Read:
Reflect:
Why did Jesus need to be baptized? And why did he specifically need to undergo John’s baptism of repentance? Surely he had nothing to repent of because he was the holy God himself coming into the world! John thought it was inappropriate and argued that he should be baptized by Jesus (v 14). But Jesus insisted that it was fitting/proper/right (v 15) for John to baptize him. How could this be?
When Jesus says: Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness; he indicates that there are divine expectations to be fulfilled. The things established in the eternal purposes of God must now come to realization in history through us (Jesus and John). It is fitting that the will of God be done through Jesus’ baptism. But what are these divine expectations of righteousness to be fulfilled? Perhaps the clearest statement comes from the quill of the apostle John (3:16-17):
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
To be sure, Jesus was born in this world like all babies are, but there was more to it than just a normal human birth. He, the preexistent second person (Son) of the Trinity, was given and sent by the Father as a great act of righteousness to rescue his fallen creation. Later in Scripture it becomes clear that through the death and resurrection of Jesus we have the forgiveness of sins and new life in Christ. That is the righteousness that needs to come into reality.
But for that to happen Jesus must be identified with the sins of the people. Hence the baptism of repentance, not for his own sins, but for the sins of the people which he will take on himself and eventually carry to the cross. As the prophet Isaiah foresaw some 600 years earlier:
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)
So the baptism serves as a public symbolic action of Jesus identifying with human beings to serve as their substitute by bearing their sins in his death, and rising from the grave for their ultimate salvation. This is the mission into which his baptism commissioned him.
The fitting nature of Jesus’ baptism and the resulting mission is confirmed by two astounding heavenly indications of divine approval. First, the Spirit of God descends like a dove to rest on him with enabling power (v 16) as prophesied by Isaiah (42:1):
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.
Then God the Father speaks directly from heaven with pleasure and approval of his beloved Son (v 17) as foretold so long ago in Psalm 2:7:
The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.
One should not miss the strong trinitarian emphasis that shines forth in this event. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all intimately involved in Jesus’ baptism. His baptism is both a significant historical event and a divinely mandated action that launched Jesus into his public ministry.
Respond:
Though later Christian baptism has a different focus than John’s, we can still learn from it. Just as Jesus in willing obedience committed himself to the will of the Father, so we yield ourselves freely to following Jesus in the public rite of baptism. Similar to the Ethiopian official who cried out when he discovered the good news about Jesus: What prevents me from being baptized? (Acts 8:37), so we respond with glad compliance to Jesus summons to be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19)