1.15.23 Matthew 3:13–17
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Baptism is Where it ALL Begins
One of the unsung beauties of Jesus is the way in which He had to deal with complaints. You’d think nobody could find anything to complain about how a holy God does something, but people always think they know better. The teachers of the law didn’t like how Jesus was eating and drinking with sinners and tax collectors. It didn’t seem appropriate to them. Peter didn’t like it when Jesus was talking about being betrayed and handed over to death. In today’s text, John didn’t like the idea of Jesus being baptized. It didn’t seem right to him. That’s something that sinners do in repentance and a need for forgiveness. It’s not something the holy Son of God should be doing. So he tried to stop Jesus from being baptized. Earlier he had stopped the Pharisees from being baptized because they didn’t even think they needed it. Here he tried to stop Jesus from being baptized because He actually didn’t need it. It wasn’t necessary for Him.
But Jesus said that it was necessary. He had a deeper reason for baptism than what John was realizing or maybe even COULD realize. Why? Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus wasn’t entering into the Jordan so that HE could be righteous or receive forgiveness. He was entering into the Jordan to fulfill ALL righteousness. So Jesus was being baptized in order to save the world, to provide righteousness for the world, for everyone who ever lived or who ever would live. He was doing it for us.
What could I compare this to? It’s like when an athlete or high profile coach signs a contract, and they show up for their first press conference at the building. There is plenty of work that goes on BEFORE that date, but then it becomes official. Then it’s nose to the grindstone - time to get going. The whole fan base puts their hope in this person to change the face of the franchise and to take them back to glory. The difference is that theirs is a TEAM game. When Jesus enters into the water it’s a HE game. He’s going to do it all, for the world.
So if He’s going to do this for the world, then He is, in effect, going to have to become EVERY sinner. Or you could say that He’s going to be treated as the ONLY sinner. God in the flesh, in the water, into sin, coming to save us. Imagine your children falling into the water where there is a school of piranhas heading their way. You cut your arm and your leg, jump into the water and say, “Come get me,” in order to save them. That’s Jesus. He has to enter the water, for us.
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting on him. When Noah sent out the dove from the ark, he was waiting to see if there were trees and vegetation starting to grow. When it returned with an olive branch, Noah could tell that life was starting to come back. It was a sign of peace. The deluge was over. A whole new world lay before him. So also, as the Holy Spirit landed on Jesus, the deluge of God’s wrath would soon be over. The world of sinners was about to embark into a new place of forgiveness and grace and salvation, through Jesus, finished and done. No more promises. Now it’s reality. Jesus would not go on this journey alone. The Holy Spirit would be with Him, guide Him and strengthen Him along the way to open the pathway to heaven.
This was no mere symbolic ritual, that is clear. IN our epistle lesson from Acts for today, Peter mentions that Jesus was “anointed with the Holy Spirit and with POWER, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” A similar thing happened to David when he was anointed to be King. 1 Samuel 16:13 says, “Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.” But didn’t Jesus already have power? Wasn’t He already united with the Holy Spirit? Yes. But living in His humility, He put Himself under the same avenues that we go through, and that included subjecting Himself to the same baptism we do for the same gift of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit enters us He has to fight against our sinful natures and conquer our sinful flesh. But when the Holy Spirit enters the holy Son of God? No inhibitions? Perfect faith? This is going to be an amazing thing! He is going to save the world!
This would still be no easy task. His baptism was like ringing the bell in a title fight. God was putting the devil and the world on notice. The Messiah is in town! The first place the Spirit led Him was into the desert to fight against Satan by Himself. And that bears noting. Baptism makes you an enemy of Satan. It makes life more difficult in some senses. You become enemy #1. Satan starts plotting for ways to get you to fall from faith. Paul writes, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Eph 6:12–13) God never said living as a Christian would be easy. Yet how many of us imagine that life is supposedly easy, as long as we pray once in a while, go to church occasionally, and work hard. We think it’s easy because we take our sins lightly. We don’t fight against them. We accept them. “It’s just how I am.” We let the devil get his way and we don’t even realize it. Or maybe we live with the excuse, “I’m only human. I can’t help it. God made me this way.” So we give up the fight without even really trying. It’s easy because we don’t struggle like we SHOULD. When you take your sins seriously and Satan seriously, you know life isn’t so easy. It sometimes seems impossible with the way our society is going. In many ways it is!
