Yeshua Explored
30th October 2023
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Baptism of Jesus
MATTHEW 3:13-17, MARK 1:7-11, LUKE 3:21-23, JOHN 1:32-34
John’s message of repentance awakened echoes throughout the land and brought hearers from city, village and hamlet. For once, every distinction was irrelevant. Pharisee and Sadducee, the outcast taxman and semi-pagan soldier met here on common ground. Their bond of union was the common ‘hope of Israel’, the only hope that remained, that of ‘the Kingdom.’ The long winter of disappointment had not destroyed, nor the storms of suffering swept away what had struck its roots so deep in the soil of Israel’s heart.
That Kingdom had been the last word of the Old Testament. To the Jew of the day, the central part of his worship revolved around the sacrificial system. Yet they would know that their Scriptures looked beyond their offerings, that ‘the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean,’ were only ‘the shadow of good things that are coming’ (Hebrews 10:1) of ‘a new and better covenant, established upon better promises.’ (Hebrews 8:6)
The shadow was about to give way to reality as Jesus now appears in our story. Although there seems not to have been any personal connection between Jesus and John, each must have heard and known of the other. Yet, when the two met there was an unspoken familiarity. With John, it was deepest, reverent humility. He knew of him and now he saw him; that look of quiet dignity, of the majesty in the only unfallen, sinless man. At that moment there was instant meaning to that express command of God, which had sent him from his solitude to preach and baptise and proclaim the Kingdom.
A question often asked is, why did Jesus go to be baptised? Reasons given include that of his personal sinfulness, of his coming as the representative of a guilty race, or as the bearer of the sins of others, or of acting in solidarity with his people, or of his surrendering himself to death for man, of his purpose to do honour to the baptism of John, or thus as a token of his Messiahship, or to bind himself to the observance of the Law, or in this manner to commence his Messianic work, or to consecrate himself solemnly to it, or, lastly, to receive the spiritual qualification for it. Perhaps the truth is a lot simpler?
We must not seek for any ulterior motive in the coming of Jesus to this Baptism. He had no ulterior motive of any kind, it was an act of simple submissive obedience on the part of the perfect one and this submissive obedience has no motive beyond itself. It asks no reasons, it cherishes no ulterior purpose. And so it was ‘the fulfilment of all righteousness.’ Our difficulty can be in thinking simply of his humanity or in just emphasising his Divinity. But the Gospels always present him as the God-Man, in an inseparable mystical union of the two natures.
The Baptism of Christ was the last act of his private life and, emerging from its waters in prayer, his one outstanding thought would be, ‘I must be about my Father’s business’. A present, visible demonstration from heaven was to be given. We can understand how what he knew of Jesus must have overwhelmed John with the sense of Christ’s transcendence and led him to hesitate over baptising one ‘the straps of whose sandals he was not worthy to untie.’
Jesus stepped out of the baptismal waters ‘praying’. As the prayer of Jesus winged heavenwards, the Holy Spirit descended on him. The voice from heaven proclaimed, ‘You are my son whom I love; with you I am well pleased’ – the ratification of the great Davidic promise of Psalm 2 and the beginning of Jesus’ Messianic work.
Nowhere in Rabbinic writings do we find any hint of a Baptism of the Messiah, nor of a descent upon him of the Spirit in the form of a dove. This is repugnant to Jewish thinking. Therefore, it rings true, deflecting from any possible contrivance, where events match expectations. Yet it goes further, perhaps troublingly so, as, although the Gospel text is explicit, there is no support in the Old Testament of the idea of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove, but rather that the dove symbolises Israel (Songs 1:15) and that Jesus is seen as the perfect Israelite.
This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £14.99 at https://www.sppublishing.com/jesus-life-and-times-a-clash-of-kingdomsand-the-triumph-of-mercy-376-p.asp (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)
