Adding Jesus to Baptism: Matthew 3:13-17

Focus Passage: Matthew 3:13-17 (NASB)

When I look at how Jesus began His ministry – or at least how He steps onto the scene when it was time for Him to begin His ministry, I am amazed at the symbolism we can find in Jesus wanting to be baptized.

While John was baptizing people as a public way of showing those who intentionally chose to repent and turn away from their past life of sin, Jesus had no past life of sin to repent of. Because of this, John is completely justified in my mind for pushing back at Jesus for wanting to be baptized.

However, Jesus had something different in mind to be His symbol. The baptism at the beginning of His ministry was to foreshadow the death and resurrection at the end of His earthly ministry. In these two events that act like bookends to Jesus’ years of ministry, we see Him begin by submitting Himself to humanity, first represented by John in baptism, then later to the mob, the religious leaders, and to the Romans on the weekend He was crucified.

For Jesus, the baptism at the start of His ministry was not only an example for us, Jesus takes the promise resurrection following death and He attaches the example of His life and sacrifice to it in addition to the already present symbolism of dying to our past sins and being resurrected with a fresh start.

This brings us to another one of the big ideas I see in this passage: In His baptism, Jesus humbled Himself below humanity as a way of foreshadowing His sacrifice for humanity on the cross. Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve and give His life as a sacrifice for each of us.

This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!

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