The Lord’s Message:  The Baptism of Jesus

The Lord’s Message:  The Baptism of Jesus
Date:  January 19, 2025
Where:  Tilghman Methodist Church
Scripture Reference:  Matthew 3:13-17

            Today, we are celebrating one of the most bizarre events in the life of Jesus, the Baptism of Jesus.  In the early church, the Baptism of Jesus was the most important feast of the three feasts that celebrated the true incarnation of God, Emmanuel.  God with us.  Just to clarify the three feasts, Christmas, Epiphany (which we looked at the first Sunday) and Baptism of Jesus. It was more important than Christmas and Epiphany.  The reason the early church placed more emphasis on this feast was that Baptism celebrates our life as to what God would want us to be, the light in a dark world.  In Baptism, we die to sin and rise to Christ.  Baptism becomes our life journey to grow to be more like Jesus.

            Let us pray.

            Let us open our Bible to Matthew 3, found in our pew Bibles on page 1499.  In this chapter, we are introduced to John the Baptist who, as the book of Luke informs us, is Jesus’ cousin.  John’s father, Zechariah, was going about performing his priestly duties in the Holy of Holies area in the temple in Jerusalem when an angel appeared to him.  Of course, this startled him, and he was in fear of the angel, Luke 1:11-17.  Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife, is a cousin to Mary, Jesus’ mother.  In Matthew, we pick up with the story of John and Jesus being about 30 years of age.  John has already started the ministry to which God has called him, verses 1-2.  Jesus has not.  John has been living in the Jordanian wilderness for some time, verses 4-6.

            When Jesus comes to John, He is just an ordinary Jewish man.  Let us look at Luke 3:21a.  “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.”  All four Gospels give us an account of Jesus’ baptism, but all provide us with different events.  Matthew’s account, which I like to the most, has this back and forth with between Jesus and John in which John does not want to baptize Jesus.  Look at verse 14.  In John’s Gospel, John the Baptist makes a declaration of Jesus being the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, John 1:29-31. 

This is where I and others have a tough time understanding why Jesus has to be baptized.  Jesus is the Son of God.  Jesus is the one who committed no sin.  If He did commit sin, then He would not have been the perfect lamb to die on the cross for your sins and mine.  John the Baptist confirms that Jesus is the perfect lamb who takes away the sin of the world.  Jesus can pay the debt that you and I can never pay.  So, why is the Baptism of Jesus so important for us?

John the Baptist raises this question because God knew that I, and others, would raise it.  John says in verse 14.  Now, I do not like to nitpick the Word of God, but Jesus’ answer does help me answer the question as to why Jesus needs to be baptized, verse 15.  “To fulfill all righteousness.”  I have struggled with this.  I have read numerous commentaries.  The best one that answers the question as to why Jesus had to be baptized by John is by a German Theologian named Oscar Cullmann.  He wrote this is 1950. 

“Here we find the answer to the question: What meaning has Baptism to the forgiveness of sins for Jesus himself in the New Testament? At the moment of his Baptism, he receives the commission to undertake the role of the suffering Servant of God, who takes on himself the sins of his people. Other Jews come to Jordan to be baptized by John for their own sins. Jesus, on the contrary, at the very moment when he is baptized like other people hears a voice which fundamentally declares: Thou art baptized not for thine own sins but for those of the whole people. For thou art he of whom Isaiah prophesied, that he must suffer representatively for the sins of the people. This means that Jesus is baptized in view of his death, which effects forgiveness of sins for all men. For this reason, Jesus must unite Himself in solidarity with his whole people, and go down Himself to Jordan, that ‘all righteousness might be fulfilled.”

To sum up what Oscar Cullman says, Jesus was baptized to identify as one of us and to take on the role of the suffering Servant of God.  Listen to what Isaiah says about this role Jesus took on for us in Isaiah 53.  The righteousness that Jesus fulfilled by His baptism and the role of suffering Servant of God was not for His benefit, but for ours.  That we will stand before a Holy God clothed in the blood of Jesus to white wash our sins.  So, that we would be made righteous before God.  Then all righteousness would be fulfilled.

God the Father looks down on His Son being baptized in the Jordan River by John and proclaims from heaven, verses 16-17.  When we are in solidarity with Jesus, then we die to our old life and rise to a new life in Christ.  Paul says in Romans 6:1-4.  Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world and gives us a new life and a new identity as children of God. 

The story is told of a pastor’s words to a baby shortly after he had baptized her. No doubt, the minister was speaking as much to the congregation as to the infant. “Little sister, by this act of baptism, we welcome you to a journey that will take your whole life. This isn’t the end. It’s the beginning of God’s experiment with your life. What God will make of you; we know not. Where God will take you, surprise you, we cannot say. This we do know and this we say: God is with you.” God will be with us as we live out our baptism.

These three feasts, Christmas, Epiphany, and Baptism of Jesus, remind us that Emmanuel, God is with us, every day. Let us continue to read our Bibles, live what we learn in the Bible and be the Bible for others as we continue our journey in this life.  Amen.