Matthew 3:13-17 *
In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:
If you could ask Jesus absolutely anything, what would you want to know? If the all-seeing, all-knowing Son of God was standing in front of you ready and willing to give you the answer to any question, what would it be?
Maybe you would want to find out something about your future. When will I die? How will I die? Will I die? If not, Jesus, when are you coming back? And when you do, what will life be like in heaven?
Or maybe you would want the answer to some secret from the ancient past. Did the earth always look the same as it does today? What was the world’s first spoken language? What happened to the dinosaurs?
Or maybe you would ask Jesus to shed some light on a mystery from Bible history. What was the original location of the Garden of Eden? Who was Melchizedek? What ever happened to the Ark of the Covenant?
The text for this morning presents us with another Biblical question,
a question that has puzzled theologians for centuries. After thirty years of living in relative
obscurity, after three decades confined to the area in and around the Galilean
city of
The question is: “Why?” Why did Jesus seek out John the Baptist? Why did Jesus want to be baptized by him? Why here? Why now? Jesus isn’t here to answer all of our questions this morning, but he has given us his Word. And the inspired words of Matthew will provide us with everything we need to get to the bottom of this important question…
JESUS, WHY DID YOU GO DOWN TO THE
II. For the anointing of the Spirit
III. For the approval of the Father
If you have ever asked yourself why Jesus wanted to be baptized in the first place, you aren’t the only one. When Jesus approached John with the initial request, he was surprised. He was surprised because he preached a baptism of repentance. And as far as John knew, Jesus didn’t need to repent.
Perhaps an illustration will help us understand John’s predicament. How would you feel if Barry Bonds came up to you and asked for some tips on hitting? How would you feel if Bill Gates asked for your advice about computers? How would you feel if Pavarotti sought you out for a singing lesson? You get the idea.
The way John saw it, he wasn’t at
all qualified to do what Jesus was asking him to do. That is why he was reluctant. That is why he tried to change Jesus’ mind. That is why he said: “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come
to me” (14)?
But Jesus was on a divine mission, and nothing and no one
was going to stand in his way. He
replied: “Let it be so now; it is proper
for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness” (15). Notice that Jesus didn’t say: “John,
you’ve got it all wrong” because in a sense John was right. Of the two men who stood face-to-face on the
banks of the
The challenge for us is to understand Jesus’ baptism in the light of Jesus’ words. Some will say that Jesus wanted to be baptized because it was his Father’s will. This is true, but there’s more. Others will say that Jesus wanted to be baptized to give us a good example to follow. Again this is true, but there’s more.
Jesus didn’t need to be baptized in the same way we do, but it was the proper thing to do and it was the proper time to do it to “fulfill all righteousness.” We should never forget that the Son of God had been fulfilling the righteous demands of the law since the day he was born. For thirty years he had been perfectly obedient to his parents and superiors. For thirty years he had done everything God’s law required.
But Jesus’ life was about to change. The events of this day thrust Jesus into the public eye. Over the course of the next three years some hailed him as the Lord. Others called him a liar. Still others dismissed him as a lunatic. His enemies attacked him, arrested him and eventually executed him even though he had done nothing wrong.
And the amazing thing is that Jesus let it all happen. The sinless Son of God willingly obeyed his
Father to “to fulfill all righteousness.”
And it all started on the banks of the
But before we talk any more about that blessed event, there is one matter that needs to be cleared up. If Jesus came to earth to “fulfill all righteousness,” the implication is that there are others who have left God’s righteous demands unfilled. So who is guilty? Who is to blame? We might not want to hear the answer:
“There is no one
righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks
God. All have turned away, they have
together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans
3:10-12).
No one is righteous. No one is blameless. That means we deserve to die. That means we are the ones who forced Jesus to leave his Father’s side. That means our sins nailed him to the cross. That means we are in desperate need of the saving waters of baptism. And that is precisely what makes the baptism of Jesus so meaningful for us.
“God made him who had
no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of
God” (II Corinthians
It was my privilege to preach on the baptism window as part of our sermon series this past summer. And the pictures in those windows give us a good summary of the blessings of
baptism. The open Bible on the left reminds us that baptism’s power comes from God’s powerful Word.
The ark on the right takes us back to the time of the flood. While it is true that the Lord used the flood to execute his divine judgment on a wicked world, he used the same water to lift Noah and his family to safety. So in a sense, the flood saved the people in the ark.
The apostle Peter connects this idea with baptism when he
says: “In it (the ark) only a few
people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes
baptism that now saves you also” (I Peter
In the middle window, between the Bible and the ark, there is a baptismal font. Why is the font so important? What makes the font worthy of its own window? The font is where the water and the Word come together. The font is where the Holy Spirit does his soul saving work. The font is where the water of baptism washes sin away.
In the same window a dove hovers over the font. The dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit. And the
dove brings us all the way back to the baptism of Jesus. “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” (16).
This was an important moment. This was an important moment for John the
Baptist because the dove’s descent was a sign.
It was God’s way of telling John who Jesus was and what he had come to
do (see John
But as significant as this moment was for the Baptist, it held even greater significance for the one who had been baptized. As Jesus prepared to embark on his public ministry, as he looked ahead at the difficult path that lay before him, it was encouraging for him to know that he was not alone. God was with him, and God’s Spirit rested on him.
But the Spirit didn’t descend only to encourage Jesus. He also came down to equip him. Jesus knew that when he went up out of the water. Jesus knew that when unrolled the scroll of
the prophet Isaiah and proclaimed: “The
Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to
the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the
oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke
The Holy Spirit anointed Jesus at the very beginning of his
public ministry. He gave him everything
he needed to preach and teach, to raise up and tear down, to build and to
plant. And as Jesus set out to carry out
his divine mission, there was no doubt that he had his Father’s approval: “And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased’”
(17).
Most children want to make their parents proud, and so Jesus was probably very happy to hear that his heavenly Father was pleased with him. The words, “This is my Son,” reminded Jesus that he enjoyed an intimate relationship with his heavenly Father. But perhaps the most meaningful words can be found right in the middle. God said, “This is my Son, WHOM I LOVE.”
God loved Jesus. God
loved Jesus more than any human parent could ever love a child because God is
love. But if God loved Jesus so much,
then why did he send him to his death? Why
did a loving Father sacrifice his one and only Son? Because God also loves us. Because God so loved the world. Because “this
is love: “not that we loved God, but
that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (I John
“This is my Son, whom
I love; with him I am well pleased” (17).
This is a message that bears repeating. This is a message that God did repeat on the
Mount of Transfiguration (see Matthew 17:5).
This is a message that God’s Son carried to its final conclusion on
Inquisitive minds will always have questions. Some of our questions won’t be answered on this side of eternity. But Jesus Christ has already provided us with the answer to life’s most important question: Where will I spend eternity?
Because of the Father’s love, because of the Son’s obedience, because of his sinless life and innocent death and triumphant resurrection, because the Holy Spirit has worked faith in our hearts, we know the answer. Because of the saving activity of our triune God, we will live with him forever in heaven. Amen.