In chapters 1 and 2 of Matthew, we see Matthew describing Jesus as the Messiah ... and the King. Then John begins announcing that the kingdom of heaven (the kingdom of God) is near. OK ... we have a kingdom ... but where is its king? "Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John."
John didn't want to, did he. He thought it should be the other way around. Jesus should baptize him. But Jesus confirms that this is the right thing to do. So John relents. We have learned that John's baptism was one of repentance ... one of preparation. So why did Jesus ... sinless Son of God ... submit to this baptism?
I want you to hear what William Barclay says on the subject in his commentary on Matthew. The quotation is lengthy ... but well worth the read:
From the earliest times, thinkers were puzzled by the fact that Jesus submitted to be baptized. But there were reasons, and good reasons, why he did.
1. For thirty years, Jesus had waited in Nazareth, faithfully performing the simple duties of the home and of the carpenter's shop. All the time, he knew that a world was waiting for him. All the time, he grew increasingly conscious of his waiting task. The success of any undertaking is determined by the wisdom with which the moment to embark upon it is chosen. Jesus must have waited for the hour to strike, for the moment to come, for the summons to sound. And when John emerged, Jesus knew that the time had arrived.
2. Why should that be so? There was one very simple and very vital reason. It is the fact that never in all history before this had any Jew submitted to being baptized. They Jews knew and used baptism, but only for converts who came into Judaism from some other faith. It was natural that sin-stained, polluted converts should be baptized; but the Jews had never conceived that they, the chosen people, children of Abraham, assured of God's salvation, could ever need baptism. Baptism was for sinners, and the Jews never conceived of themselves as sinners shut out from God. Now, for the first time in their national history, they became aware of their own sin and their own urgent need of God. Never before had there been such a unique national movement of penitence and of search for God.
This was the very moment for which Jesus had been waiting. Men and women were conscious of their sin and conscious of their need of God as never before. This was his opportunity, and in his baptism he identified himself with those he came to save, in the hour of their new consciousness of their sin, and of their search for God.
And we see Jesus coming to John and saying in essence, "Baptize me as well ... I am one of you."
And God applauds and opens the heavens!
It is time ... let the work to restore mankind back into fellowship with God begin. And with this baptism ... that work began. The kingdom of God is, indeed, very near!
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