With our baptism, we have someone who is more powerful than Satan fighting inside of us and for us. He is the Holy Spirit. He worked inside of Jesus, and He works inside of us too! Paul also writes to the Romans in chapter 8:11-12, “if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it.” You see, baptism gives us this powerful Holy Spirit as well, who enables us to live for Christ and fight against Satan and our own sinful natures. Baptism is meant to empower us also with the same Holy Spirit! So no more excuses as to why you can’t fight against this sin or that one. You aren’t as weak as you claim to be, because the Holy Spirit is living in you.
Finally, we can’t help but notice that above and behind the Holy Spirit heaven has opened up. And what happens? God the Father speaks! We are used to Jesus speaking. He is called the Word made flesh. But here the Father speaks with His own voice! The same God who spoke from the top of Mt. Sinai speaks again! No words of terror that incite fear. These are words of joy and pride and exaltation. “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Whenever you make introductions, it’s usually a bit awkward. When kids are young they tend to hide behind a parent’s leg in fear or shame at being looked at or called out. When we were at Logan’s wedding in Germany there was this little two or three year old kid who was put on stage. It was his birthday. He sat there with his face beaming. We all sang to him. He then went and gave Luisa a big hug. It was awesome. He was introduced to the party with a song, and shy as he was, he loved it.
Here the Father is proud to introduce the Son to the world. He loves His Son. He is happy with Him and glowing with praise! The Father says it here at the beginning of His ministry. What does that mean? Imagine an owner and a CEO of a company retiring, introducing his son as the next in line. People might be skeptical, even angry. Who is this who is going to take over the company? He’s no Tommy Boy. In the case of Jesus, He was born for this moment, and He has prepared Himself for this moment. He has studied the Word. He has prayed. He has obeyed the Sabbath. And now He has stepped up to the plate, ready to take on the responsibility of the world.
There’s a reason He is telling this to the world. He wants us to be happy with Him too. He is sharing Jesus with us. He wants us to be pleased with Jesus too! But the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were threatened with Him. They didn’t like how He pointed out their hypocrisy and their sin. Like Cain who was jealous of Abel, they murdered Him, the Father’s beloved. It might be one thing if Jesus were a rebellious son, a real smartmouth, a disobedient child. Then the Father might have said, “Go ahead and stone him.” But this was someone that the Father loved. This was someone who proclaimed the Word faithfully and boldly. And we, humanity, we hated Him for it and we killed Him. Aren’t we born of the same stock? The Pharisees only showed the jealousy of humanity and the desire for power that we all have, the desire for God to be dead to us, so that we can be God. If they hadn’t done it, we very likely could have, because we have the same sinful nature. The Father should damn us all for what we’d done to Him.
But then we see the Father speak to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew what we would do, and that is what makes His gift so great. He says, “Go to the cross. There is no other way. This is what would please me most, for you to die for the sins of the world.” What kind of love does the Father have for His Son, to damn Him to hell? But this is where the baptism was meant to lead Jesus, to that bloody death. There are three that testify, the Spirit, the water, and the blood. Listen to Him cry from the cross, “Father forgive them. It is finished.” Here God the Father speaks to us through the Son and He says, “See how much I love you. Listen to what my Son has done for you. With Him I am well pleased.” So much so that He raised Jesus from the dead.
And so the Son brings His baptism full circle through His death and resurrection. He walked into the water to do a job of saving the world. He did what He was baptized to do. Now when we walk into the water, we are born into this new life and given this new identity. Everything that Jesus did, we get credit for, as the Holy Spirit brings us to faith and keeps us in the faith. Paul said in Romans 6:3, “don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
John must have wondered what would happen that day as Jesus walked up to him to be baptized. It didn’t seem to make sense. But it didn’t take long for John to see that Jesus truly was the One. His eyes and his ears saw it all unfold before him.
What does this mean for you? You may not see it and you may not hear it sounding from heaven when you or your children are baptized, but God’s Word promises the same gifts in your baptism as well. Because Jesus walked into baptism, now you also are given the gift of the Holy Spirit, approved by God the Father, united and bathed in Jesus when you are baptized. Now, through faith in Jesus, you are the one who God loves too, the one who has been saved and bathed in the waters of salvation, all because Jesus started it there on the Jordan. It all begins at His baptism. Amen.
