Such a God, to Whom everything is possible that He thinks and what He utters, appeared in the world almost two thousand years ago. He appeared as the Son of the Most High God, as God from God, was incarnated by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was born in the cave of Bethlehem. He spent thirty years in silence, in hourly inner communion with His Father and the Holy Spirit, until He went out into the world at the appointed time for His ministry.

He is the only and true Messiah and Savior of the world. The other did not come and will not come.

Baptism

What a beautiful name you bear, O Theodoulos, servant of God! Thousands of people with meaningless and stupid names can envy you. And your name is exceptional. In our Serbs, the first name is given on the banner when a child is born. But this name changes the godfather at Baptism and gives the child a new, lasting name. Blessed is your godfather, who gave you the name Theodoulos, which means "servant of God."

In fact, this is the name of the Messiah Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. For He Himself said of Himself: The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. Christ did not come like the Indian Krishna, only to order, forbid and dictate; and not like the demonic Shiva to plot and destroy; but he came to serve. To serve His Father who is in heaven and God's people on earth. A real Theodoulos!

Truly He served without rest or respite. He served in silence and in word. He served with prayer and deeds. He served with sweat and tears. He served with suffering and torment. Most of all, He served as His personal example.

His baptism in the Jordan is also a service to people by example, without words.

Why was Christ baptized? Truly, this is a great mystery. Baptism means purification. What was the Most Pure One cleansed from? Not from anything pertaining to Him, from the heaps of impurity pertaining to mankind.

And John himself was amazed that He came to be baptized: "I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me? If anyone is to wash anyone, it is the clean of the unclean, and not the unclean of the clean. I am a mortal man, conceived in sin from the seed of a sinner, and I must be baptized of You, and not You of me. I am not worthy to detach even the strap of Thy shoe. I am the voice of the wilderness of man, and you are the Son of God, the Messenger from heaven, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

That's the explanation. John caught him. The Spirit of God revealed to him what is most important and what explains the baptism of Christ. Christ took upon Himself, of His own free will, before His Father the sins of the world. Ah, what a burden and what a burden it is! Oh, what an abomination and what an uncleanness! Here is Eve's betrayal of God, and her faith in the words of the serpent, when the serpent coiled around her and whispered in her ear that God was lying; here is the fratricide of Cain, here are millions of other fratricides.

Ah, my Theodoulos, here is war, war and war, and only the flame of war, in which cities and villages, families, tribes and peoples are burned; a flame that, subsiding in one place, flares up in another, but never goes out. In this flame of the war of all against all, only the infernal spirits of evil rejoiced, and people in despair and powerlessness shook their fists at heaven itself and blasphemed the One Who created them.

Into such a world came from His eternal glory the Son of God, Whom the two great Johns called the Lamb of God: John the Baptist and John the Theologian, the apocalyptic seer. And because of such and so many sins He came to the Jordan River to be baptized. Each of these sins brings death. How many millions of death sentences He took upon His shoulders, taking upon Himself the sins of the world, and not only the sins of the descendants of Adam who lived before His Coming, but also of all those who have to live after, until the end of time! With this immeasurable and incalculable burden He immersed Himself in the water, and John the Baptist laid His right hand upon His head.

His angels flew down from heaven and crowded around Him with awe and wonder. Why is He Who gives purity to water cleansed by water, and why is He Who sanctifies every creature by Himself, even Angels, sanctified by baptism?

And the heavens of heaven bowed down to the Jordan, and the Father and the Holy Spirit appeared over the Son. The Holy Spirit hovered in the form of a white shining dove over the head of Jesus, and the voice of love was heard: "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased."