The Word of the Lord that comes to us this morning is the account of Jesus’ baptism. With this baptism account we have a good opportunity to be reminded of our own baptism and to review what we believe, teach and confess about Holy Baptism. Rather than recite the whole catechism on baptism I would like to just hit some of the highlights. If you would like, you may follow along in your hymnal on page 325 or you may simply think these through in your mind as I read them. Again, these are just the highlights! “Baptism is not just plain water, but it is the water included in God’s command and combined with God’s word. It works forgiveness of sins, rescues from death and the devil, and gives eternal salvation to all who believe this, as the words and promises of God declare. Certainly not just water, but the word of God in and with the water does these things, along with the faith which trusts this word of God in the water. For without God’s word the water is plain water and no Baptism. But with the word of God it is a Baptism, that is, a life-giving water, rich in grace, and a washing of the new birth in the Holy Spirit. It indicates that the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”
Now that we have been reminded of our own baptism, we move on to our text and look at our text by putting it into its proper context. The context of our text for today is that John the Baptist was in the prime of his career baptizing the people with his “baptism for repentance.” Let me say that again because it is important that we remember that John’s baptism was a baptism for repentance. Our text begins with verse thirteen and fourteen, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘ need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’” (v. 13-14). Jesus came to John to be baptized by him, not because He had anything to repent, not because of His own sin, but because of our sin, which He took upon Himself.
At first, John tried actively to deter Jesus. John’s baptism was a baptism for repentance, thus John admitted to Jesus that he, John, needed to be baptized by Jesus rather than Jesus needing to be baptized by him. John knew that Jesus was without sin. John knew that Jesus needed no baptism for repentance, rather that he needed Jesus’ baptism.
However, as our text tells us John gives in and does baptize Jesus as we read in verse fifteen, “But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented” (v. 15). Jesus’ baptism was important, not for Himself, but for us. Also, He wanted John to baptize Him at this time, in order to ordain Him, induct Him, install Him, into His office of the Public Ministry. Up until this time Jesus was not preaching publicly, nor healing nor doing other miracles. It was not until after His baptism that Jesus began His public ministry.
Jesus said, “it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus was not baptized for His own sake, for His own sins. He was baptized for us, for our sake, for your sake and for mine. He took all our sins, your sins and my sins, upon Himself and only for that reason did He need this baptism for repentance, for our repentance. And because Jesus was born under the law, it was important that He fulfill all the law. In His active obedience He was baptized to fulfill all righteousness, to fulfill all that the Word of God proclaimed. Thus, John consented and baptized Jesus.
After Jesus was baptized, He came out of the water and we read what happened in verses sixteen and seventeen, “And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (v. 16-17). One of the first things we see from these two verses is the Holy Trinity of our God. Now understand the Bible does not use the word “trinity” to describe God, however, as we see in this section of our text, God does reveal Himself in this way, as a tri-une, three-in-one God, or the word we use to describe Him, the Trinity. Here the Trinity is seen in its three parts, the person of Jesus, God the Son; the dove, God the Holy Spirit; and the voice from heaven, God the Father.
The voice of God the Father speaks loud and clear telling all the people present, as well as us, that He was pleased with the work of Jesus. Literally what He says is, “I was well-pleased.” These words go back to the moment when God selected His Son for the work of redeeming the whole world, and when the Son accepted that work. In other words, these words go back to the Garden of Eden when God promised to send a Savior, and Jesus accepted the work of being that Savior, thus we read, “I was well-pleased.” And of course, reading these present words in the past tense reminds us that God does not live in time as we do, rather He transcends time so that He sees the future as the past in the present, which is what we read in our text.
You may have noticed that we have come a long way in a little more than two weeks. Two weeks ago we celebrated Jesus’ birth, now we are celebrating His baptism and the beginning of His work, His public ministry. We have quickly moved forward thirty years in Jesus’ life and at this time He is getting ready to die on the cross. Jesus was born for one purpose, and that purpose was to live the perfect life demanded of us and then to give His life for ours, to be our substitute and to pay the price for our sins, death. Jesus’ life purpose is seen in the Father’s words, reminding us that He was well-pleased that the Son had accepted this work of salvation, given to Him back in the Garden of Eden.
