Two weeks ago we celebrated Jesus’s birth – the birth of a tiny baby. Last week we remembered the Wise Men finding and worshipping Jesus – a toddler. Today, we jump forward nearly three decades, doesn’t time fly, Jesus is thirty and being baptised.
In some ways, it is not strange to us that we celebrate Jesus’s baptism shortly after His birth. After all, it is not a rare occurrence for a baby to be baptised, making them a part of the family of God, washing away the consequences of the original and actual sin, granting them the hope and promise of salvation and professing the faith on their behalf whilst promising to bring them up in that faith.
Baptism is linked by Jesus to salvation. It is a symbol of the forgiveness of sins, the death of old life and the start of new life and acceptance into God’s family.
However, Jesus was not a baby. He was a grown man and the sinless Son of God.
So why did Jesus need to be baptised?
Indeed, John the Baptist asked the same thing saying “I need to be baptised by you, yet you come to me?”
Jesus replied “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”
Jesus was to be the one to separate believers from betrayers. Jesus was also to bring a purifying and transforming baptism of fire; which enables us to be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus was baptised to identify Himself with sinful man, who He came to save. He took our sin to save us. His baptism marks the end of His old life marking the acceptance of and the start of His ministry. He is annointed by the Holy Spirit whilst He is affirmed by God as His Son (a parallel with Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came down on the church).
This affirmation from God that Jesus is the Messiah also provides confirmation to John that he has completed his mission of preparing the way for the Messiah; whilst Jesus begins His earthly ministry with the blessing of God His Father and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Father God, we ask that you baptise us all again with your Holy Spirit empowering us to do your work. Amen.
Just because 