The Lord came to the Jordan, and was baptized of John
not because he was in need of that cleansing, but so that He might fulfill all
that was attributable to human nature, which He had assumed, and to show that He
had a true body and that he truly was an actual man. He did not want to
transgress the law, and so answered: “for thus it becometh us to fulfill all
righteousness.” (Math. 3:15) It was for this reason that He entered into
the waters of Baptism. But in so doing, He gave them incomparably more
than He could receive from them, for he was in need of nothing. For with
His light He illuminated those very waters, and gave them a certain special
power by which those who believe on Him, entering the waters of Baptism, are
clothed in this power, and are illuminated by Him.
Holy
Hierarch Epiphanios of Cyprus
The waters of Baptism would never have had the ability to
cleanse human sins, had they not been blessed by the touch of the Savior’s
Body. Immersing Himself in the water, the Savior blessed the waters - the
deep, and the source of all springs.
Holy Hierarch Ambrose of Milan