(Note from Judi - I have taken the liberty of removing his sport euphamisms and tongue-in-cheek jokes from his sermon).
Scriptures: Matthew 3:13-17
Today we're going to look at an event that made it into all four Gospels - every author of every gospel found this event so inspiring and important that it was included. It narrates the inauguration of Jesus into ministry. It was His coming out party - His grand opening, so to speak. And, it begins the launch sequence of Jesus toward His eventual crucifixion. That makes it really powerful to think about.
It's an unusual story because, depending on what you think about baptism, there doesn't seem to be any reason for Jesus to be baptized. There's a little confusion about baptism. Some people think it's the event that makes one a Christian. I'll ask people if they are Christ Followers and they'll say, "Well, I was baptized when I was seven." Being baptized when you're seven is okay, but Scripture doesn't teach that baptism saves you.
Baptism isn't where you find Jesus; it's what you do once you've found him. But that doesn't answer the question, "Why would Jesus seek to be baptized by John?" I think it's important that we realize John didn't just come up with this baptism idea on his own.
We have two key players here: Jesus and his cousin, John the Baptist. John's ministry was to prepare the way for the Messiah. His message was simple and straight forward: "Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!" (Matthew 3:2). When people repented, he baptized them. The Jewish people were looking for a deliverer to make things right in their country. They were a people whose land was occupied by an oppressive foreign government, and they longed for freedom. But it was more than that. It was a people whose relationship with God had grown cold.
God had chosen their forefather Abraham to be the patriarch of His people hundreds of years before. Like many relationships, it started out strongly but through the years complacency set in. Familiarity breeds contempt, they say. Israel started taking God for granted, and God won't tolerate that for long in relationship with us.
A brief history of God's relationship with Israel: God blesses and Israel enjoys, Israel becomes complacent, takes God for granted, and turns her back on Him. God gets Israel's attention through tragedy. The Israelites repent and relationship is restored. And then the cycle begins anew. John the Baptist comes along during a down cycle of Israel's relationship with God. They had become complacent, taken God for granted and turned their backs on Him, and God had allowed them to experience discomfort in order to get their attention.
And because God had always provided a deliverer in the past, people like Moses and David, there was great anticipation for the next manifestation of deliverer. John, as the preparer of the way, says what has to be said, "Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!" It makes perfect sense, doesn't it? The people had to turn their hearts back to God in order to experience deliverance. This occupation by a foreign conqueror is the method God is using to get their attention. And John uniquely adapts a common practice of his day to teach his people about humility, commitment and identification.
Judaism was very popular during the times when God was blessing. Other nations and other people took note. They wanted their piece of the blessing pie so, occasionally, Gentiles petitioned to become Jews. The Gentiles who wanted to become Jews were called proselytes. In the simplest sense, that means convert. In our context, a proselyte is a Gentile becoming a Jew. For a Gentile to become a full-fledged Jew (and any Gentile could do this) there was a three-step process that had to be completed.
The first was to offer a sacrifice. A heifer or a pair of turtledoves was brought to the priest and given as a burnt offering to God. Obviously there was an expense involved and the lifeblood of the animal was spilled. It's all sort of gruesome really. The next was circumcision, the cutting away of a piece of flesh from a man's body. For a Jewish boy, this was done when he was 8 days old, thus the pain wasn't remembered. But an adult male, who wanted to become a Jewish proselyte, had to undergo this procedure, regardless of his age. I would think this would've prevented anyone from jumping into this without a great deal of thoughtful consideration.
Circumcision was unique to the Jewish people. It was their distinguishing, permanent, irreversible, identifying mark on their body that designated them as the only people on earth who were in covenant relationship with God.
Finally, after the circumcision wound had healed, the proselyte went through the final step of baptism. The person stripped off all of his clothes. (We don't do that here by the way.) He then went into the water naked, and dipped himself under water making sure to fully immerse his entire body, being careful that not one bit of flesh remained dry.
When males were baptized, the priest was present. When females were baptized, they were only attended by other females; no rabbis were present. Can you imagine the level of humility that would take? Becoming a Jew wasn't a walk in the park - it was something one did with exceptional contemplation.
Once this process had been completed, the proselyte was now considered a Jew in every way. He had fully renounced his previous life, his previous nationality, his previous allegiances; he or she was fully Jewish physically and spiritually. His identity completely changed.
