Ponder and Magnify: A Rosary Podcast

S3, E2 - The Baptism of Jesus Bible Study (Matthew 3: 13-17)

• John and Jessica Helling • Season 3 • Episode 2

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The mission of the Ponder and Magnify Podcast is to seek an encounter with Jesus through praying the rosary, relying on the grace of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Mary. Join us as we dive into the First Luminous Mystery of the Rosary! In this episode, Jess, John, and Fr. Philipp discuss the account of Jesus' Baptism from Matthew 3: 13-17. Praise be to God!

Jessica:

Hello and welcome to the Ponder and Magnify podcast, where our mission is to seek an encounter with Jesus through praying the rosary, relying on the grace of the Holy Spirit and the intercession of Mary. I am so happy that you are here. Welcome everybody to our first official week in this season three, where we are focused on the first luminous mystery the Baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River. I am joined today by Father Philipp and John. Father Philip, would you open us up in prayer?

Fr. Philipp:

Sure, yeah in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Fr. Philipp:

Amen, come Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit for the hearts of thy faithful, and in kindling them the fire Spirit. Amen, come Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of thy love. Send forth thy Spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the earth. O God, who didst instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light of the Holy Spirit, grant us, in that same Spirit, to be truly wise and ever to rejoice in his consolation Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Jessica:

Amen. Thank you, Father Philip. Yeah, Johnny

John:

Rejuvenated

Jessica:

Whoa before I could even get it out.

John:

Jumping the gun. I'm feeling rejuvenated. I'm diving into the first one and it's one of the ones I said I was excited about, so I'm ready to ready to get after it. How about you, Father Philipp?

Fr. Philipp:

yeah, I guess my word of like where I'm at, I would say, uh, anticipation, I'm waiting to see what the Lord is doing and uh, yeah, anticipate, anticipatory yeah, I don't know if that's a word, but whatever

Jessica:

I think it is, and you sounded really smart when you said it.

Jessica:

Oh goodness.

Fr. Philipp:

How about you, Jess?

Jessica:

My word. I'm going with the traditional fruit of this mystery, which is openness to the Holy Spirit. that's going to be my phrase and that's something I am desiring for myself and just want to be invitational with the Holy Spirit. Just invite him into the space, invite him into my heart. Yeah, and just let him work through us. So, openness to the Holy Spirit for me. Okay, let's jump in to the Baptism here.

Jessica:

Father Philip, would you mind proclaiming our scripture for us that we chose?

Fr. Philipp:

Yeah, we're going to be reading from Matthew 3, matthew's account of the baptism. So reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew. Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me. Jesus said to him in reply Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed him. After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened for him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens saying this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.

Jessica:

All right, Johnny, after pausing and taking some time to reflect what is what's sticking out to you, what word or phrase or idea or what's sticking out to you about this passage.

John:

So there are two things I liked about it. The first one was just how relatable John is in this, outside of him having a great name, but just like the like whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Like wait a minute, I'm not worthy, like I should not be the one doing this. It needs to be vice versa. And that it was the response of allow it now for the thus is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Like it's almost like, stop right there. We're going to do this together and it's going to be awesome.

John:

And it's like sometimes I wish I just like heard that in my prayer like from Jesus, but just like how I just think that's so cool, that like just that whole interaction, um, just cause, like I said, john's so relatable to like at least for me, it's natural like feelings of like inadequacy with, of like what I am bringing to God and like, and like to just like hear in prayer like no, like this is a you and me thing and we're going to do this together. So I really like that. And then honestly, just like taking in the scene. I think you know there's so many cool things in scriptures, but if there was like a draft of like events to attend to, I feel like this would be one of them Like just to experience that.

John:

I think that would be so cool just that he is baptized and then all of this stuff happens. I think that in terms of imaginative prayers, I don't ever like place myself in scenes too much, but this is a kind of a fun one to imagine. So those are. I'm glad we picked this one. There are a lot of things I liked it.

Jessica:

I'm so happy you shared that, because I never that word us, I feel like really makes all the difference in what you're saying, like allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill righteousness. I just I've never noticed that about the passage and I I love that partnership and like how fitting for God, who constantly wants to cooperate with us, like he doesn't want to control it and we can't do it on ourselves, like it really does require like a cooperation between the two of us. So I'm thankful you shared that I also.

