Welcome, I hope each of you had a good holiday vacation. I had my family stay with me for a few days. My niece and nephew ages 3&5 were here and if I could just have some of their energy that would be great. Our text comes from the Gospel of Matthew for Sunday. It is the baptism of Jesus. I was always kind of confused as to why Jesus had to be baptized because he was without sin so let’s find out why.
V13 Jesus came south, from Galilee, to John at Bethany beyond the Jordan River to be baptized by John. The place that John was baptizing was the same area where the Israelites had originally crossed the Jordan to enter the land of Canaan in the book of Joshua after the wilderness wanderings of 40 years. This is also symbolic of the crossing of the Red Sea when God lead the Hebrews out of Egypt in the first exodus or rescue event. Now we are having another water “crossing” for a new exodus or rescue event that is beginning to take place. All of these events would have been steeped in meaning for the people of that time of the first exodus.
V14 John realizes that Jesus is greater than him and says as much.
V15 Jesus replies that he needs to submit to this baptism as it is part of the plan of God for salvation for the human race. He is identifying with the new rescue and he is the one in whom it will be completed. He too must go through a new water “crossing” to lead the new exodus. It is an anointment of his mission. For Jesus it has nothing to do with him sinning or repenting.
V16 As Jesus is coming up out of the water the heavens are opened. The prophet Isaiah, in Isaiah 64:1 had cried to God “Oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down”. Now God is doing just that. He is descending as a Spirit in the form of a dove and landing on Jesus. This is God anointing Jesus for his reign just as the kings in the Old Testament were anointed with olive oil for their reign.
V17 A voice from heaven speaks making a statement, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” which is packed with meaning. The first half-this is my son the beloved is from Psalm 2:7. That Psalm was a coronation Psalm used when a Davidic King was anointed. “My beloved” is also the meaning of the name David. So from the first half we have a Davidic King (Messiah) anointed and approved by God. The second half-with whom I am well pleased is from Isaiah 42:1-4. These verses in Isaiah are from one of the four servant songs in the book of Isaiah. So from the second half we have more information. Jesus is to be a servant. How can a king be a servant? The very definition of king means ruler so how can someone rule and serve at the same time? Kings had servants they weren’t servants. In the person of Jesus we have two opposite ideas merging. We have a king (messiah) that is going to be a servant. These two opposite images confused the people of Jesus’ day and continue to confuse us today. He is still a stumbling stone.
The answer is in the type of kingdom Jesus ruled. It isn’t like the worldly kingdoms where leaders rule with power from over the people but rather God’s kingdom where leaders rule with power from underneath the people by loving and serving them. It is a kingdom not of this world but in this world as Jesus told Pilate. It is the kind of kingdom Jesus lived out as he traveled among the people throughout the land. Jesus didn’t lord his power over them condemning them, instead he loved them, forgave them, healed them, ate with them and lived with them teaching them the type of kingdom he was bringing in. He still does that today if we will just listen to him. By emptying himself of all power and allowing himself to be crucified he rules with God today. So our decision that we have to make is will we follow a different kind of powerful king who serves or will we follow a king who rules over us with power in this world? This is the dilemma that confronts us and to which we each must make a decision, which King will we follow?
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