This wasn't just an "add on" to your life. You didn't add Jewishness to your old identity. God didn't become just another among many gods in your life. In a sense, the Gentile died when he went under the water and a new person with a new name, and a new identity was born when he or she came out of the water. John adopts this proselyte's baptism and morphs it into a baptism of repentance. Matthew 3:5-6, Then [people from] Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the vicinity of the Jordan were flocking to him, and they were baptized by him in the Jordan River as they confessed their sins.
Remember now these are Jews. John's task wasn't to get people into Judaism; it was to get God's people to realize their sin and turn back to God - to turn from self-centeredness to God-centeredness. This baptism was a moment of humility, commitment and identification; it was the time a person could look to and say, "That's when I did it; I made my commitment public that day."
So, why Jesus was baptized? His was a baptism of humility. If you'll recall, amidst the protestations of John the Baptist, Jesus explains why He has come for baptism. Matthew 3:15, Jesus answered him, "Allow it for now, because this is the way for us to fulfill all righteousness." Then he allowed Him [to be baptized]. Jesus humbles Himself to do what God asks - it's obedience to God. Jesus does this because God requires it. He lived a life of complete obedience to God - that's why we can say about Jesus, and no other person who ever lived, that He was sinless. I can't say that, and you can't say that; only Jesus can.
Obedience to God is all God's ever asked for. Back when God was getting this whole thing started, He had a conversation with Abraham where He said, "I am God Almighty. Live in My presence and be devout. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you greatly" (Genesis 17:1-2).
Remember I said that the nation of Israel got in trouble when they, "became complacent, took God for granted and turned their backs on Him?" What is that descriptive of - disobedience right? Baptism was another in a series of acts of humility and obedience on the part of Jesus. It began with his coming to earth as a helpless infant baby boy; it ended with His crucifixion, and in between Jesus obeyed His Father.
One of the most powerful expressions of this is found in Philippians 2:6-8. Speaking of Jesus it says, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death -- even to death on a cross.
This was also a baptism of commitment. This launched Jesus' ministry that would eventually lead to the cross. He knew where this thing was headed. For three and a half years, Jesus did His thing and it ended with crucifixion. This inauguration began that process. It was a commitment to God's plan and you and me. Finally, Jesus' was a baptism of identification: he affirmed John's ministry and identity with the people He'd come to save.
Jesus took this step of obedience to show us the way - to identify with those of us who do need to repent and turn back. Humility, commitment, and identification: that's really what baptism is all about. But what does that mean for me and you?
But there's so much more to following Jesus! There are incredible benefits to following Jesus: unreserved acceptance, limitless love, God's unmerited favor - grace, forgiveness for all our sins, and purpose in life. Those are powerful benefits to following the Lord. It pays to follow Christ. But following Christ is more than benefits; it also entails responsibility.
The "more" of Christianity has to do with humility, commitment, and identification. The proselyte's baptism was about humility, commitment and identification. Jesus' baptism was about humility, commitment and identification. And the baptisms we perform today are about humility, commitment and identification. It's humbling to get into the water in front of everybody. It's an act of humble obedience to Jesus. He once said, "Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age." Matthew 28:19-20
It's also an act of commitment and identification. When you're baptized and people see you, the expectation level goes way up. People will expect you to walk the talk. You're identified with Christ, and just like He was baptized to identify with us, we're baptized to identify with Him. He was buried and rose again, and guess what? We get buried under the water and we rise again.
Do you remember what happened when Jesus came out of the water? Matthew 3:16-18, “After Jesus was baptized, He went up immediately from the water. The heavens suddenly opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming down on Him. And there came a voice from heaven: This is My beloved Son. I take delight in Him!” Humble obedience and commitment to God and identification with God always lead to His affirmation . . . Always.
Notes from Judi:
See Acts 15 where the Council in Jerusalem met and resolved the fact that Gentiles no longer needed to be circumcised in order to follow Christ.
Depending on your faith (denomination) and the doctrine of your church you are either baptized as an infant or as an adult. We had quite a discussion about this last night during Bible study ;-) - there are those of us who agree and disagree with infant baptism.
(Anabaptists: The term anabaptist was used to describe and define certain Reformation-era Christians who rejected infant baptism in favor of believer's baptism. They are Christians who believe in delaying baptism until the candidate confesses his or her faith in Christ, as opposed to being baptized as an infant. The Amish, Hutterites, and Mennonites are direct descendants of the movement.)