_HIS BAPTISM._
MATT. iii. 13-17.
"The baptism of John, was it from Heaven or of men?" This question
must have been asked throughout the length and breadth of the land in
the days of his mission. We know how it was answered; for even after
the excitement had died away, we are told that "all men counted John
for a prophet." This conviction would of course prevail in Nazareth as
well as everywhere else. When, therefore, the Baptist removed from the
wilderness of Judæa and the lower reaches of the Jordan to the ford of
Bethany, or Bethabara,--now identified with a point much farther
north, within a single day's journey of Nazareth,--the people of
Galilee would flock to him, as before the people of Judæa and
Jerusalem had done. Among the rest, as might naturally be expected,
Jesus came. It was enough for Him to know that the baptism of John was
of Divine appointment. He was in all things guided by His Father's
will, to whom He would day by day commit His way. Accordingly, just as
day by day He had been subject to His parents, and just as He had seen
it to be right to go up to the Temple in accordance with the Law, so
He recognised it to be His duty to present Himself, as His countrymen
in such large numbers were doing, to receive baptism from John. The
manner of the narrative implies that He came, not as if He were some
great person demanding special recognition, but as simply and
naturally as any of the rest: "Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the
Jordan unto John, to be baptised of him."
John looks at Him. Does he know Him at all? Perhaps not; for though
they are cousins, their lives have been lived quite apart. Before
their birth their mothers met; but it is doubtful if they themselves
have seen each other before, and even if they have, in earlier years,
they may both be so changed that recognition is uncertain. The one has
had his home in the South; the other, in the North. Besides, the elder
of the two has spent his life mostly in the desert, so that probably
he is a stranger now even to his own townspeople, and his father and
mother, both very old when he was born, must be dead and gone long
ago. Perhaps, then, John did not know Jesus at all; certainly he did
not yet know Him as the Messiah. But he sees something in Him that
draws forth the homage of his soul. Or possibly he gathers his
impressions rather from what Jesus says. All the rest have confessed
sin; He has no sin of His own to confess. But words would no doubt be
spoken that would convey to the Baptist how this disciple looked on
sin, how the very thought of it filled Him with horror, how His whole
soul longed for the righteousness of God, how it was a sacred passion
with Him that sin should perish from the hearts of men, and
righteousness reign in its place. Whether then, it was by His
appearance, the clear eye, the calm face,--an open window for the
prophet to look through into His soul,--or whether it was by the words
He spoke as He claimed a share in the baptism, or both combined, John
was taken aback--surprised a second time, though in just the opposite
way to that in which he had been surprised before. The same eagle eye
that saw through the mask of Pharisee and Sadducee could penetrate the
veil of humility and obscurity; so he said: "I have need to be
baptised of Thee, and comest Thou to me?"
Think of the majesty of this John. Remember how he bore himself in
presence of the Pharisees and Sadducees; and how he faced Herod,
telling him plainly, at the risk of his life, as it afterwards proved,
"It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife." Remember that
all Judæa, and Jerusalem, and Galilee had been bowing down in his
presence; and now, when an obscure nameless One of Nazareth comes to
him, only as yet distinguished from others by the holiness of His life
and the purity of His soul, John would not have Him bow in his
presence, but would himself bend low before Him: "I have need to be
baptised of Thee, and comest Thou to me?" Oh for more of that grand
combination of lofty courage and lowly reverence! Verily, "among them
that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the
Baptist."
But Jesus answering said unto him, "Suffer it now; for thus it
becometh us to fulfil all righteousness" (R.V.). Though about to enter
on His Messianic work, He has not yet taken its burden on Him;
accordingly He comes, not as Messiah, but in the simplest and most
unassuming way; content still, as He has been all along till now, to
be reckoned simply as of Israel. This is what we take to be the force
of the plural pronoun "us."
On the other hand, it should be remembered that Jesus must have
recognised in the summons to the Jordan a call to commence His work
as Messiah. He would certainly have heard from His mother of the
prophetic words which had been spoken concerning His cousin and
Himself; and would, therefore, as soon as He heard of the mission of
John, know well what it meant--He could not but know that John was
preparing the way before Him, and therefore that His time was close at
hand. Of this, too, we have an indication in His answer to the
expostulation of John. "Suffer it now," He says; as if to say, I am as
yet only one of Israel; My time is at hand, when I must take the
position to which I am called, but meantime I come as the rest come:
"Suffer it _now_; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all
righteousness."
While then Jesus came simply in obedience to the will of God, He must
have come with a very heavy burden. His study of the Scriptures must
have made Him painfully familiar with the dark prospects before Him.
