This coming Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. The scene is filled with eschatological overtones. The heavens are opened, a voice comes from heaven, the Spirit is given. The Judaism of Jesus’ day  tended to regard all of these elements as the revelatory gifts of God that happened in now-past OT times and that no longer occurred. But they also believed those signs would reappear in the “last days.”  What becomes clear is it is not the baptism that is central to Matthew’s  narrative, but the events that follow. Those events reveal the beginning of the long awaited eschatological events of salvation.

Different scholars will give varying accents and background to the three signs – mostly surrounding the idea of fulfilling all righteousness. In Jesus’ baptism, he and John fulfilled the OT by revealing the Messiah to Israel. This baptism, an inauguration of Jesus’ ministry to Israel, led immediately to OT fulfillment in that the Spirit, as a dove, came upon the Messiah and the Father endorsed his Son in the voice from heaven. In baptism, Jesus as the servant proclaimed and exemplified the righteousness envisioned by the prophets. Additionally he identified in baptism with the repentant righteous remnant within the nation of Israel (Mt 3:5–6). His baptism reveals his humility and anticipates his ministry to lowly but repentant people..

The Spirit. The Baptism, with all its import and significance, is followed by a quite revelatory event: “ …and behold, the heavens were opened (for him), and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove (and) coming upon him.” (Mt 3:16).

The opening of heaven is familiar elsewhere in the NT as an expression for a visionary experience occurring in John, Acts, and Revelation. In the OT, perhaps the significant parallel is Ezekiel 1:1. Standing beside a river, Ezekiel sees heaven opened and receives a vision and hears God’s voice commissioning him for his prophetic role, later giving him the Spirit (Ezek 2:2). In Isaiah 63, the prophet pleads with God to tear open the heaven, come down, and save his people. There is ample precedence for the opening of heaven to be the prelude to the divine communication and the giving of the Spirit.

The descent of the Spirit of God echoes the well-known messianic prophecies in Isaiah which say that God will place his Spirit upon his chosen servant. As R.T. France points out, this does not mean that before now Jesus has been without the Spirit, since Matthew has attributed his birth to the Spirit (1:18, 20). But now as the Spirit descends on Jesus, He is visibly equipped and commissioned to undertake his messianic mission. (Matthew, 121)

One wonders if Mathew also has in mind the hovering of the Spirit above the water of creation in Genesis. Does Matthew understand Jesus’ baptism as a “new creation,” a genesis? The word “genesis” is the word and idea with which Matthew begins the genealogy (1:1, 18).  

When the Spirit comes upon people in Acts it is evident in their subsequent behavior, speaking in tongues and preaching boldly rather than in any visible “descent.” But such is not the case at Pentecost. (Acts 2:2–3) when we read of both audible and visible phenomena, wind and fire. The Baptism of Jesus is the only occasion when we hear of the Spirit appearing in visual, corporeal form, “like a dove.” Is there an OT precedence for this? There is certainly no direct connection, but some scholars think that perhaps Matthew has in mind a “fusion” of water, new creation, and the flood narrative when all begins again with Noah sending out the dove. Interesting, but speculative.

Image credit: The Baptism of Christ, Juan Fernández de Navarrete, “El Mudo” | Museo del Prado, Madrid | Wikimedia Commons | PD-US

This coming Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. ¹⁴ John tried to prevent him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?” ¹⁵ Jesus said to him in reply, “Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Righteousness (dikaiosýnē) is a complex concept rooted in the Hebrew ṣedeq-ṣĕdāqâ and mišpāṭ.  In short, as used by Matthew, dikaiosýnē refers to right conduct before God. This is the consistent usage in Matthew. Jesus is baptized so as to do what is right with God (3:15). The hungering and thirsting of 5:6 is for a right state before God. Yet this righteousness is God’s gift (6:33). It is to be sought with his kingdom. It brings persecution (5:10). It includes the practice of piety (6:1). The way in which the Baptist came is that of right conduct (21:32).

Boring (Matthew, New Interpreters Bible, 160) comments on the phrase:

Both righteousness and fulfillment are key Matthean theological themes. Righteousness here means, as often elsewhere, doing the revealed will of God. Here, fulfill seems to mean simply “do, perform,” and the meaning is that it is necessary for both John and Jesus to do God’s will, which includes the baptism of Jesus. The plural “us” links John and Jesus together as partners in carrying out God’s saving plan (11:2-19). 

The First Temptation of Christ. Brian Stoffregen has an interesting insight about righteousness as “do, perform” what God requires of us.  

John, by trying to prevent the baptism, tempts Jesus not to do all that God requires of him. He tempts Jesus to assume his proper position now: to be the more powerful one; to baptize with the judgmental Holy Spirit and fire; to meet John’s need. I don’t think that these are too dissimilar to the devil’s temptations that occur immediately after the baptism (4:1-11) — temptations for Jesus to use his power now, for his own glory; and avoid his emptying and eventually the pain and suffering of the cross.

What does God require of Jesus? Is it just the baptism? I think that baptism is only part of the picture of Jesus identifying with sinful humanity: the Sinless One is baptized for the forgiveness of sin; the Holy One eats/fellowships with unholy sinners; the Immortal One dies on a cross as a criminal. It is part of the emptying of himself — the God who becomes truly human.

