'Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized
of him. 14. But John forbad Him, saying, I have need to be baptized
of Thee, and comest Thou to me? 15. And Jesus answering said unto
him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all
righteousness. Then he suffered Him. 16. And Jesus, when He was
baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the
heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: 17. And lo a voice
from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased.'--MATT. iii. 13-17.
When Jesus set out from Galilee to seek baptism from John, He took the
first step on His path of public work; and it is noteworthy that He took
it, apparently, from self-originated impulse, and not, as in the case of
the prophets of old, from obedience to a 'prophetic call.' 'The Word of
the Lord came to' them; His Messianic consciousness needed no external
stimulus to kindle it into flame. What did He mean by seeking baptism?
John recognised the incongruity of His submitting to a rite which
professed repentance and promised cleansing. It does not follow that
John recognised His Messianic character, but only that he knew His
blameless life. The remonstrance witnesses at once to John's humble
consciousness of sin and to Jesus' acknowledged purity. Christ's answer
has a sound of authority, even in its gentle lowliness, and it confirms
the belief in His sinlessness by the absence of any reference to
repentance, and by regarding His baptism, not as a token of repented
transgression to be washed away, but as an act which completed the
perfect circle of righteousness, which His life had hitherto drawn. He
submitted to the appointed rite, because He would be one with His
brethren in all obedience. So, then, the principle underlying His
baptism is the principle underlying His incarnation, His life of
obedience and identification of Himself with us, and His death. 'He also
Himself likewise took part of' whatsoever His brethren were partakers
of, and therefore He was 'numbered with the transgressors' in that,
needing no repentance, He submitted to the baptism of repentance, and
cleansed the cleansing water by being plunged in it.
What was the significance of the descent of the Spirit on Him? Matthew's
account implies that the appearance of the descending dove was to Jesus.
John i. 32 states that it was also visible to John. The accompanying
voice is as if principally directed to John, according to Matthew, while
Mark and Luke represent it as addressed to Jesus. Both appearance and
voice were the tokens of the Father's approval, and acceptance of the
Son's consecration of Himself to the Messianic work. The dove descending
on Him was the token that henceforward His manhood should be anointed
with the unbroken influences of the divine Spirit, and possess the
unbroken consciousness of the Father's good pleasure, lying like
sunshine on the stormy sea on which He had launched. How different the
conception of the Spirit as a dove, which was Jesus' experience of it,
from the Baptist's, which was that of fire! Jesus is in this incident,
as in all, our pattern and example, teaching us that we too must yield
ourselves to do the Father's will, and must identify ourselves with
sinners, if we are to help them and to have the Father's approval
sounding in our hearts, and the dove of God nestling there, and teaching
us, too, that gentleness is the divinest and strongest power to win men
from evil and for God.