Three Surprises at Jesus' Baptism

Perhaps you have already figured this out about me… I love doing baptisms! First, because baptisms often involve children… and I love children. Second, because baptism is all about beginning our spiritual journey… and I love beginnings. Third, because baptisms always involve surprises. You never know what is going to happen at a baptism. If it’s an infant baptism, the child might cry through the whole thing, or they might be perfectly behaved as the Dabrowski twins were last month. If it is an older child being baptized, you really don’t know what they are going to do. One Sunday, many years ago, I baptized a whole family of children. When I got to the youngest one, a nine year old boy named Ryan, he saw how much water I had used with his siblings, so as I poured the water over his head he quickly moved his tie aside because he didn’t want to get it wet. The congregation busted out laughing.

So, there are always surprises at a baptism, and Jesus’ baptism was no exception, as Matthew makes clear to us. Listen for God’s word to you from Matthew 3:13-17…

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

I spy at least three surprises in this text. The first surprise is that Jesus came to be baptized at all. 

John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. When people came to John to hear him preach and to be baptized by him, they confessed their sins. What sins did Jesus have to confess? What sins did Jesus have to repent of? Hebrews 4:15 says, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.” If Jesus was without sin, why did he come to John to be baptized?

Apparently, John was just as surprised as we are at this because John tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized! “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Somehow, for some reason, John sensed that Jesus, in and of himself, was not in need of baptism. John sensed that Jesus was holier than he was. John sensed his own sinfulness and need in the presence of the Sinless One.

So, why did Jesus come to John to be baptized? Jesus gives us the answer. He says, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented to the baptism.

Matthew is very interested in the subject of righteousness. In chapter one, Matthew tells us of Jesus’ stepfather, Joseph, who is a “righteous man”. Our text for today is the second time that righteousness is mentioned in Matthew’s Gospel. The righteous and righteousness are mentioned 16 more times in this Gospel. In one of those verses, Matthew 21:32, Jesus says, “For John came to show you the way of righteousness…”

Usually, when righteousness is spoken of in a Jewish context it has to do with fulfilling the law. But what law was Jesus fulfilling by coming to John for baptism? In the Hebrew Scriptures there were numerous ceremonial types of washing that were prescribed. However, this sort of immersion in water was something that was done by proselytes, Gentiles who wanted to fully identify with the Jewish people and the Jewish faith. First, males had to be circumcised. Second, all members of the proselyte’s family had to go into a bath to wash away supposed Gentile impurities. They were then said to be like newborn babies. We can see where the New Testament later picked up this same emphasis in regard to Christian baptism. Third, the proselyte had to offer a sacrifice, though this requirement was changed after the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.

The baptism of proselytes is significant to the background of our text for today for at least three reasons. First, proselyte baptism united the proselyte, symbolically, with the Israelites in their “baptism” in the Red Sea, the place where the Egyptian army experienced God’s judgment and the Israelites experienced God’s mercy and deliverance.

Second, proselyte baptism is significant because all members of the proselyte’s family received it. This may be where the practice of infant baptism in the Christian church found its origin.

Third, proselyte baptism was not undertaken by all proselytes to Judaism. There were two different kinds of proselytes. There were so-called “proselytes of the gate”. These were people, like Cornelius in the book of Acts, who worshiped the God of Israel, but had not yet submitted to circumcision, baptism and sacrifice. Those proselytes who did take these three steps were known as proselytes of righteousness. This may be one reason why Jesus talked about fulfilling all righteousness.

But here is the key thing… Jesus was fulfilling all righteousness, not for himself, but for us. As Paul would later say, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Jesus wanted to identify with us in our sin, in our exile. He is the one who shows us the exodus, the way out, the way through the wilderness, the way through the judgment of the Red Sea; he is the one who delivers us from bondage, from the exile of sin.

So, that’s the first surprise in this account, that Jesus submitted to baptism, and he did it to fulfill all righteousness for us. The second surprise in this account is the dove. 

This is a surprise because John the Baptist has just called the Pharisees and Sadducees a “brood of vipers”. And John promised that there was one coming after him who would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The one coming after him would have his winnowing fork in his hand. It was time for the harvest, time for judgment. The wheat was going to be gathered into the barn and the chaff burned with unquenchable fire.

Where is the fire when Jesus shows up on the scene? Where is the judgment? Instead of fire, there is a dove, a symbol of peace. Instead of judgment there is mercy, because, as we have already noted, Jesus is going to take our judgment upon himself. That is the second surprise of this text.

Jesus is indeed going to accomplish all that John promised, but he is going to do it in an unexpected fashion. He is going to humbly identify himself with God’s people, live out their repentance, and ultimately die their death. In Jesus, judgment itself is judged, and we receive his peace, his mercy, instead.

