Jesus Baptized? -- Why?

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.


Why did Jesus need to be baptized?


John the Baptist said “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” Then Jesus answered “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”


Well, that clears everything up. Jesus’ answer makes perfect sense.

--- Not ---

Now we just have something else to figure out. What does Jesus mean by that?

First we need to know what baptism meant to Jesus.

Before this time, baptism was a Jewish ritual of cleansing. You would be baptized every time you became “unclean” by doing something like touching a dead body so that you could enter the temple and worship.

Second, we need to know what righteousness is. Being righteous means to be in right relationship with God.

So by being baptized, someone would become ritually clean, or, in other words, righteous.

But Jesus says that he is being baptized to fulfill ALL righteousness. Ordinarily someone would be baptized to fulfill their own righteousness only. I believe that Jesus is telling us that his baptism was to make EVERYONE right with God. This is one of the great moments of salvation which we can find in the life of Jesus.


This is a “Thanks be to God” moment.

But it is only the first part of what the Baptism of our Lord is about. Our Gospel doesn’t end there.


And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from the heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”


And in that moment, Christian baptism was born.


Was Jesus changed?

Sort of. Jesus did not become something different from what or who he was before being baptized. What changed was that he was revealed to be the Christ. It was a moment of transfiguration. In that moment, God showed John his divine grace.


So what does that mean for us today?

What happens when we are baptized?

Are we made righteous? No, Jesus already did that for us in his own baptism. Jesus was baptized to fulfill ALL righteousness.

Are we changed in some other way?

Sort of. We do not become different people. We don’t suddenly become God’s beloved. We are already that.


What does happen is a moment of transfiguration.

That means that what was hidden become clear to us.

Just as with Jesus, the spirit of God descends upon us, not to change us, but to wake us up.


God marks us as his own; as his sons and daughters.


God shows us that we are beloved.


God tells us that with us, he is well pleased.



Nothing has changed, but at the same time, everything is different.


Thanks be to God.