On The Blessing of the Waters
What is the meaning behind the Blessing of the Waters service? This was the question that little Israelite children were taught to ask at the Passover seder ritual (Ex. 12:26). This same question we too should ask in the month of January as we celebrate the Baptism of Christ. Through the liturgies of Epiphany and the blessings of homes, we also re- celebrate our own Baptisms, which are simply reenactments of His Baptism.
The feast of Epiphany (also called Theophany) has always been a major feast day in the church right behind Pascha with each of the four Gospels retelling the story of that day. These stories from the Gospel paint a fairly simple picture. Christ enters the Jordan River with St. John the Baptist. After he comes out of the water, the heavens open and the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove and the voice of God says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
To comprehend the deeper meaning, you must look back at the book of Genesis. There we read of how God made all things, drawing forth the Creation from a dark and watery Chaos. We read then of how the Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters. Day by day the Lord shaped and developed His world. He formed man. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,” speaks the Triune Godhead. And resting from His work, the Lord pronounces His approval on the brand-new heaven and earth: “And behold, it was very good.” But this world fell into brokenness and disharmony through the sin of our first parents. The Lord could have destroyed humanity and all His creation with them— He could have let it all slip back into the dark watery chaos from which it came back in the time of Noah’s flood.
But this was not His will. His desire is to redeem His world, to transform this universe into a new heaven and a new earth. And this He would do by joining His imperishable nature to our broken and perishable nature, so that we might live with Him in harmony forever.
What we see on Epiphany, then, is a re- staging of the Creation: the Spirit hovering like a mother bird, in the form of a dove; the approval of the Father thundering from the open heavens; and out of the dark waters emerges the new creation—but this time God starts from the end and works backward! The first being to emerge from the waters is a man--the incarnate God, Jesus Christ. And so it begins—the healing of our nature, the re-harmonization of all creatures, the reconciliation of all living things to God. In time the New Creation will embrace the whole Universe. “For in [Christ] all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His Cross” (Col. 1:19-20).