It’s Matthew Monday, and we’re looking at Matthew chapter 3
today.
The big thing that happens in Matthew chapter 3 is that
Jesus is baptized by John the Baptist.
Now John has been out baptizing people, preaching “repent
for the kingdom of God is at hand.”
There were a couple of reasons why people are baptized in terms of
Jewish culture in those days: the first was for conversion to Judaism, the
second was for Milkveh or purification.
The Essenes who lived in the wilderness near John baptized for renewal
or a return to a pure Jewish faith without the Roman appointed high priest, and
it’s suggested that John picked up his message and reason for baptizing from
them.
Whatever the case, baptism was meant for purification
purposes, whether into a purer religion or just general purification from
becoming unclean by transgressing the law.
The question that comes up here for me is “why did Jesus
have to be baptized?”
I mean Jesus was without sin (
Hebrews
4:15). When He touched unclean
people, He didn’t become unclean, He cleaned them (
Matthew
8:1-4). The man was perfect religion;
He didn’t need to convert. Why in the
world would He need to be baptized?
Jesus says, “it’s to fulfill all righteousness” (
Matthew
3:15), but what does that mean?
There are quite a few thoughts on the why. Maybe Jesus was fulfilling the ministry of
John (
John
1:32). Maybe He was identifying with us as sinners and setting the precedence for baptism (
Romans
6). Maybe He was emulating the
crossing of the Jordan as He fulfilled and redeemed Israel’s history (
Joshua
3:14). And all of these may be true.
I think the reason has to do with John’s lineage. His parents were both descendants of Aaron (
Luke
1:5). His father learns of John’s
conception while in the temple performing his priestly duties burning incense (
Luke
1:8-20). What this means is that
John was a priest. He grew up with a
father who was a Levite, who served in the temple. He would have learned the trade of being a
priest. He would have been educated
profusely in the Law and the Old Testament, and He should have served in the temple
when it was his family’s time to serve.
Instead John was out baptizing people in a dirty river just
so that Jesus would come to him one day and be baptized.
In light of this I think the best explanation for Jesus’
baptism is found in
Hebrews
4:13-5:10, which I won’t reprint here, but I encourage you to read. It talks about Jesus being our high priest
who offers atonement for our sin. In the
Old Testament the high priest was “baptized” before entering office (
Exodus
29:4), and I think that’s what we’re seeing the baptism of Christ: a
christening into the office of high priest, an act that is approved by God
Himself when He speaks from heaven and anoints Jesus with the Holy Spirit,
something we’ll look at more next week.
Practically in our lives, Jesus fulfilling righteousness in
being baptized by a priest, so He might be our high priest is summed up in
1
John 1:9-10 and 2:1: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say
that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. My
little children I am writing these things so that you may not sin, but if
anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
If you fall short, and we all do. Confess and repent and be cleansed by the propitiation
for our sins, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Writing is one of those weird things where it’s easy for me
to see the mistakes that others make. I’ve been a professional writer for years
now, and I teach writing classes at the college level, so every error my
students make stands out like big flashing signs screaming at me. It’s even worse when I read a book and spot a
misspelling or a punctuation mark out of place because there are supposed to be
professionals going over these things with fine-tooth combs. “Who publishes this rubbish?” I often snicker
to my wife.
