Why was Jesus Baptised?

At Thursday’s Bible study, we began looking at Mark’s Gospel. Mark is man on a mission, a man in a hurry. He misses much out which the other gospel writers include. There’s no birth narrative which is why Mark’s words are seldom heard at carol services and interesting episodes like Jesus’ wilderness temptations are reduced to a pair of summative sentences. If fashionable scholarly opinion is correct, and Mark is writing in Rome using Peter as his source, he is hastily recording the key facts before the authorities take the great apostle away and crucify him. Mark’s haste is sensed in his frequently beginning new sections with kai (‘and’) as well as his use of ‘immediately’. 

One section upon which he does not scrimp is Jesus’ baptism. Although some details, like John the Baptist’s objections, are omitted, this is an episode that Mark wants his readers to know. Yet it puzzles many moderns. John’s baptism was one of repentance, yet the spotless Lamb of God had nothing of which to repent, neither Adam’s inherited corruption, nor His own bad choices. Why then was He baptised, and why was Mark so keen to tell us about it, when so much other material was left on the cutting room floor?  Jesus Himself offers an answer in Matthew 3:15: 

But Jesus answered and said to [John], “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.” 

This is an ambiguous comment, one that invites further thought. Jesus often spoke in parables and obscure expressions. Although this phrase is no parable, it requires the kind of insight that parabolic speech needs, and to which He refers in Matthew 13:10-35. The two key words are fulfil and righteousness.  

At His baptism, Christ fulfilled the call to become One who submits, a servant. This is a favoured theme in Mark, and one which the old prophets foresaw. Isaiah saw the Messiah meekly being led out to die; Paul describes the incarnation as Christ ‘taking on the nature of a bond-servant’. He submits to the men arresting and beating him, He submits to death on across, though He might have called twelve legions of angel to relieve Him. In the Garden, He says in 14:36

And He was saying, "Abba! Father! All things are possible for Thee; remove this cup from Me; yet not what I will, but what Thou wilt."

The eternal, glorious God the Son, co-eternal with the Father, submits to His will during His incarnate years. The Son comes as a servant, He acquiesces to others’ authority, even though He has Himself all authority. Here, He submits to John, and to those prophecies of subservience and humility. This baptism marks the start of His mission. He begins with an act of submission, and He ends it an act of submission at Calvary, calling the words ‘Father into your hands I commit my Spirit”.

Secondly, baptism marks the official inauguration of His earthly ministry. He was considered a rabbi, so He was probably about thirty years old. We know little of what He did at this time. Many engage in idle speculation, such as He travelled to India or Britain, but I think it more likely He kept His head down, working as a carpenter, biding His time until this moment. The Christ had to live an unblemished life for Calvary’s sacrifice to be effective. This meant living and working among other humans. At the baptism, the saw and claw hammer are put down and He became the preacher and healer for which He is still famous.

Thirdly, the baptised Christ is identifying with the very sinners whom He has come to rescue. They are born in sin and must repent if they are to approach God. Later, He was found among the prostitutes and tax collectors. Now, He appears among the sinners gathered on Jordan’s bank. Paul says ‘He became sin for us’; Christ upon the cross was the very image of sinful man, bearing our crimes’ just penalty. Christ, the friend of sinners, became a human being, a Second Adam, and is plunged into Man’s world.

We who practise believers’ baptism by immersion (unlike the artist whose work I show above) often explain to onlookers that descending into the water and coming up again is reminiscent of our own future death and resurrection. This event was surely anticipating His. The Son came not just to teach and heal, but to die and resurrect. The start of this three-year ministry looks ahead to that period’s closing week, during which all those repentant recipients of the river’s flow would be finally purchased back for God. Says the apostle in Romans 6:4 'Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.' 

Fifthly, it was a public endorsement of John’s status as prophet and a confirmation of his ministry. As John heralded the Messiah and pointed all to Him, so Christ demonstrates approval of John by allowing him to administer baptism. There were some who doubted John’s authenticity, and he had enemies enough in Herod’s palace. That Christ came to him at the Jordan was a public affirmation of support. 

Finally, it was the glorious stage upon which the God the Father would publicly endorse the Son’s status and mission, announcing His unique and spectacular identity to the world. Here is one whose sandal straps none of us are fit to untie. Those hearing would certainly have been familiar with the Messianic passages of Psalm 2 and Isaiah 42 to which the Father’s proclamation seems to allude. There is no doubt- the One now coming out of the waters is He for whom they had been waiting for so long. He is the Serpent-Crusher of Eden, Balaam’s Rising Sceptre, Moses’ Great Prophet. In Him, all righteousness was, and is, fulfilled. 

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