V 13

Then Jesus arrived at the Jordan from Galilee, and came to John to be baptised by him.

NLT.  Then Jesus went from Galilee to the River Jordan to be baptised by John.

Mark 1: 9.  It happened at this time that Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptised in the Jordan by John.

This was a deliberate public appearance by Jesus.  It was part of a plan.  Jesus’ whole life was part of God’s plan for rescuing his relationship with humanity. Jesus came to the Jordan, where John was preaching and baptising people, especially to be baptised.  He would have known of the prophesies and events surrounding John’s birth (described in Luke’s gospel) as they were cousins and could have grown up quite close to each other as members of one extended family.  There is a suggestion that Jesus may have at first been one of John’s disciples until the time was right for him to set out on his own.  Perhaps John’s emergence as a new ‘prophet’ from the desert was the signal to Jesus that the time had come for him to begin his earthly work. Maybe the readiness of people to listen to John and to accept John’s baptism was some kind of sign of openness for spiritual things.

Today, while it seems that many people are not interested in the church and in Christianity, there certainly is a much greater open interest in spiritual things in our community today.  People are up front about being interested in the spirit world, in pagan religions and in other world religions much more than in years past. 

Is this a prime time Christians to be introducing Jesus?  But we  need to do it in a different way, because many people have been turned off the church and the way it has presented the gospel.  So, how do we introduce them to Jesus in a more real and living way?

V 14

John tried to dissuade  him. ‘Do you come to me?’ he said; ‘I need rather to be baptised by you.’

NLT.  But John didn’t want to baptise him.  “I am the one who needs to be baptised by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?”

John 1:29-31:  The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him.  ‘Look’, he said, ‘there is the Lamb of God; it is he who takes away the sin of the world.  This is he of whom I spoke when I said, “After me a man is coming who takes rank before me”; for before I was born he already was.  I myself did not know who he was; but the very reason why I came, baptising in water, was that he might be revealed to Israel.’

John 1: 29-31, NLT. The next day John saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “Look! There is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!  He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Soon a man is coming who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before I did.’  I didn’t know he was the one, but I have been baptising with water in order to point him out to Israel.”

Matthew’s gospel is the only one to tell us in some detail about the actual baptism of Jesus. When we read in John’s gospel of John the Baptist’s report of the event, we find out that John the Baptist, although we assume he knew Jesus as a member of his family, didn’t realise just who Jesus was until now.  It seems that John, like Jesus, has been aware of his life’s purpose for some time, but he didn’t understand what Jesus was to do, though maybe Jesus knew who John was. We know from Luke’s gospel that John had been filled with the Holy Spirit, even from before his birth.  (Luke 1:15)  Now, when he needed to know, the Spirit let him know that Jesus was the person he’d been waiting for and towards whom his preaching had been pointing.

So now, when Jesus arrived on the scene and asked to be baptised, John was adamant that it should be the other way around. He should be baptised by Jesus, not Jesus baptised by him. When confronted with the person of Jesus, John, like all of us, was very aware of his imperfections!

John Drane, Introducing the New Testament, p 53.  Jesus came to John and asked to be baptised.  At first John did not want to allow Jesus to share in this symbol of repentance.  After all, if Jesus really did have this special relationship with God, which John believed he did, what could he possibly have to repent of?   But Jesus assured John that he must take part in it…..

V 15.

Jesus replied, ‘Let it be so for the present; we do well to conform in this way with all that God requires.’  John then allowed him to come.

NLT.  But Jesus said, “It must be done, because we must do everything that is right.”  So then John baptised him.

Jesus said that was what God wanted.  So John did it. No more argument.  That is faith in action.  John, as we do, might have wondered why, but he did it anyway.  We often wonder why God does things the way he does and asks us to do the things he does.  I don’t think it’s wrong to wonder, but wondering must not stop us obeying.

In this short conversation, Matthew begins to let us know about the authority of Jesus and the fact that he is ‘God with us’ and he showed that throughout his life in many ways.

