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Our Lord Jesus Christ, upon His return from Egypt, stayed in Galilee, in His city of Nazareth, where He was raised, hiding from people the power of His Divinity and wisdom until the age of thirty, for among the Jews it was impossible for anyone before the age of thirty to accept the rank of teacher or priest. Therefore, Christ did not begin His preaching and did not reveal Himself as the Son of God and “the great high priest who passed through the heavens” (Heb. 4:14) until he reached a certain age. In Nazareth He stayed with His Most Pure Mother, first with His imaginary father, Joseph the woodworker, while he was alive, and did carpentry work with him; and then, when Joseph died, He Himself continued the same work, obtaining food for Himself and for the Most Pure Mother of God through the labor of His hands, in order to teach us hard work (Luke 3:23). When the thirtieth year of His earthly life was completed and the time of His Divine appearance to the people of Israel had come, then, as the Gospel says, “the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness” (Lk. 3:2), - a verb that sent him to baptize with water and announced to him a sign by which John was supposed to recognize the Messiah who had come into the world. The Baptist himself speaks about this in his sermon in the following words: “He who sent me to baptize in water said to me: On whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, he is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit” (John 1:33). And so John, heeding the word of God, walked throughout the entire country of Jordan, preaching “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3), for He was the One about whom Isaiah predicted: “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert the paths of our God” (Isaiah 40:3; cf. Luke 3:4). And the whole Jewish country, including the people of Jerusalem, came out to him, and they were all baptized by him in the Jordan River, confessing their sins (Mark 1:5). Then Jesus also came from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him (Matthew 3:13). He came at the time when John announced Him to the people, saying: “He who is mightier than I is coming after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to stoop down to untie; I baptized you with water, and He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:7-8). After this announcement, Jesus came to be baptized. Although He had no need for this, as sinless and immaculate, born of the Most Pure and Most Holy Virgin Mary and Himself the source of all purity and holiness, since He took upon Himself the sins of the whole world, He came to the river to cleanse them through baptism. He came to be baptized, and in order to sanctify the nature of water, He came to be baptized, so that he could also build a font of holy baptism for us. He came to John also so that he, seeing the Holy Spirit descending on the baptized person and hearing the voice of God the Father from above, would be a true witness about Christ. “John restrained Him and said: I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” (Matthew 3:14) He recognized in spirit the One about whom for thirty years he “leaped joyfully” in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:44), and therefore he himself demanded baptism from Him, as one who was under the sin of disobedience, which passed from Adam to the entire human race. But the Lord said to John: “Leave it now, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). By truth, Saint Chrysostom here means the commandments of God, as if Jesus were saying: “since I have fulfilled all the commandments that are given in the law, and only one remains - regarding baptism, then it is fitting for me to fulfill this too.” The baptism of John was also a Divine commandment, as can be seen from the words of John: “He who sent me to baptize in water said to me” (John 1:33). Who sent it? Obviously, God Himself: “there was, as it is said in the Gospel, the word of God to John” (Luke 3:2). And also because Jesus was baptized when he was thirty years old, because the age of thirty, according to Chrysostom and Theophylact, is susceptible to all sin. For the age of adolescence is subject to the fire of carnal passions, but at the age of thirty - the time of full revelation of male powers - a person is subject to the love of gold, vanity, rage, anger and all kinds of sins. That is why Christ the Lord delayed accepting baptism until this age, in order to fulfill the law at all ages of human life and sanctify our entire nature and give us the strength to overcome passions and beware of mortal sins. After receiving baptism, the Lord immediately, without any delay, came out of the water. There is a legend that Saint John the Baptist immersed every person baptized by him up to the neck and held him like that until he confessed all his sins; After this, the person being baptized was allowed to leave the water. Christ, who had no sins, was not detained in the water, and therefore the Gospel added that He came out of the water immediately (Matthew 3:16). When the Lord came out of the water, the heavens opened above Him, a light flashed from above in the form of lightning, and the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descended on the Baptized Lord. Just as in the days of Noah the dove announced the diminishing waters of the flood, so here the likeness of a dove predicted the end of the sinful flood. And in the form of a dove, the Holy Spirit appeared because this bird is pure, loves people, meek, gentle and does not tolerate anything stinking: so the Holy Spirit is the source of purity, the abyss of love for mankind, the teacher of meekness and the organizer of the world: moreover, He always moves away from a person who grovels in the stinking mire of sins. When the Holy Spirit descended like a dove on Christ Jesus from heaven, a voice was heard saying: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). And to Him belongs glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. You might be interested in: