Matthew 3

We’ve moved about 30 years into the future from Jesus’ birth and are introduced to John the Baptist, who came in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. We learn more about the baby Jesus and John the Baptist (Jesus’ cousin) in Luke’s account. Suffice it to say here that John was a great man of God, a marvelous preacher with a charismatic personality, and he didn’t especially care what anybody thought of him. In verse 7, he speaks to the religious leaders of his day, “’Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’” That kind of preaching would get a lot of men fired. And has. And killed—at least in the Bible. Folks, Jesus wasn’t crucified because He preached love, ok?

But John was also a very humble man, which is one of the reasons for his greatness; he didn’t let his popularity go to his head. “’He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry,’” (v. 11). That Fellow coming after John will do some judging: “’His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire,’” (v. 12). “He who is coming after me” will also baptize in the Holy Spirit and fire (v. 11). We learn more about the Holy Spirit baptism later in the gospels and the book of Acts (it wasn’t for everybody); the baptism of “fire” is a little more perplexing, but may simply be one and the same as “burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Or it may have reference to the kind of zeal Jesus will instill in His closest followers. I won’t be dogmatic about it because I don’t know.

Jesus then came to John and was baptized of him, though John said, “I need to be baptized by you, not visa versa” (there is absolutely nothing about John the Baptist which is not praiseworthy, and Jesus concurs: “among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist,” Matt. 11:11). Jesus, however, insists John immerse Him: “thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness,” (v. 15). This is a bit of an obscure statement, until we remember “For all Your commandments are righteousness,” (Psalm 119:172). Baptism was, and is, a commandment of God. Its purpose is for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38), and while Jesus had no sins to remit, of course, He never asked us to do anything, to obey any command of God, that He Himself was not willing to obey. Since all of God’s commandments are righteousness, Jesus needed to be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness.” A voice from heaven, accompanying the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus in the form of a dove, announces approval of what the Son of God did (vs. 16-17).