Luke 3:22 “As he was praying, heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.”

There were no human dignitaries at Jesus’ baptism, unless you count John the Baptist. There were no prestigious representatives from the Temple, and none of his family so far as we know.

There were, however, a couple of prestigious guests of the highest order. They weren’t “special guests” in the sense that their presence was somehow unusual at a baptism. The truth is, they attend every baptism, including yours and mine. At this one, they simply made their presence known with an unusually public display.

First, we see the Holy Spirit. “Heaven was opened,” Luke tells us, not as though the bird had to be let out of a cage. He is reminding us, rather, that what separates heaven from earth is not some great physical distance, as though heaven is to be found on some distant planet on the far side of the universe. Heaven is always near us, but closed off, on the other side of an other-worldly visual barrier between God’s home and ours. When it suits him, he opens the door and comes through in a way we can see, as he does here.

The Holy Spirit came to anoint Jesus for his saving work. It is not as though this was their first contact, or the beginning of the Spirit’s presence in his life. You never have true faith in God without God’s Spirit being involved. Every believing child of God is a temple of the Holy Spirit, as Paul writes the Corinthians, and that would be especially true of God’s one and only Son.

In Jesus’ case, the Spirit’s anointing did two things. It officially marked the beginning of his saving ministry, like the inauguration of a president or the swearing in of a public official. In the book of Acts the Apostle Peter explained on a mission visit to a man named Cornelius, “You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached–how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power…” It is after this anointing that Jesus makes himself a public figure, and pursues the work of saving us from sin for all to see.

Our own baptisms may or may not be our first interaction with the Holy Spirit. But they likewise mark a beginning. We don’t become little saviors, but we are active members of his team and participants in his mission. At our baptisms the Holy Spirit may not be visible, but he is clearly marking us for his side in the battle for human hearts.

The other reason the Spirit came to Jesus at his baptism was power. Peter mentioned it in the words I quoted from Acts. All the gospel writers tell us it was the Spirit who led him from here to his showdown with the devil in the wilderness. After that, Luke says, Jesus returned to Galilee “in the power of the Spirit” to begin his ministry.

So Jesus, though he was already the powerful Son of God, did not go to work alone. God’s Spirit was also working in and through him all the way. And not a single baptized child of God lives or works alone since. We serve in the power of the Spirit, who comes to our baptisms and stays for our entire life of faith.