John Drane, Introducing the New Testament, p 53,54.  What did Jesus mean by saying this?  The simple explanation is that Jesus felt he must identify himself with those repenting sinners who would be his own first disciples.  Far from separating him from other people, the special relationship he felt he had with God was a powerful reason for becoming completely involved in the lives of the most ordinary of folk.  But some have suggested there is even more than that implied in these words.  They suggest that Jesus regarded his baptism as the first step on the road to the cross, which he saw as the climax and goal of his whole life.  It is true that he later called his death a ‘baptism’ (Matthew 10:38), and that in it he really and truly fulfilled God’s will.

Vs16, 17

After baptism Jesus came up out of the water at once, and at that moment heaven opened; he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove to alight upon him; and a voice from heaven was heard saying, ‘This is my Son, my Beloved, on whom my favour rests.’

Mark 1: 10, 11  At the moment when he came up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn open and the Spirit, like a dove, descending upon him. And a voice spoke from heaven: ‘Thou art my Son, my Beloved, on thee my favour rests.’

Luke 3: 21, 22  During a general baptism of the people, when Jesus too had been baptised and was praying, heaven opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove; and there came a voice from heaven, ‘Thou art my Son, my Beloved; on thee my favour rests.’

John 1: 32 - 34.  John testified further: ‘I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove and resting upon him.  I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptise in water had told me, “When you see the Spirit coming down upon someone and resting upon him, you will know that this is he who is to baptise in the Holy Spirit.”  I saw it myself, and I have borne witness.  This is God’s Chosen One.’

All the gospel writers saw this as very important: that Jesus was proclaimed as God’s Son and someone who was very loved and favoured by God - God’s Chosen One.

The first three gospels tell of the heavens opening, or torn open and the Spirit in the form of a dove coming and settling on Jesus.  It seems as if there was something visible that happened, but that Jesus and John, through the power of the Spirit, understood the real significance of it. As the record of John the Baptist’s telling of the event doesn’t mention a voice from heaven, I wonder if Jesus was the only one who heard that voice confirming his relationship with God.

I find it good to know, that even though Jesus knew what his mission and ministry were to be, and even though he knew who he was, God still gave him this special confirmation and assurance of his power.  I find I need constant reassurance of my faith, my gifting and what I think God’s will is for me.  A one-off assurance isn’t enough.  Even this, I know that Jesus understands!

New Bible Commentary, p 910.  The revelation … marked Jesus out as the Messiah, anointed with the Spirit, as foretold in Isaiah 11:2; 42:1 and 61:1, while the declaration from heaven picks up the language of Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1.  Jesus was thus commissioned as the Messianic king, and his status as Son of God was declared on no less an authority than that of God himself.

John Drane, Introducing the New Testament, p 54.  It was probably in the experience of being baptised that Jesus first began to understand the precise nature of his special relationship with God.  According to Mark (Mark 1: 11), Jesus heard the words: ‘You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.’  This is a combination of statements found in two passages in the Old Testament. On the one hand there is an echo of Psalm 2: 7, ‘You are my son, today I have become your father.’  In its original context, this statement referred to the kings of ancient Judah.  By the time of Jesus it was widely regarded as a prediction of the coming Messiah.  On the other hand, there is also a clear allusion to the poem of the suffering servant in Isaiah, where the servant is described as ‘the one I have chosen, with whom I am pleased’.  This idea of the servant was never connected with the expectation of a Messiah before the time of Jesus.

                    It therefore seems likely that at his baptism Jesus learned two lessons:  he was reassured of his own special relationship with God as the person who had been specially chosen to inaugurate God’s new society; and he was also reminded that to be God’s promised deliverer meant something very different from what most people expected.  It meant the acceptance of suffering and service as an essential part of his life.  This was very difficult, as Jesus was soon to discover.  But he faced the problem with the power of God himself - something of which he was reminded when the Holy Spirit symbolically came to him in the form of a dove.