Jesus came to John to be baptized by him, but let us not misunderstand Jesus’ baptism. We know that John’s baptism was a baptism for repentance, but Jesus was not baptized because He needed to repent for His own sins. We are the ones who are born in sin. We are the ones who daily add to our sin as we daily sin much and are in need of forgiveness. We are the ones who need to repent. Jesus was baptized because He took our sins upon Himself. Jesus was baptized because of our need for Him to be baptized. Jesus was baptized because of our need to be baptized with a baptism of repentance. Jesus was baptized as our substitute.
Jesus was baptized as a part of His active obedience, as Matthew tells us, in order “to fulfill all righteousness.” With these words Matthew shows us, not only did Jesus come to fulfill all the Old Testament prophecies, but He also came to fulfill all righteousness. Jesus came in perfect obedience to all the laws of the Word of God. Jesus came to do perfectly what we, you and I, and all people are unable to do. Jesus came to live perfectly and to obey all the laws perfectly.
The words of John the Baptist spoken in our text are one’s with which we readily identify. John’s humble words, “I need to be baptized by you,” remind us that these are our words. We are the one’s that need Jesus. We are the one’s that Jesus came to save. It was because of our sin that Jesus had to be born into this world. It was because of our sin that Jesus had to live a perfect life. It was because of our sin that Jesus had to suffer and die on the cross. It was because of our sin and in our place that Jesus came to fulfill all righteousness.
This morning as we read, hear and see Jesus’ baptism we are reminded of our own baptism and the wonderful blessings we were given from the Lord. Of course our baptism is different from John’s baptism. When Jesus instituted Holy Baptism, instead of being a baptism for repentance, which is what John’s baptism was, Jesus gives us a sacramental baptism, a baptism through which He works to give to us, faith, forgiveness, life and salvation. Thus, at our baptism the Lord came to us through the means of the Pastor’s hands and mouth, through the water and the Word, to place His name on us. At our baptism the Lord claimed us as His children. At our baptism the Lord came into our hearts and gave us the gift of faith and forgiveness of sins and with the gift of forgiveness He also gave us the gift of everlasting life in heaven. The Baptism that Jesus gives is not something we do, it is what Jesus does. Baptism is a gift which we passively are given to from the Lord.
Baptism is God putting His name on us. I like to think about it like this: At Baptism God puts His name on us like our mother put our name on all our stuff before we started school. She put our name on our lunch box, on our books, on our clothes, on everything that was ours so that we would be able to recognize it as ours. In baptism, God puts His name on us, claiming us as His own, and including us in His kingdom. With His name on us, God recognizes us as belonging to Him. There is no question, there is no doubt about it, we belong to Him.
The placing of God’s name on something or someone was an important thing in the Old Testament. God placed His name on those things and those people He claimed as His own. To have God’s name placed on us at our baptism is to have our names written in the book of life in heaven. To have God’s name placed on us at our baptism is to be claimed by God as being one of His own.
Because baptism is the Lord’s work, it does not matter if we know or understand what is happening at our baptism. How often do we understand what the medicine is doing that we take to help us to get well, or keep us from getting sick? The medicine works whether we understand how it works or not. Likewise with Holy Baptism, and how much more important is our spiritual health than our physical health? Baptism is God’s gift to us. It is His gift of claiming us, putting His name on us, making us His, giving us faith, forgiveness, life and salvation.
Matthew reminds us that Jesus is true God and true man. That He is a part of the Trinity, with the Father and the Holy Spirit. That at the proper time He came to John to be baptized by him, in order to complete all righteousness, taking our sins upon Himself, and subjecting Himself in active obedience to what we deserve. He did this because He was pleased to do it and the Father was pleased for Him to do it. He did this because He loves us, because He created us to love us. And we rejoice and say, to God be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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