Why Was Jesus Baptized?

Have you ever wondered why Jesus was baptized? It’s a dramatic and familiar story. We just heard Matthew’s version of it. All four gospels recount the story of Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan. But have you ever been troubled or puzzled by the fact that Jesus was baptized? Remember, in these stories Jesus is not doing the baptizing. He is himself baptized. By that ragged and very human prophet John the Baptist. Since the very time that the gospels were written church leaders and thinkers have been deeply disturbed by Jesus’ baptism.

And although many of the concerns and debates of religious scholars have very little relevance for everyday Christians in our every day lives, we should not dismiss this debate lightly. It is, after all, baptism we are talking about. What could be more relevant to our daily lives as Christians? If we have not worried about Jesus’ baptism, been disturbed by its occurrence, puzzled over its implications, then we have not thought enough about baptism. If we have taken Jesus’ baptism for granted, then we have taken our own baptisms for granted without addressing the real meaning of our baptisms in our lives.

So. Why was Jesus baptized? First, we may be virtually certain that the historical event did take place. The occurrence of the baptism story in all four gospels despite the fact that the early church was embarrassed by Jesus’ baptism and would have rather ignored it may be taken as very strong evidence that the event really happened.

So Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan. We know, of course, the meaning and the spiritual effect of baptism. Baptism is for the repentance of sins and brings the gift of the Spirit and adoption as a beloved child of God.

But Jesus, of course, didn’t need to be baptized for any of those reasons. So why was Jesus baptized?

Baptism is about repentance. Certainly that is what John the Baptist (who baptized Jesus) preached. Listen to the evangelist Mark: "John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And the people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins."

John stands in a long line of prophets stretching back into the Old Testament who proclaimed that God’s people must be cleansed from the defilement of unrighteousness before they can return to God’s presence. The exiles in Babylon are called by the prophets to symbolically pass through the waters of the Jordan before they could return to the promised land. John the Baptist called the sinful of his day to pass through the baptismal waters of the Jordan before they could live into the promised life as God’s people.

So why was Jesus baptized? He was without sin. He did not need to be washed clean of unrighteousness before he could fulfill God’s promise for him. If we really stop and think about what baptism means, we should be troubled by Jesus’ baptism.

As the story of Jesus’ baptism is told in the gospels another element of the story is the descent and gift of the Spirit and the annunciation of Jesus as God’s beloved child. And certainly the church teaches that these are the fruits of baptism… the bestowal of the gift of the Holy Spirit and the adoption as God’s children. As we say in the baptism service to the one being baptized: "You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever." Sealed by the Spirit and marked as God’s own.

If baptism is about the gift of the spirit and the adoption as God’s children, why was Jesus baptized? He had been one with the Father from the beginning of Creation. Jesus was the Word that the Spirit breathed as the Father brought form and light and life into being. Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the God the Father were and are united for all time.

Baptism is these things for us. It is a cleansing from sin through which we pass into God’s presence and fulfill God’s promise. It is an event in which the gift of the Spirit transforms us into God’s holy children. Yet if we take these elements of our baptisms seriously in our lives, we cannot help but be troubled by Jesus’ baptism. Why?

Why did Jesus’ choose to be baptized? And, of course, he did, as an adult, choose to be baptized. I don’t suppose Jesus made decisions the same way we do, listing pros and cons, weighing consequences, exploring implications. So we can never know exactly what motivated the Triune God to desire Jesus’ baptism.

But there is another very important implication of baptism that we haven’t yet explored. Baptism is entry into a community. The church hasn’t always held up the importance of this element of baptism, although we’ve always believed it. We are doing better now as we perform the rite of baptism within the context of our corporate liturgy, our community worship. Baptism is about entering community. And maybe that is the piece of baptism that Jesus sought. By his baptism Jesus became a part of a community. The specific community he joined was of a collection of Jews in Judea who, through faithful repentance, sought to renew their relationship with God. By his baptism, Jesus affirmed that he was truly one of them, one with them, sharing their lives and experiences and inviting them to share his life and experiences. Jesus may or may not have been personally affected by joining this community, but the community would never be the same. By his presence with them… by sharing his life with them… he transformed those individuals from a collection of people with a religious bent into a community that shared the life of Christ. That community was now alive with the very presence of Christ and empowered to be the Body of Christ in the world.

It is often noted that Jesus’ baptism marks the beginning of his public ministry. Joining a community is the beginning of ministry. Entering the Body of Christ and ministering as the Body of Christ are interdependent and inseparable. Part of what Jesus says by being baptized is: I cannot be who I am called to be… I cannot do what I am called to do… alone. Jesus cannot, or at least does not, fulfill his ministry without being in the midst of a community.

And it is the same for us. Alone, we cannot be who we are called to be. We cannot fulfill our Christian ministry in our world without being a part of the community that is the Body of Christ. And through our baptisms we become a part of that community, a community that is still alive and empowered with the presence and life of Christ.

And just as it was for Jesus, baptism (no matter how old we are) is the beginning of our ministries. The Prayer Book tells us what that ministry is. The mission of the church, the mission of the Body of Christ, is to "restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ." That is our ministry. It is a ministry we can fulfill only as a community, as the Body of Christ in this time and this place.

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