Well did He know that the path of the Messiah must be one of
suffering, that He must be despised and rejected, that He must be
wounded for the people's transgressions and bruised for their
iniquity; that, in a word, He must be the suffering Priest before He
can be the reigning King. This thought of His priesthood must have
been especially borne in upon Him now that He had just reached the
priestly age. In His thirteenth year--the Temple age--He had gone to
the Temple, and now at the age when the priest is consecrated to his
office, He is summoned to the Jordan, to be baptised by one whom He
knows to be sent of God to prepare the way before Him. Those
Scriptures, then, which speak of the priestly office the Messiah must
fill, must have been very much in His mind as He came to John and
offered Himself to be baptised. And of all these Scriptures none
would seem more appropriate at the moment than those words of the
fortieth Psalm: "Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written
of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O My God."
At this point we can readily see the appropriateness of His baptism,
and also an element in common between it and that of the people. They
had come professing to be willing to do the will of God by turning
from sin to righteousness. He had no need to turn from sin to do the
will of God; but He had to turn from the quiet and peaceful home life
at Nazareth, that He might take up the burden laid upon Him as
Messiah. So He as well as they had to leave the old life and begin a
new one; and in this we can see how fitting it was that He as well as
they should be baptised. Then, just as by baptism--the symbol, in
their case, of separation from sin and consecration to God--John made
"ready a people prepared for the Lord;" so by baptism--the symbol, in
His case, of separation from private life and consecration to God in
the office of Messiah,--the Lord was made ready for the people. By
baptism John opened the door of the new Kingdom. From the wilderness
of sin the people entered it as subjects; from the seclusion of
private life Jesus entered it as King and Priest. They came under a
vow of obedience unto Him; He came under a vow of obedience unto
death, even the death of the Cross.
This, then, is the moment of His taking up the Cross. It is indeed the
assumption of His royalty as Messiah-King; but then He knew that He
must suffer and die before He could enter on His glory; therefore, as
the first great duty before Him, He takes up the Cross. In this we
can see a still further appropriateness in the words already quoted,
as is suggested in the well-known passage in the Epistle to the
Hebrews: "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast
thou prepared me: in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast
had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it
is written of me) to do thy will, O God." Ah, who can understand the
love in the heart of Jesus, who can measure the sacrifice He makes as
He bends before John, and is baptised into the name of "the Christ,"
the Saviour of mankind!
The act of solemn consecration is over. He comes up out of the water.
And lo, the heavens are opened, and the Spirit of God descends upon
Him, and a voice from heaven calls, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I
am well pleased."
"The heavens were opened." What was the precise natural phenomenon
witnessed we can only conjecture, but whatever it was, it was but a
symbol of the spiritual opening of the heavens. The heaven of God's
love and of all holy Angels, shut from man by sin, was opened again by
the Christ of God. Nothing could be more appropriate, therefore, than
that just at the moment when the Holy One of Israel had bowed Himself
to take up His heavy burden, when for the first time it was possible
to say, "Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the
world!" the heavens should open to welcome Him, and in welcoming Him,
the Sin-bearer, to welcome all whose sins He came to take away.
"And He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting
upon Him." This was His anointing for the work He had come to do. The
priests of the line of Aaron had been anointed with oil; He was
anointed with that of which the oil was but a symbol,--the Holy Spirit
descending from the open heaven. From His birth, indeed, He had been
guided by the Spirit of God. But up to this time He had, as we have
seen, nothing more than was needed to minister to that growth in
wisdom which had been going on in private life these thirty years,
nothing more than was necessary to guide Him day by day in His quiet,
unexacting duties at home. Now He needs far more. Now He must receive
the Spirit without measure, in the fulness of His grace and power;
hence the organic form of the symbol. The emblem used when the
apostles were baptised with the Holy Ghost was tongues of fire,
indicating the partial nature of the endowment; here it is the dove,
suggesting the idea of completeness and, at the same time, as every
one sees, of beauty, gentleness, peace, and love. Again let it be
remembered that it is on Him as our representative that the Spirit
descends, that His baptism with the Holy Ghost is in order that He may
be ready to fulfil the word of John, "He shall baptise you with the
Holy Ghost and with fire." Heaven opened above Him means all heavenly
blessings prepared for those who follow Him into the new Kingdom. The
descent of the Spirit means the bestowment on Him and His of heaven's
best gift as an earnest of all the rest.
Last of all there is the voice, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased," spoken not merely to Himself individually,--all along,
in the personal sense, He was God's beloved Son, in whom He was well
pleased,--but to the Messiah, as the Representative and Head of a new
redeemed humanity, as the First-born among many brethren, as One who
at the very moment was undertaking suretyship on behalf of all who
had already received Him or should in the ages to come receive Him as
their Priest and King--"_This_ is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased."
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath
blessed us with all spiritual and heavenly blessings in Him: with an
open heaven, a present Spirit, a reconciled Father's voice. Blessed be
our loving Lord and Saviour, that He came so humbly to the Jordan,
stooped so bravely to the yoke, took up our heavy Cross, and carried
it through these sorrowful years to the bitter, bitter end. And
blessed be the Holy Spirit of all grace, that He abode on Him, and
abides with us. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love
of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with us all!