Jessica:

I love this idea, exactly what you're saying, the relatability of John of just feeling inadequate. And I also love when the father speaks to Jesus. He says I am well-pleased, because for a lot of time in my faith journey I really felt like I had to prove myself to the Lord or show that I was worthy, and that just every sin that was committed was just piling on this lack of worthiness before him. And I love that John is feeling that and that Jesus is like forget that you, forget all of your weakness, all of your inadequacy. I am going to qualify you, we're going to do this together, and I also love the father speaking that to the son.

Jessica:

I am well pleased with you because Jesus at this point hasn't really. he hasn't done his preaching, he hasn't done his healing, he hasn't called the apostles, sent out anyone, he hasn't undergone the passion, he hasn't survived it, and already the father is pleased before he even does a thing. And there's something to me that is so consoling and also a message like so for my heart, with that of just reminds me of holding a baby like an infant. They can't even like lift their head and it's just like such a joy to sit there holding that baby and taking them in like the father. That's all the father really wants to do is to delight in us, and it doesn't matter what we have or have not done kind of thing. So I just I love that you spoke to that. Both those things, john, thank you so much for what you, what you shared.

John:

What stuck out to you, Jess.

Jessica:

What stuck out to me was the word specifically beloved. This is my beloved son. To me, the father proclaiming that is like the gift of this story and also the gift, or a reminder of the truth, of the gift, of our own baptism, is just our identity, that is instated and that we claim in our baptism. And it actually was really making me. It was really making me reflect on like do I really live my life as a child of God? Like do I live from that as my primary identity? And what would look different? And I was really actually thinking. We got to take a recent vacation with extended family to Florida and there were two moments that actually came to mind from that vacation that this kind of welled up in me as I read that like this is my beloved son. And the first was our two-year-old daughter has from time to time some big emotions, as two-year-olds do, and she's also in the process of dropping her nap. So there was one day on vacation where she was just immensely struggling. It was just we were trying to go to four o'clock mass and that whole hour before was just such a struggle. I mean it was like screaming, throwing herself on the floor, hitting and kicking. I mean it was just she was really having it. And then she falls asleep in the car on the way to mass, and John is the expert like transfer person in our family if a kid falls asleep. And so she fell asleep in the car and John was holding her in the back of church. I was with another kid who needed to go to the back. This is how our Mass goes. It's a constant in and out, but I know the Lord is still blessing us while we're there. So I go to the back of church and I'm asking John I see him with our daughter sleeping on him and I'm like, how are you doing Anticipating, like, oh, I finally have a break, this is so nice. And he was like, oh my gosh, I have been waiting for one of our kids to fall asleep and stay asleep on me forever. This is the best.

Jessica:

And I just remember being like okay, that was the kid that was like hitting, kicking, all of that like 45 minutes ago. And just in that moment I was so aware of, like the tenderness of John's heart for our daughter and it just really, to me, made me think of the father and just this idea of not having to please him, of him not sitting there with a list of wrongs before us or anything, him just like truly wanting us to just rest in his arms. And I think about, like sometimes I come to that point of rest after like totally trying to fight him in every way, like tantruming at the father about how things aren't going the way I should think they should be going, or whatever, and I just feel like to live like a child of God is to just be able to rest in his arms. And another little just anecdote, I'm sorry I just have to share our oldest daughter watching her and John play in the ocean, there were just these waves that were just coming and absolutely whipping, and our daughter was standing right by John.

Jessica:

A nd she was looking out onto the waves with like such giddy anticipation and these were big waves, like they would have easily knocked her over and taken her out.

Jessica:

And when a wave would come, she would turn, look toward the shore, close her eyes and start giggling and John would lift her up, essentially rescue her from being completely tousled by the wave.

Jessica:

And I just was sitting there so in awe that she wasn't afraid that instead she was looking at something that could cause her harm and like almost giggling at it and then trusting so much in John's protection that she was even closing her eyes. And I think about when I encounter suffering or the metaphorical wave in my life, I'm thinking about, okay, how am I going to dive through this or dunk under or whatever? And I feel like the gift of baptism and our identity as child of Christ is that it affords us the gift of being childlike before the Lord and just having that dependency on him which was just so evident in watching our daughter and John play and I just anyway just this idea of him saying like you are my beloved child and just really living into that and what it means and letting him love us and also to just be completely trusting in his providence that he is going to take care. So that was a very long-winded answer, but those were just really on my heart to share.

