderness to face the Devil in his temptation. Later we hear that he returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit (Luke 4). It’s not as though Jesus had never possessed the Spirit’s presence before this, but at his baptism he received a special outpouring of the Spirit’s gifts and powers for the hard work ahead of him.

While we can see the importance of all this for his work, maybe it seems a little matter of fact to us. Then let’s not forget that Jesus’ baptism was a real baptism. What the Lord gave to John and Jesus, and to us through these words, is a little glimpse into the invisible goings on of the spiritual world.

Perhaps you have read some of the novels by Christian author Frank Peretti that attempt to describe what’s going on behind the scenes in the realm of angels and demons at the same time that people are struggling through various earthly trials and challenges. Peretti paints dramatic battles between the demons and the angels as they fight to influence human behavior. While the stories make exciting fiction, the demons are portrayed with too much strength and the angels with too little relative to each other. The angels in the stories even depend on human prayers to help them.

Here, however, God makes visible for a few moments what otherwise happens behind the scenes in our baptisms. If you could see a baptism the way that God sees it, then you would see the heavens torn open as God prepares to cross the boundary that separates us from him. You would see the Spirit come rushing down from heaven and piercing the chest of that little baby or that trembling adult as he makes his home in a new heart. You would see, with your own eyes, that this is a person in whom the Spirit of God now lives.

On the outside, our baptisms may look quite plain, but here the Spirit comes bearing such wonderful gifts. God not only lives with us. He lives in us by his Spirit. It may be true that to err is human, and that nobody’s perfect, and that will remain true our entire lives. But by our baptisms we are no longer mere men and women. With the power of God’s own Spirit working within us, there is real help and real hope for a changed life. The Spirit can open up our minds to comprehend God’s word. He can open up our hearts to reflect God’s love. He has opened up our lives to carry out the meaning and purpose that God always intended for us, because in our baptisms, the Spirit came bearing his gifts.