As
many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ
(Galatians 3.27)
The
climax of Lent is Easter, a traditional time for baptism since at least the 6th
century; in early Christian liturgies, the newly baptized person was clothed in
a new white garment. Paul’s arresting image of putting on Christ like a garment
indicates a physical union between the baptized and Christ, in whom all are
made one. But the image has a radical application to the new Christian
community, which must lay aside its old habits for ever to assume a new set of
values.
Another
sign of the overthrowing of the existing social order is the notion that Christ
has superseded the Law so that we might be justified by faith. The idea of
being subject to the Law is represented in the figure of the Greek pedagogue,
the slave and disciplinarian who would accompany children to school. But in the
post-resurrection world which we share with Paul, young and old alike are
adopted by God. And as the redeemed children of God, we are granted the gift of
the Spirit to address our Father. Indeed, the intimate word ‘Abba’, the very
word used by Christ to petition his Father (Mark 14.36), is evidence that we
have the ‘inner witness’ of the Spirit within our hearts. And it is that which
convinces Paul (and us) that we are children and heirs to God rather than
slaves.
Paul’s
famous assertion that ‘there is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer
slave nor free, there is no longer male nor female, for all of you are one in
Christ Jesus’ is probably a baptismal formula; repetition or familiarity,
however, should not make us lose sight of how radical a statement this was in
the culture of its time.
Il n’y a plus ni Juif, ni Grec ; il n’y a plus ni
esclave, ni homme libre ; il n’y a plus l’homme et la femme ; car tous, vous
n’êtes qu’un en Jésus Christ. (Galates 3.28)
Jonathan Halliwell
"The Baptism of Saul (Paul) at Ananias", mosaic, mid 12th C, Cappella Palatina di Palermo, Italy. From Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.
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