Imagine the Lord Jesus, having completed His twenty-ninth year, having lived in this abject and painful manner all the time, saying to His mother, “The time is come that I should glorify and manifest My Father, and show Myself to the world, and labour for the salvation of souls, for which the Father sent Me forth. Be of good courage, therefore, good mother, for I shall quickly return to you ;” and the Master of lowliness, kneeling down, prayed for a blessing on His departure. And she likewise knelt down, and embracing Him with tears, said most tenderly, “My Blessed Son, go, with a Divine blessing, from your home ; be mindful of me, and remember that you soon return to me.” Thus, then, did Jesus, having reverently taken leave of His parents, His mother and foster-father Joseph, set out from Nazareth toward Jerusalem, by the way which led to Jordan, where John was baptizing, at a place which was a considerable distance from Jerusalem. And the Lord of all the earth performed the journey alone, for as yet He had no disciples. Gaze upon Him, remembering the Divine Presence; see the solitary wayfarer, barefooted, travel-worn, fatigued by so long a journey, and pity Him from your heart. O Lord, whither goest Thou ? Art Thou not, indeed, higher than all the kings of the earth ? O Lord, where, then, are your attendants ? where are the ‘barons, the counts, the captains, the warriors, the horses, the elephants, the camels, the equipages, the couriers, and all the rest, which should form Thy train ? Where is Thy suite, and where are the guards who keep off the populace from approaching too near Thy Sacred Presence, as earthly monarchs are wont to have, and other great personages ? Where are the sounds of trumpets, the strains of music, the royal banners? Where are the forerunners, whose business it is to prepare for the fitting reception and entertainment of princes ? Where are all the pomps and honours, which surround us, worms of earth, on such occasions ? O Lord, are not the heavens and the earth full of Thy glory ; how is it, then, that Thou art become thus inglorious ? Art not Thou He to whom ” thousand thousands ministered” in Thy kingdom,1 “and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before” Thee ? Why, then, dost Thou thus journey unattended, and barefooted ? Ah, yes ! I divine the cause : Thou art not now in Thy kingdom ; for Thy kingdom is not in this world. Thou hast emptied Thyself,2 taking the form of a servant, not of a king. Thou art made as one of us, “a stranger and sojourner, as all our fathers were.”3 Thou art become a servant, that we may become kings. For Thou hast come to conduct us to Thine own kingdom, by laying bare before our eyes the way by which we can ascend thither. Why, then, do we neglect it ? Why do we not follow Thee ? Why do we not humble ourselves ? Wherefore do we pant after and grasp at pomps and honours, vain and transient? Certainly because our kingdom is of this world ; nor do we at all regard ourselves as pilgrims here, and therefore we incur all these evils. O vain children of men, why do we prefer the shadow to the substance, the perishing to the solid and lasting, the temporal to the eternal, and eagerly run after it? Surely, O good Lord, if we did but realize the truth, that we are strangers and pilgrims, we should quickly follow Thee, taking of these visible possessions only what is necessary, lest we should be retarded in running after the odour of Thy ointments.4 For we should be free from every burden, and should, regarding these transitory things as already past, easily despise them. The Lord Jesus, then, thus humbly travels day after day, till He arrives at Jordan. And when He had come thither, He found John there baptizing sinners, and a great crowd of people who had gathered round him to hear his preaching ; for they believed him to be the Christ Then the Lord Jesus said to him, “I ask thee to baptize Me with these.” But John beholding Him, and in spirit recognizing Him, was afraid, and with reverence answered, “Lord, I have need to be baptized of Thee.”5 To whom the Lord Jesus replied, “Suffer it to be so now ; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.” Do not reveal this now, nor make Me known, for My time is not yet come; but baptize Me. Now is the time of lowliness, and therefore will I fulfil all lowliness.