Commentary on the Gospel of
Why did Jesus wait till the age of thirty before his public life? Perhaps the answer is glimpsed in today’s reading. It was not till that day by the bank of the Jordan River that he had that experience of the Spirit of God coming to rest on him. The heavens opened for him, it says, the Spirit of God’s gentleness came down and rested on him, within he heard a voice that said, “You are my beloved Son, you are chosen.” These are the kinds of expression that mystics use when trying to say what they experienced. Jesus had to wait till that experience happened. He could not force that moment: he waited on the Father’s will, as he did all his life long. He did not decide willfully to go, he was sent.
