Mark 1.9-11, Matthew 3.13-17, Luke 3.21-22, John 1.29-34.
Mark 1.9 KWL - It happened in those days Jesus came from Nazareth of the Galilee,
- and was baptized by John in the Jordan.
Matthew 3.13-15 KWL - 13 Then Jesus came from the Galilee to the Jordan,
- to John, to be baptized by him.
- 14 John was preventing him, saying,
- “I need to be baptized by you!
- And you come to me?”
- 15 In reply Jesus told him, “Just permit it.
- It’s appropriate for us to fulfill everything that’s right.”
- So John permitted him.
Okay: Baptism, i.e. ritual washing, was usually for Jews who were ritually unclean: They’d touched an animal they weren’t allowed to eat, anything they found dead, an open wound; they’d expelled bodily fluids of one sort or another; in general they needed to wash themselves and their clothes before they went to temple. John the baptist co-opted the ritual and used it on sinners who wanted to repent and get morally clean. Same practice, new idea.
So when Jesus comes south from the Galilee, goes to the Jordan, and wants to get baptized, John rightly objected. I’ll write it again: Rightly objected. His baptism was for sinners. Was Jesus a sinner? Nope. Did Jesus need to repent? Nope. So what’d he think he was doing? If a man goes through a baptism of repentance, yet he isn’t repentant at all and feels there’s nothing for him to repent of… wouldn’t we ordinarily call this hypocrisy?
Yeah, but it’s Jesus. So we give him a free pass.
Should we? If it were any other guy getting baptized for show, we’d point out the playacting and call it deceptive. Aren’t we letting the doctrines we cling to—that Jesus never sinned
Okay, now that I’ve dug myself into this big rhetorical hole, how’m I getting myself out of it?