Why Jesus Was Baptized

[This was shared during worship at Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]

Matthew 3:13-17
As I was studying our Gospel lesson this week, I thought of an old joke. A woman was expecting twins and wanted the children to be polite. During a regular check-up, she told her doctor about this worry. The doctor said, “I tell you what. Every night before you go to bed, gently rub your belly and say, ‘Be polite. Be polite.’”

The woman followed the doctor’s instructions. Years passed and, oddly enough, she never delivered her twins. What happened was a mystery only solved when doctors did an autopsy and found two little old men in the woman’s womb. They were telling each other, “After you,” “No, after you.”

A similar bit of dialog happens between John the Baptist and Jesus in today’s Gospel lesson. Jesus shows up to undergo John’s baptism. But John says, in effect, “Me baptize you? It should be the other way around. After you.”

Now, when you think about it, John’s objections make sense. John’s baptism was all about repentance. It was for sinners who wanted to renounce their sin. But, unlike the rest of us, Jesus was sinless. He had nothing for which to be repentant. If you and I had been in John’s place, we might have objected to Jesus’ intention of undergoing a baptism of repentance as much as he did. If for no other reason, we might have objected just to be polite.

But here’s something that should be said about Jesus: Whenever people stood between Him and doing the will of God, He wasn’t polite. He was insistent. He would do the will of the Father no matter what.

Once, you remember, Jesus told the disciples—His followers—that He, the Son of Man, would go to Jerusalem, be rejected by the heads of the government and of Judean religious life, not to mention, the people and then by arrested, tortured, crucified, and then, rise from the dead. That was the will of the Father for His life, Jesus said. But Peter was horrified by all these predictions. He politely, if firmly, rebuked Jesus, telling Him, “Lord, this will never happen to you.” Jesus would have none of Peter’s dissent. “Get behind Me. Satan,” Jesus told His key disciple. “What you’re saying doesn’t come from God!” [See here.]

And we all remember what Jesus did in the temple in Jerusalem when money changers were using faith in God as a means of extorting poor people of their cash. [See here.]

So, when John the Baptist politely objects to baptizing Jesus, Jesus is insistent. He tells John, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” “Baptize me,” Jesus tells John, “It’s the right thing to do.”

But why is Jesus undergoing a baptism of repentance the right thing exactly?

When Jesus underwent a baptism of repentance He didn’t need, He was declaring His passion for us. He was cementing His connection to us. It’s no coincidence that immediately after He was baptized, Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The New Testament book of Hebrews underscores the importance of God becoming one of us when it says that in Jesus, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.”

We can take great comfort from the fact that in Jesus Christ, we belong to a God Who understands what it’s like both to be tempted by sin and tested by adversity.

A woman in my first parish suffered from a rare form of cancer. They took her to the University of Michigan Hospital where she underwent experimental treatments. She was a faithful believer in Christ for whom we prayed. Yet, she nonetheless experienced a great deal of pain. One day, I drove to Ann Arbor for one of our visits and, since it was just the two of us, I asked her, “Do you ever get mad at God.” “I was very mad at God for awhile,” she told me. “But then I remembered that Jesus went to a cross. I know that He’s suffering with me and that one day, I’m going to be with Him forever in a place without pain. That’s what gets me through.”

I was teaching a class on prayer in my former parish. After class one night, a man who had sat in silence most of the evening approached me. “I have a problem with prayer,” he told me. “What is it?” I asked. “I just don’t feel that I should bother God,” he said. “I mean, I feel okay about thanking God for things. But I don’t feel that I have the right to ask God to help my family and me with our finances. Or to help my kids in school. Or even to heal people.”

We all know, of course, that when God answers our prayers, we may not always like or understand His answers. In addition to telling us Yes, God can also tell us Maybe, Wait, and even No.

But God wants to be invited into our lives. I’m here to tell you this morning, that no matter what test you’re facing in your life today, no matter what sin tempts you, you have an advocate and a friend in the God Who went to the Jordan River to be baptized and then to a cross to take all your burdens on His strong shoulders. Whatever your burden, Jesus Christ can bear it with you. He can even bear it for you.

The good news of Jesus impolitely insisting that John baptize Him that day on the Jordan is summarized well by Pastor John Jewell: “He came down to lift you up! He took your place so you could take his place! He lost his life so you could find your life! He came to be with you so you could be with him!”

And Jesus, it turns out is totally impolite and utterly tenacious in reaching out to us. He's willing to overrule...

prophets like John the Baptist,
apostles like Peter,
rulers like Pilate and Herod, and
religious leaders like the high priests in Israel,

to come into our lives and call us to receive forgiveness and eternal life through faith in Him.

Jesus refuses to allow our objections—polite or otherwise—to stand in the way of Him and us.

That’s good news! That’s our good news through Jesus Christ. And only you can keep Jesus out of your life. But, I hope that instead, you’ll take your cue from John the Baptist in today's Gospel lesson. After Jesus set John straight, he trusted that Jesus knew what He was doing.

Believe that whatever you face in life today or tomorrow, God will get you through…all the way to heaven. That's exactly what Jesus wanted you and me to know when He went to the Jordan to be baptized by John.