Why was Jesus baptized?

Baptism of the Lord | Matthew 3:11-4:1, Mark 1:9-13, Luke 3, John 1:29-34 | TJ Torgerson

Over the next several blog posts, we are going to highlight different moments in the life of Jesus. Today, we begin with his baptism.

Years ago, while working at a warehouse, a coworker asked me a simple question, “Why was Jesus baptized?”

I'm not sure how the topic came up, but that question stuck with me. Why was Jesus baptized? It was a good question (a lot of questions that begin with “why” are good questions).

At that point in my life, I had been in the church for years, taught many classes and Bible studies, and preached some sermons. I knew about Jesus’ baptism. I knew the story appeared in 3/4 of the Gospel accounts. And the fourth, the Gospel of John, sort of alludes to it (John 1:29-34). I knew that the sky opened, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and there was a voice from heaven. And if all the movies about Jesus were right, I knew that when Jesus came up out of the water, he did the “Maybe it's Maybelline” hair whip and light shone all around him.

My point is, I knew about Jesus’ baptism, but I'm not sure if I ever asked the “why” question. But it is a great question. After all, what is baptism all about? Reading through scripture, we see baptism is about repentance (Matthew 3:11, Luke 3.3, Acts 2:38). We see baptism is about confessing sin (Matthew 3:6), and it is about forgiveness and cleansing (Mark 1:4, Acts 22:16, 1 Peter 3:21).

So, you see the problem? Why was Jesus baptized? He had no sins to confess, no need to repent, and nothing to be forgiven for (2 Corinthians 5:21, Hebrews 4:15). Jesus was different, and John the Baptist knew it; he might have even had a good idea of Jesus’ sinlessness. It is easy to see why when Jesus came to participate in baptism that John objected.

John says, “Jesus, uh, maybe instead you should baptize me…” He says, “Jesus, you and I came up together, we were in the same kindergarten class, and when all the other kids were eating paste, you were transfiguring yourself on top of the monkey bars!”

Sure, that probably didn’t happen, but John knew Jesus did not need to participate in the baptism of repentance that he was calling people to. John knew that if either of them needed to be baptized, then it was him, John, not Jesus (Matthew 3:14). In John’s mind, this baptism was about repentance, and Jesus didn’t come to repent; he came to be the Judge. He came to separate the wheat from the chaff with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12).

John was an old-school, country, southern Baptist preacher pounding the pulpit, shouting at everyone who would listen that they needed to repent. Standing on the riverbank, warning people that one more powerful than him would come and they better watch out, or they will be burned up. He was the original turn-or-burn preacher. And it was in the middle of this message that Jesus quietly approached and requested to be baptized. Perhaps this can help us answer the question of why Jesus was baptized because this scene doesn’t make sense.

Jesus had no need to repent; he was, in fact, the judge. However, instead of entering the scene as judge, he enters the same way all those who were being baptized by John entered, in humility and repentance. When Jesus enters the story, he goes to where people are repenting and turning to God, and he says, “That is where I am found, in the midst of repentant sinners.”

Tom Wright puts it this way:

A Jesus who comes and stands humbly before John, asking for baptism, sharing the penitential mood of the rest of Judea, Jerusalem, and Galilee. A Jesus who seems to be identifying himself, not with a God who sweeps all before him in judgment, but with the people who are themselves facing that judgment and needing to repent.

Jesus began his ministry on earth not as someone ready to squash sinful people. Not as someone positioned against sinful and rebellious people—not as one waiting for the tiniest misstep so he could bring the gavel down on their head. He didn’t come as one against us, but he came as one with us. Just as Matthew describes in Matthew 1:23: Look: the virgin is pregnant, and will have a son, and they shall give him the name Emmanuel,’—which means, in translation, ‘God with us.’ In the gospels, we see this to be true. Jesus with us in birth, Jesus with us throughout his life on earth. Jesus with people around dinner tables, and in the midst of sickness and at death beds. Jesus standing in the water with the sinful people and ultimately Jesus dying the death of a sinful person.

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Jesus’ baptism was a way to be with us or to identify with sinful humanity, and his baptism was maybe even a prelude, a foreshadow, a first step towards his identification (or being with us) in death as Christ humbled himself to the point of death (Philippians 2:5-11). And the interesting thing about this is that because Jesus has identified himself with us in baptism and even in death, it allows us to be able to identify with his death, through baptism, and then in turn be gifted new life.

Romans 6:3-4:

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were, therefore, buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.

Why was Jesus baptized? To be with us, so that we could enter new life and be with him, and in so doing, the Church is formed. Perhaps this is why baptism is understood as the sacrament of initiation. Considering this, then it can be said that Jesus’ baptism was the start of making a new people (The church).

Sometimes when Jesus’ baptism is taught, it is reduced to an example. Something like, “Jesus was baptized so you should be baptized too.” But that just does not say enough because, sure, in some regard, we are baptized because Jesus was baptized. However, it is also true that Jesus was baptized because we are baptized. Jesus entered a world full of people who needed to be baptized. He entered the water to be with us.

While many other things can be said and have been said about the Baptism of Jesus, the simplest answer to why Jesus was baptized was that he is God who is with us. The one who did not need to repent saw people in need of repentance and the washing of baptism,

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standing in the waters of repentance beside us and inviting us to join him.