In fact, the “emptying,” occurs even earlier in Matthew. We have been told that the child has been conceived from the Holy Spirit. We have been told that “Jesus” will save his people from their sins. We have been told that he will be called “Immanuel” — God is with us. What happens to this very special child after his birth? He has to flee for his life. The one, who will save his people, has to be saved from Herod. The one who is “God-with-us” has to flee from the Promised Land. He (and his parents) are acting as people who have been emptied of power.

This thought is highly reflective of Philippians 2:6-11 in which Jesus empties himself “becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”  This passage from Philippians strongly echoes Is 53:12 which speaks of the “Suffering Servant” of God – one who does what is right before God and thus fulfills all righteousness.

Image credit: The Baptism of Christ, Juan Fernández de Navarrete, “El Mudo” | Museo del Prado, Madrid | Wikimedia Commons | PD-US

This coming Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. As John the Baptist mysteriously appeared in the wilderness, so too Jesus. John appeared proclaiming: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (3:2).  It was a very public appeal to which people responded: “Jerusalem, all Judea, and the whole region around the Jordan were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the Jordan River as they acknowledged their sins” (3:5–6.) Jesus appears on the scene and Matthew makes it clear that Jesus’ purpose is to be baptized by John (v.13).

These verses are found only in Matthew: “…to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?’ Jesus said to him in reply, ‘Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed him” (vv.13b-15).  It seems as though John has recognized the nature of Jesus’ mission. Matthew gives us no clue of the means by which John recognized Jesus (it is Luke who reveals the family connection between Mary and Elizabeth).  The intention of Jesus to be baptized ignites an oppositional tone in the dialogue between John and Jesus. Clearly John tries to dissuade Jesus from being baptized at John’s hand. The verb (diakoluo) is imperfect, implying a continued action in the past (“was preventing”); in other words, it could have been an extended argument.  

What gave John pause?  At a minimum John recognizes Jesus as the one “coming after me [who] is mightier than I” (3:11).   At the level of operative culture, it is not John’s place to baptize Jesus. That being said, it is not clear that John is aware of the full nature of Jesus or his mission (cf. 11:3).  Later Christians would raise the specifically theological question: why does the sinless Son of God submit to John’s baptism?  John is clear that his baptism is associated with repentance (v.2), that people were acknowledging their sins (v.6) and were required to show the fruit of their repentance (v.8).  Perhaps this is on John’s mind – what is clear is that John did not view his baptism as worthy of or appropriate to Jesus. In any case, Matthew makes clear that John is not superior because he had baptized Jesus. 

Jesus’ baptism is not a prefiguring of Christian baptism, it is not a gateway to prepare people for baptism in Spirit and fire (v.11).  What is it then?  In this first public appearance in Matthew’s narrative, Jesus is identifying himself with the faithful remnant of people who recognize their own sinfulness and their dependence upon the mercy of God. This becomes the active symbol of Christian life viewed as a relationship with God through God’s chosen people. It was this relationship which John’s baptism demanded (cf. 21:32), and which now requires Jesus to identify himself with the penitent people of God in order to fulfill his mission. So Jesus regards his baptism among repentant Israel as a necessary step in his accomplishment of God’s purpose of salvation – to fulfill all righteousness” (v.15).

Image credit: The Baptism of Christ, Juan Fernández de Navarrete, “El Mudo” | Museo del Prado, Madrid | Wikimedia Commons | PD-US

This coming Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. The story of Jesus in the larger context of Matthew 3:1–4:16 is bracketed by John the Baptist’s ministry. 

• In those days John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the desert of Judea (and) saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (3:1-2).  
• From that time on, Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (4:17)

John prepared the way for Jesus and his ministry. Where John’s proclamation is that the kingdom is “right around the corner,” Jesus announces that the kingdom is here in the person of the Messiah, the Son of God.  The “inauguration” of the in-breaking of the kingdom (kairos) into Time (chromos) occurs at the baptism of Jesus which serves as the occasion for the coming of the Spirit and the Father’s approval of his beloved son. 

And all of this is then immediately tested by Satan (4:1) in the periscope that follows our text. There Matthew continues to show Jesus as the fulfillment of the Covenant – where Israel failed in the dessert, giving into temptation, Jesus is obedient and faithful to his Father.  Tested, Jesus then becomes the “new Moses” announcing far more than the promised land – announcing the presence of the Kingdom of God.

That Jesus was baptized by John is undoubtedly a historical fact. According to the Gospel accounts, Jesus received from John a baptism connected with the forgiveness of sins. It is inconceivable that the early Christians, who held Jesus in such high esteem, would have invented a story in which Jesus received something from John and that this reception would involve the baptism of repentance.

Matthew uses this scene to bring the adult Jesus onto the narrative stage for the first time, to present him and his mission to the reader in terms of his own Christology.  By bringing Jesus into the on-going story of John (3:1-12) Matthew preserves the continuity of salvation history from the OT through John to Jesus. It is clear that the continuity is at the initiative of Jesus.

The gospel text naturally divides into two parts: (1) the discussion that precedes the baptism, and (2) the scene following the baptism when he came up from the water (v.16).  Within the first division there is one question which begs to be answered – why did Jesus receive the baptism of John?  The ancillary context is “….Jesus had no sin, and so had no need for baptism – did he?”  Within the second division is the more basic question – “What does all that happened – the voice from heaven, the coming of the Spirit – what does it mean?”

Image credit: The Baptism of Christ, Juan Fernández de Navarrete, “El Mudo” | Museo del Prado, Madrid | Wikimedia Commons | PD-US