Summary: This sermon, which puts Jesus' baptism into context, gives us an occasion for considering how we are different because of being baptized and how our baptism is expressed in daily life.
The account of Jesus' ministry in Matthew's gospel begins with his baptism at the end of the third chapter. But before we get to that account there's a two-and-a-half-chapter introduction that shows how deeply Jesus' life is rooted in the troubled history of humanity.
That introduction begins with Jesus' descent from Abraham - a list of "X was the father of Y" statements. Some of those ancestors' names are well known, but many aren't. Of the few women who are noted, "the wife of Uriah" stands out. You can read in Chapter 8 of Second Samuel about how King David, one of Jesus' ancestors, had one of his soldiers put in a position in battle where he would be killed before he could discover that David had gotten his wife pregnant.1 People usually try to conceal such things in their family trees, but Matthew calls our attention to it in Jesus' ancestry.
Then when Jesus is born in Bethlehem, there's the familiar story of Gentile Magi coming from afar with gifts for the king whose star they had seen in the heavens. The one who is to be born will be important for all the people of the world! But the Magi had told King Herod that they were seeking a newborn king, and Herod sent soldiers to eliminate a potential rival. All the young boys in the Bethlehem area are massacred. But Jesus' parents escape with him to Egypt and return to Israel when Herod is dead. Jesus will grow up in Nazareth, but we aren't told about him doing or saying anything there.
Then today's gospel selection about Jesus' baptism by John is preceded by a sketch of John's ministry.2 He called people to repent of their sins, told them that simply being descended from Abraham wouldn't save them, and baptized them as a sign of cleansing from sin. John also spoke about one more powerful than himself who would "baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire." That reference to "fire" points to a purging of sin as one of the purposes of baptism. Then finally, Jesus comes on the scene to be baptized by John in the Jordan.
Matthew doesn't tell us how John might have known Jesus previously, but here it's obvious that he does recognize him, and at first John doesn't want to baptize Jesus. "This isn't right," he says in effect. "You're the one who ought to be baptizing me!" Jesus doesn't argue with him, but just says, "It ought to be this way now. We have to 'fulfill all righteousness.'" (As we read further in Matthew's gospel, we'll see ways in which righteousness is fulfilled in Jesus' life and teaching.) And without further discussion, John agrees to baptize Jesus.
Earlier we were told that people "were baptized by [John] in the river Jordan, confessing their sins."3 John's surprise at the idea that he should baptize Jesus suggests that he thinks Jesus is more righteous than he, but the reality goes beyond that. Jesus isn't just more righteous than John, but more righteous than everyone else as well. Our text, and in fact the rest of scripture, says nothing about Jesus needing to confess any sins of his own. (In a debate with some Pharisees, Jesus will ask them rhetorically, "Which of you convicts me of sin?"4)
All that is in spite of what the preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes had said centuries before: "Surely there is no one on earth so righteous as to do good without ever sinning."5 Later Paul would emphasize that reality, saying in his letter to the Romans that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."6
And here on the banks of the Jordan, Jesus identifies himself with that common human condition. He receives John's baptism along with all those others who had confessed their sins. At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus the sinless one chooses to be seen as "just another sinner," and to be grouped with the rest of us by bathing in our dirty bathwater!
In many churches, the name of every person baptized there will be included in the congregational records, along with the names and signatures of some witnesses of the baptism. Though Matthew says nothing about other people who may have been present at Jesus' baptism, Luke's account of that event7 makes it clear that others were baptized along with Jesus. And in addition to those other people, there were more important witnesses to Jesus' baptism when he came out of the water.
When Jesus was baptized, we're told that "the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him." A heavenly voice declared him to be "my Son, the Beloved." That's an obvious image of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, that we also find in the accounts of the baptism in Mark and Luke. While it was the Son of God who took on human nature, the Father and the Holy Spirit would be involved with everything that Jesus did throughout his life. (An ancient principle of Christian theology is that "All the works of the Trinity in creation are undivided."8)
The explicit reference to the members of all three persons of the Holy Trinity here - Jesus, the Spirit of God and One who speaks of Jesus as "my Son," is repeated at the very end of Matthew's gospel. There Jesus, risen from the dead, tells his disciples that they are to "make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."9 So the account of Jesus' entire ministry in Matthew's gospel is bracketed by references both to baptism and to the triune God.
The story of the beginning of the Christian community's mission of making disciples is told in the Book of Acts. Baptism became the common way in which those who believed the message of the apostles and accepted the new faith were received as members of the Christian community. The baptismal "washing" can of course be seen as a sign of cleansing from sin. But Paul spoke of a deeper symbolism when he told Roman Christians that "all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death."10 Baptism can then be seen as the death of the old sinful self and resurrection to a new life of faith in Christ.
Two questions for you to ponder: How are you different because of being baptized? How is your baptism expressed in your daily life?