Matthew 3:13-17 To Fulfill All Righteousness
Matthew 3:13-17 (Evangelical Heritage Version)
13Then Jesus came from Galilee to be baptized by John at the Jordan. 14But John tried to stop him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”
15But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, because it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John let him. 16After Jesus was baptized, he immediately went up out of the water. Suddenly, the heavens were opened for him! He saw the Spirit of God, descending like a dove and landing on him, 17and a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my Son, whom I love. I am well pleased with him.”
To Fulfill All Righteousness
I.
Christmas is over. All the decorations have been put away. As the church year roles on we have even moved past Epiphany. Epiphany celebrates the Wise Men coming to worship Jesus. Then, as we heard last Sunday, they returned to their homeland by a different route, as instructed by the angel, to avoid Herod.
The events of today’s Gospel are 30 years after Christmas. Matthew had begun talking about John the Baptist. One of the weeks in Advent spoke about John preparing the way for Jesus. Matthew reported: “In those days, John the Baptist appeared, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, 2‘Repent, because the kingdom of heaven is near!’” (Matthew 3:1-2, EHV).
The wilderness had been John’s pulpit for a while. People came from all over to see what John was all about. Mark says in his Gospel: “John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4, EHV). John’s baptism, then, was “for the forgiveness of sins.” Many did confess their sins, repent of them, and receive the baptism John was preaching. John proclaimed to them forgiveness. John’s baptism was all about forgiveness.
That’s a message we must hear, too. Repentance and forgiveness are absolutely necessary. But sometimes we don’t want to admit a need for forgiveness. When the Pharisees and Sadducees came to John, he called them the offspring of vipers—a bunch of snakes. They were filled with their own self-righteousness. That’s often the modern Christian. We can point out all kinds of flaws in others, while completely ignoring our own faults and sins.
Today’s Gospel begins: “Then Jesus came from Galilee to be baptized by John at the Jordan” (Matthew 3:13, EHV). That doesn’t sound all that unusual to us, at least, not at first. The name of this Sunday in the Church Year is: The First Sunday after the Epiphany; the Baptism of our Lord. We started the service knowing that Jesus would be baptized in today’s readings.
But John didn’t know that. He was just preaching as usual. He was telling people that they needed to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of their sins.
Over the course of his preaching, John had made a powerful testimony. “He confessed, ‘I am not the Christ’” (John 1:20, EHV). If John was not the Christ, the Messiah, the people wanted further clarification. Who was he, then? That’s when John told them: “The one who comes after me is mightier than I. I am not worthy to carry his sandals” (Matthew 3:11, EHV).
Now here comes Jesus in the line of people making their way down the river bank to be baptized. “But John tried to stop him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?’” (Matthew 3:14, EHV). Jesus was the One greater than John, and John knew it. John needed repentance and forgiveness, just as the people he was baptizing did. The One who is greater, Jesus—the One who doesn’t need forgiveness—wants to be baptized by the one who does need forgiveness? That seemed completely backwards to John.
II.
It does seem completely backward, doesn’t it? In today’s First Reading Isaiah said that by nature people are: “The blind... prisoners... who sit in darkness” (Isaiah 42:7, EHV).
John’s baptism was calling attention to this problem. Sin is serious. Sin separates people from God.
John’s baptism was a call to repent and turn to God for forgiveness. But Isaiah’s prophecy shows how impossible that is. Blind prisoners sitting in darkness don’t know which way to turn. Sinners caught up in a life of sin don’t know the first thing about turning to God for forgiveness.
In fact, we’re more likely to act like the Pharisees who had come to John out in the wilderness.
First, we mimic the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. We insist that we’ve been pretty good—especially in comparison to all the evil people out there.
Then we mimic the partiality and favoritism of the Pharisees. Peter might have done that himself, but God gave him a vision. That vision led him to say in today’s Second Reading: “Now I really am beginning to understand that God does not show favoritism” (Acts 10:34, EHV). God taught Peter that being a believer did not depend on being Jewish—or any other race. God does not show favoritism. It’s all too easy for Christians today to think that “some people” don’t deserve God and his grace, but we do.
And it isn’t just Pharisaical attitudes. Fractured relationships and societal injustice cause us to realize that we live in a world filled with sin—a world in which we, too, are separated from God by sin.
“But John tried to stop him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?’” (Matthew 3:14, EHV). And well he should. Jesus didn’t need forgiveness. Jesus didn’t need to repent. John did. We do.
III.
Jesus wasn’t filling some need for his own repentance and forgiveness. He wasn’t even doing this to fulfill some legal requirement.
God said through Isaiah: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight. I am placing my Spirit on him... 3A bent reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not snuff out” (Isaiah 42:1, 3, EHV). Jesus is the Suffering Servant God promised. Sin bends us over like reads. Sin tries to make faith burn more and more faintly—more and more weakly.
Jesus comes into that world—a world filled with debilitating sin—to save sinners. He doesn’t crush the weakened sinner; he doesn’t snuff out the sputtering candle of faith.Isaiah says: “He will faithfully bring forth a just verdict” (Isaiah 42:3, EHV).
“But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, because it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness.’” (Matthew 3:15, EHV). Jesus was saying to John: I have come for sinners; I stand with sinners; I am to be the chief of sinners, shouldering the burden of sin for all. I will be baptized. This is part of God’s plan. Jesus isn’t baptized for his sins, but for ours.
“Then John let him. 16After Jesus was baptized, he immediately went up out of the water. Suddenly, the heavens were opened for him! He saw the Spirit of God, descending like a dove and landing on him, 17and a voice out of the heavens said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love. I am well pleased with him’” (Matthew 3:15-17, EHV).
Jesus identified with us—with sinners. He was baptized. Immediately heaven stands in solidarity with Jesus. The Father announces: this is not just anyone, this is my Son. God isn’t pleased with anything less than perfection, yet the Father says of Jesus: “I am well-pleased with him.” Not just “pleased,” but “well-pleased.” Jesus is as perfect as can possibly be. He is perfectly positioned to be the Messiah God had long promised.
The impartial love Peter spoke of is shown in Jesus’ solidarity with us. He earned the Heavenly Father’s approval—not just for himself, but for all.
Remember what Jesus told John? “Let it be so now, because it is proper for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15, EHV). Jesus fulfilled all righteousness. It all started when Jesus was conceived, without sin, in the womb of Mary. It continued as he lived his life from birth up to the point of his baptism completely without sin. His perfect righteousness continued until the day he died on the cross—after announcing “It is finished,” when the work of salvation was done.
“It is proper to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus did. That righteousness is a free gift of God’s grace, not something that can be earned. That righteousness is a gift, given by the work of Jesus; even something that seemed so mundane—and so backwards—as being baptized by John.
IV.
“It is proper to fulfill all righteousness.” In our baptisms we are joined to the One the Father identified as “My Son, whom I love” (Matthew 3:17, EHV). Jesus’ righteousness is the only possible way for us sinners, once separated from God, to get to heaven. At our baptism, we are clothed with his righteousness; we are adopted as God’s children.
The same Holy Spirit who descended like a dove and landed on Jesus at his baptism empowers us to live lives of service to our Lord and Savior. The Holy Spirit empowers us to live as under-servants of Jesus, the Suffering Servant Isaiah identified. Our joyful response to being given righteousness is to bring the message of that righteousness to other bent over reeds and smoldering wicks around us.
God grant that the relief of Jesus’ righteousness brings about a release of righteousness in your life. Step into the week assured of God’s pleasure in you, with this happy news filling your life with Jesus’ peace and purpose. Amen.
