Did Jesus need to be baptized?
The answer is obvious.
As God, no; but as the Son of Man, He ensured He did so symbolically.
It was to show us the way in order for us to understand we, as members of the fallen human race, need to be cleansed from Original Sin (Romans 5:19).
“Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God,” Jesus firmly states in John 3:5.
But when St. John the Baptist was approached by the Lord to be baptized according to the Will of God, St. John, at first, objected:
“It is I who ought to be baptized by Thee, and dost Thou come to me?” Matthew 3:14.
But Jesus insisted, so that He and His cousin might “fulfill all justice” Matthew 3:15.
In reality, St. John knew, in his heart of hearts, from the moment he first heard the sound of Mary’s voice (Luke 1:41) when he was still in his mother’s womb that Jesus was greater than he.
John knew this and waited until his adult life for that time when he would again meet up with and recognize his omnipotent cousin.
“I indeed baptize you with water. But One mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire” Luke 3:16.
And so where is Mary in all this?
Was She not, as our protest-ant cousins love to ask, “born again”?
After all, nowhere in the Scriptures do we read of Mary being baptized.
Not by Jesus. Not by John. Not by the disciples.
And if She wasn’t baptized, the Lord specifically states you cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Oh, we know She’s in Heaven, so She must have been baptized by one of them, you say, only it’s just not recorded.
Isn’t this interesting? When it comes to our protest-ant cousins, unless something is recorded in Scripture, they will not believe it.
Indeed, since Mary is such a central Person in the life of Jesus and followed Him everywhere He went, one would think such an important event as the baptism of Jesus’ Mother would have been recorded by one of the Gospel writers.
But it isn’t.
So what’s the answer.
We can take the easy way out and say, of course, She was baptized but it’s just not recorded like so many other true facts that just did not make it into the Scriptures.
We believe that answer is wrong.
We believe there is another, far more important answer.
An answer that we bet most protest-ants will not accept.
The answer?
Mary did NOT need to be baptized because She was conceived without sin!
That is why John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb — not at the sound of Jesus’ voice, but at the sound of Mary’s.
He knew, again, in his heart of hearts, that he was hearing from the voice of the first one in the entire history of the world who did not have the stain of Original Sin in them.
For Mary is the Immaculate Conception.
How?
Easy.
There is One who can “baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”
And when Mary was conceived in her parents’ womb, during the course of what otherwise was a natural conception, God, in His Infinite Power, Majesty and Might, in need of this Woman to be the New Ark of His Covenant, baptized Her with the Power of the Holy Ghost and did not allow the stain of Original Sin to enter into Her.
Unlike Her Son, who needed to “fulfill all justice,” Mary did not need to be baptized because She was already “full of grace” (Luke 1:28) when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Her to infuse the Incarnate Word within Her Immaculate Womb.
It is a Gift only one human being can lay claim to; for Jesus, who also did not have the stain of Original Sin in Him is not just human, but True God and True Man.
This Gift is a Gift that Mary herself acknowledges among the many She was granted as the Mother of Christ — for She, as His Mother, is the only One worthy of these gifts.
It is an acknowledgement from the only Woman who can state that the Power of the Most High overshadowed Her, for “He who is mighty has done great things to me” Luke 1:49.
“Great things” such as being “full of grace” from the moment of Her conception:
the “secret” baptism of Mary!
© 2003 Agnus Dei Presents!
