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Matthew 3:13-17—Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” ¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. ¹⁶ And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; ¹⁷ and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Jesus keeps doing unexpected things. Last week, we saw the twelve-year-old Jesus in the Temple. Mary was upset that He had stayed behind in Jerusalem putting herself and Joseph through torture. Jesus responds, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my heavenly Father’s business.” With such a response, you would expect Jesus to leave Mary and Joseph behind, begin living on His own, and starting His ministry. Instead He does the unexpected. He returns to Nazareth and is submissive to Mary and Joseph.

Now in Mt. 3, we fast-forward to thirty-year-old Jesus. Maybe, He has matured to be more conventional and predictable, but no He continues to do the unexpected.

John has been preaching out in the wilderness, “Repent for the reign of heaven is at hand” (Mt. 3:2). All sorts of crowds were coming to John the Baptizer confessing their sins and being baptized. And John points the people away from himself and to Another, to Jesus.

John preaches, “I am baptizing you with water for repentance, but the One who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing shovel is in His hand, and He will cleanse His threshing floor and will gather His wheat into the barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire” (Gibbs’ translation of Mt. 3:11-12). But what happens next is unexpected.

Jesus arrives in the wilderness. He comes to the banks of the river Jordan, the place where the sinners are coming in response to John’s preaching, “Repent.” Does Jesus come to baptize with the Holy Spirit? Does He come bringing with His winnowing shovel and that unquenchable fire? No. Instead, Jesus unexpectedly comes for the same reason all those sinners are coming – He comes to be baptized by John.

This is shocking because Matthew has told us that Jesus is the fulfillment of the prophecy, “’Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” (Mt. 1:22-23). The angel tells Joseph that the Child’s name shall be Jesus, “for He will save His people from their sins.”

This Jesus, Yahweh with us to save us from our sins, appears among sinners, and what does He do? It’s not what John expected, and it’s not what we would expect God to do either. Jesus stands side by side with sinners in order to be baptized.

John is appalled. John tries to prevent Jesus. “Hang on here Jesus, I am the one who needs to be baptized by You, yet You are the one coming to Me?”

John’s preaching was directed to sinners who needed to repent of their sins. The sinners needed to be baptized in order to enter into the community of God’s people. Why does Jesus come? Does Jesus need to repent? Does Jesus need to be converted? Does Jesus need to be brought back into the people of God? Of course not! And John knows all of this.

Jesus, in essence, tells John, “Allow it, let it be, for now, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” What righteousness is Jesus talking about? Many places in the Old Testament, but especially Ps. 71 equates God’s righteous acts as the saving deeds of God. Ps 71:15 ¹⁵ My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day (also Ps. 71:2, 16, 19, 24). Jesus, the sinless Son of God, comes to be baptized for sinners to fulfill all righteousness because He is your Savior who bears your sins.

Jesus’ baptism works backwards compared to yours. In your baptism, your sins were washed away (Act. 22:16; Heb. 10:22). But Jesus’ baptism put your sins upon the Son of God. Jesus entered the waters of the Jordan which were filled with the sins of the people who had been baptized by John. Jesus took a bath in your dirty bath water. Jesus does the unexpected; He comes to you, sinner.

As sinners, we have this false conception that we need to move up because God cannot move down. We think that the separation caused by God’s holiness needs to be bridged by us. We think we need to clean up our act and get our life straightened out so we can come to God. But that will never work.

Covered in the slime of our sins, we will never be able to clean up enough. Filthy rags of works-righteousness don’t clean the piles of dung that are our sinful lives.

Jesus does the unexpected; He comes to you. Jesus choses to identify with sinners instead of with God. Jesus comes to us in the likeness of sinful flesh (Ro. 8:3). He does not count equality with God a thing to be grasped and empties Himself.

Jesus takes everything that has gone wrong with us – our sins – upon Himself. Jesus, the pure Son of God becomes the greatest sinner. He does this to fulfill all righteousness to bring salvation to you.

Jesus is the Servant of God described in our Old Testament text (Is. 42:1-9). Jesus brings justice to the nations without breaking a bruised reed or quenching a faintly burning wick. He will not be thwarted until He establishes justice on the earth. He comes to us sinners as a light. He opens our blind eyes; brings us prisoners out of the dungeon and the prison of darkness. Isaiah goes on to tell about this Servant of Yahweh: Though Jesus does no violence, God’s will is to crush Him. Jesus bears our iniquities to make us accounted righteous (Is. 53:9, 11).

As Jesus comes up from the sin-filled waters of the Jordan River, the heavens are opened, and the Spirit of God descends and rests upon Jesus. The voice of God speaks, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

God is certainly pleased with His Son, Jesus. But how can you know if God is pleased with you? Sinner, you stand naked before a holy God in all your sinful ugliness and He in all His perfect holiness with no buffer in between. It is not a pretty picture.

However, at the right hand of the Father, sits Jesus. Jesus doesn’t beat around the bush. He doesn’t give you a list of things to do to make your nakedness less appalling. Instead, Jesus looks down at the nail holes in His hands and feet and says to the Father and the Spirit, “This is what gives him holiness before Us. He is mine. In his baptism, he was with Me in My death. Therefore, He will never die again.” Amen.

May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, now and forever. Amen.