Jessica:

So yeah, yeah

Fr. Philipp:

yeah, one one thing that, just in reacting to what you're sharing just that, the image of you guys at Mass, right, I think a lot of people probably connect to that, a lot of parents probably connect to that we're just like, oh, my goodness, what's going to happen today? Where are we going to be? Am I going to be able to pay attention to anything at all? And it's like, well, actually, in some ways, that doesn't matter, because the desire to be in the father's presence, to be in the presence of Christ, and then, uh, Jesus just looking and delighting at us, the father looking and delighting at us when, like, and you and you guys, when your child is running or screaming or yelling poop or whatever it is.

Fr. Philipp:

It might be in the middle of mass.

Jessica:

Been there

Fr. Philipp:

Right

Fr. Philipp:

Those great comments that just like float over, like into the silence, right from little kids. I mean the father delights in all of that and honestly, as a priest like I delight in all of that as well, so it's just something to kind of consider. As you were talking, that's what was coming up in my heart.

Jessica:

Yeah, a word of encouragement for families of littles out there.

John:

Hang in there.

Jessica:

Yeah, oh goodness, father Philip, what stood out to you about this passage?

Fr. Philipp:

Yeah, I think it was something similar to John. So, this invitation from Jesus, allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. And I hadn't noticed the us and I was just kind of pondering over that, because it's like, basically, john doesn't understand what's happening and he's like no, I just want you to do this, that all of what I have in my heart, all that I desire, all that I have planned is going to come about. Just like, take the one step and you'll see. Just like, allow it now so that we can actually do this. And like, john has a real part in that.

Fr. Philipp:

And like we read these passages on the Feast of the Baptism, like I read this every time maybe not this exact passage, I read Mark when I baptize children. But like the reality of, like john's role in salvation history is a great blessing to all the rest of us. And it, what does it manifest? It's like all the years, the stuff that you're talking about Jess. Like the, the reality of our identity as children of god. That's manifest here.

Fr. Philipp:

Like the whole inner life of of the trinity, the father and the Son, is broken open. In this moment, heaven itself is opened up. We get this glimpse of the infinite love of the Father for the Son and the Spirit who just comes to dwell in the Son as this home base from which he, like, bursts into the world. Like it's this beautiful gift that if john had been in the, the space of of, basically like, I got my ideas about what we're gonna do, and like this is what the lord has to do, like this can't be, um instead of the, even like he, he has the objection, he says it, and jesus is just like, no, like I told you what I wanted, uh, and to be able to have that docility is it's a beautiful gift and I wish I had more of it. But you know, like, but there there are moments where the lord invites us to stuff that we don't understand, and this is what's on the other side of it.

Jessica:

And almost even to reflect on how John is living in putting that objection and kind of setting it aside. He's almost living out that childlike trust and then he becomes unleashing a huge part of salvation history just from, yeah, exactly what you're saying, that docility and that childlike trust. So beautiful, yeah, John, Father Philip, anything any thoughts remaining on the table about this baptism story?

Fr. Philipp:

Yeah, I guess there might be one thing I want to add, which would be this like the Jordan River. So I actually I have not been to the Jordan River and the Holy Land, and I know that's like a holy site, but one of the things like kind of in biblical geography that sits in my head is the story of the Exodus, and so you have Moses who leads the people out of Egypt. They wander around the desert for 40 years and they finally, like, after Moses hands over the guiding the people to Joshua, they get to the edge of the desert as they're about to go into the Holy Land, and the border between the two is the Jordan River. And it's this miracle that the Lord, through Joshua, commands the priests to carry the Ark of the Covenant into the Jordan and the Jordan is turned back on its course. So you basically have a repeat of this Red Sea miracle, where you have the division of the Red Sea people go from slavery into freedom, but now it's on the other side, out of the desert, into the promised land.