The other thing that is surprising about the descent of the dove is that it symbolizes the descent of the Spirit on Jesus. “But didn’t Jesus already have the Spirit?” we might want to ask. Matthew’s answer seems to be, “Yes.” After all, the angel told Joseph not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife because what was conceived in her was from the Holy Spirit.

So, why does Jesus have to receive the Spirit again if he already has the Sprit? After the Israelites came through the Red Sea, they received the law. But after Jesus comes through baptism in the Jordan, he receives a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Why? Perhaps to empower him for his ministry. And we need the same empowerment as Jesus’ followers today.

David Huxley owns a world record in an unusual category: he pulls jetliners. On October 15, 1997, Huxley broke his own record at an airport in Sydney, Australia. He strapped around his upper torso a harness that was attached to a steel cable some fifteen yards long. The other end of the cable was attached to the front-wheel strut of a 747 jetliner that weighed 187 tons. With his tennis shoes firmly planted on the runway, Huxley leaned forward, pulled with all his might, and remarkably was able to get the jetliner rolling down the runway. In fact, he pulled the 747 one hundred yards in one minute and twenty-one seconds.

We can do some amazing things as human beings. But what we can do on our own power is nothing compared to what we can do under the power of the Holy Spirit. The church is kind of like that 747. Sometimes we try to depend upon the strength of a few extraordinary human beings to pull us for a relatively short distance. But we have a much better alternative. We can ask God to start up the powerful engine of his Spirit which will enable us to fly for eternity.

I wonder: have you been trying to live the Christian life on your own power? I imagine we all try to do that from time to time, but it doesn’t work. If Jesus needed empowerment from the Spirit, how much more do we? “‘Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.’” (Zechariah 4:6)

The final surprise of this passage is the voice that speaks after Jesus’ baptism and the descent of the dove.  “And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’” No one was expecting to hear a voice from heaven that day, but they did. And what the voice said was curiously like two verses from the Hebrew Scriptures.

Psalm 2 was a royal psalm composed for the coronation of Davidic kings. Psalm 2:6-7 says,

“I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.”

I will tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to me, “You are my son;    today I have begotten you.

The thought behind this psalm was that the Davidic king would be adopted by God as his Son. This Psalm also provides part of the origin for the concept of the Messiah, the anointed one. In Psalm 2:2 we read another portion, later quoted in the book of Acts,

The kings of the earth set themselves,
    and the rulers take counsel together,
    against the Lord and his anointed.

Putting all this together we learn that the phrase “Son of God” is another title for the Messiah, the anointed one, God’s appointed king over Israel, his people. And here in Matthew 3 that title is given to Jesus by a voice from heaven at his baptism.

The second scriptural allusion we hear in the heavenly voice comes from Isaiah 42:1,

Here is 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, Isaiah 42 goes on to say,

He will not cry or lift up his voice,
    or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
    and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
    he will faithfully bring forth justice.

And so, it all ties together: the reason for Jesus’ baptism, the dove, and the voice. Jesus indeed comes to execute justice, but he does so in a gentle way, as gentle as a dove, taking our judgment upon himself, by entering into the waters of judgment in the Jordan, and bringing out with him God’s mercy to pour out on his people. And at just the moment Jesus needs to hear a confirming word from his heavenly Father, he hears it: “You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased.”

The good news of this text is that you too, as you follow Jesus, can hear this voice from heaven saying: “You are my beloved child. With you I am well pleased.”

Henri Nouwen once wrote,

Personally, as my struggle reveals, I don’t often “feel” like a beloved child of God. But I know that that is my most primal identity and I know that I must choose it above and beyond my hesitations.

Strong emotions, self-rejection, and even self-hatred justifiably toss you about, but you are free to respond as you will. You are not what others, or even you, think about yourself. You are not what you do. You are not what you have. You are a full member of the human family, having been known before you were conceived and molded in your mother’s womb. In times when you feel bad about yourself, try to choose to remain true to the truth of who you really are. Look in the mirror each day and claim your true identity. Act ahead of your feelings and trust that one day your feelings will match your convictions. Choose now and continue to choose this incredible truth. As a spiritual practice claim and reclaim your primal identity as beloved daughter or son of a personal Creator.

We have to get quiet to hear the voice that calls us Beloved. Elijah learned this. Do you know the story of God speaking to Elijah? In 1 Kings 19 we read…

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake:

And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.

God does not usually speak in wind or earthquake or fire. He speaks in a still, small voice. Thus, we have to get quiet to hear him.

Do you hear him? The Lord is saying to you today, “You are my beloved child. In you I am well pleased.” Receive that word. Receive God’s love. Believe in the surprises of the Gospel. Trust in the One who was baptized for you to fulfill all righteousness.