It is You Who Should Baptize Me!
Text: Matthew 3:13-17
John the Baptist stands in the Jordan River in his strange clothes proclaiming repentance to the forgiveness of sins and baptizing all who come to see him. He is the last, for now, in a long line of Prophets who not only proclaimed repentance to sinners as well but heralded the coming of the Messiah. Now that Messiah is here. Jesus has entered the water to be baptized by His cousin John.
Jesus, the perfect God-man who is without any sin at all, and who alone bears the distinction of being the Son of God. John's baptism is a sinner's baptism. Why must Jesus be baptized?
The more we think about it, the more confused we find ourselves. John the Baptist is confused as well. He understandably tries to prevent Jesus from making him do this. What does it mean when Jesus answers John, "'Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.' [and] Then [John] consented (Matthew 3:15)."
When God looked at our situation, He found the final solution. He took all the sins of human beings, and he hung them around the neck of the one alone in this world that was without sin, and therefore He becomes the greatest sinner of all. In fact, He becomes the only sinner on earth, because their sins are now His. Upon His bleeding crown were heaped every single sin of every person, and under the weight of that yoke, He died for you.
Because Jesus has become that sinner, He must receive the sinner's baptism. He must be baptized for the forgiveness of sins, not with respect to his own nature, but for all our sake's because those are our transgressions which He bears. He plunges them through the cleansing waters of life, washing them away from Himself. Therefore He has washed them away from You - not here in the Jordan, but soon in a river of blood and water upon the cross.