Fr. Philipp:

And in this beautiful mystery, what is it that actually the Lord brings to fulfillment? It's not just the exodus out of Egypt, out of slavery, out of the desert and the kind of deprivation and kind of, yeah, what would you call that? The lack into a fullness, but it's actually what's opened up, it's heaven. So it's like the fullness of of what the lord has promised for us, not the earthly promised land, but the heavenly promised land is open up for us. And so like kind of in the geography of this, like Jesus, like all righteousness includes the strange reality of this one river in the middle of Israel, right, and that this is somehow actually the way that the Lord shows us he's like I have more for you in the very particular thing in the Jordan River, and I find that to be a beautiful and strange and wonderful gift from the Lord that he offers us, these small things that just open up to huge gifts.

John:

I'm so glad you shared that because I love I don't know if this falls under that umbrella, but like hermeneutics, like I love, like or just like contextualizing scripture and especially because, like, at least with, like my upbringing, like hearing passages all the time and it's like no, but when you really like dive deeper, connect dots and like I don't and things like that. I didn't even know about that. I thought it was just the Red Sea and that was it. I didn't even know there was a second rendition of it in a way.

John:

I love those little nuggets which usually require the expertise of a priest to weigh in on the scripture.

Jessica:

I love, too, the reminder that God's plan even predated the incarnation, like this was all in the works. And I love that the rosary and the mysteries of the rosary can bring us to like meditation, not even just on the life of Christ, but how the life of Christ is fulfilling what God has had put into place thousands of years before. So I'm I'm really happy you shared that too.

Fr. Philipp:

Yeah, the, the communication. I think I think about the, the way that we speak and like subject and predicate versus like the Lord, who uses events in time to join things together, and the way that that that that's his like communication and how he like he's capable of communicating in a way that we're certainly not right. We can, like, plan and prepare and leave clues through our life, but, like I can't do anything a hundred years ago right To to, to make sure that people understand who I am now Right, Like it's just, it's a, it's a beautiful, um, yeah, beautiful power that the Lord has that we don't, and it's also kind of fun to discover.

Jessica:

I like to John, how you were talking earlier about like really imagining yourself in the scene, and I feel like it adds a whole nother layer of imagination, because the people presumably on the banks of the jordan river would have understood the significance of that site. Do you think that's fair to say, or you don't? We don't know for sure no for sure.

Fr. Philipp:

Like I mean they would have known the story of joshua, like there's no way that they would. They wouldn't know joshua and the crossing the

Jessica:

yeah

Fr. Philipp:

.

Jessica:

So it's like they had the potential to be like okay, this already is a significant spot. And now, like how different would taking the baptism from if you're sitting there imagining it, like from being on the banks? Like how different is it to imagine knowing that piece of context too?

Fr. Philipp:

Yeah, One last thing about it, if I can add something else.

Jessica:

Please do

Fr. Philipp:

There's a fun, weird part of Eastern icons about the baptism they have oftentimes in the waters of the Jordan. You'll have Jesus and John depicted, but then you have these little what look like merpeople on fish, swimming away from Jesus in the river and it's like the water spirits being like chased out of the scene. And so you have this reality of like Jesus going down into the water to like claim it as his own. But it's also the image of like the Jordan kind of rushing back on itself, like fleeing from the power of the Lord because he's here now to make a new path and a new way, and like his new life, which is more powerful than any of the things of this world.

Fr. Philipp:

So yeah little merpeople is the little writing fish in my head right now.

John:

We covered it all

Jessica:

yeah, amazing.

Jessica:

I also think about like I have not been there, been there either, but I from a friend who went and was showing pictures. The water of the jordan is so like murky and brown. When I pictured it in my head it was like a beautiful blue, whatever glistening river, but it's like dirty and murky and brown and I think there's an identification of like Jesus, with our sin already at that point, submerging into the water, like taking our sin upon him and, you know, opening us up to the possibility of the promised land too. So I think that's really cool too, all these pieces that we can take into meditation when we go and pray our rosary.

Jessica:

Thank you, holy Spirit. Are we good to wrap up, you guys or anything else? Okay, oh goodness. Thank you, holy Spirit, for another beautiful conversation and all of the fruit that will come from meditating on this mystery. And we just we promise to be praying for you. It's such a gift to do so and we ask you humbly to be praying for us. Praise be to God.