Sunday Link – Who Needs To Be Baptized? – Matthew 3:13-17 | SL20260111

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SERMON

Who Needs to Be Baptized?

TEXT FOR TODAY

Matthew 3:13–17 NRSVUE

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.   John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”  But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”  Then he consented.  And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”  Matthew 3:13–17 (NRSVUE)

 

Matthew 3:13-17 (NKJV)

Matthew 3:13-17 (NRSVue)

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.  14 And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” 15 But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  Then he allowed Him.   16 When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and [a]He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him.  17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”   Footnote: a.  Or he

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him.  14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”    15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”  Then he consented.    16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him.  17 And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved,[a] with whom I am well pleased.”   Footnote: a.  Or my beloved Son

 

The Epiphany of God’s Heart

Today is … the first Sunday in the season of Epiphany.  The word “Epiphany” means manifestation  or revealing.  It’s a time in the church year when we focus on those moments in Scripture where the veil is pulled back.  We focus on those times we see something more clearly about who God is and what he is doing in the world.

Each story we encounter during Epiphany shows us a glimpse of  divine reality breaking into human experience.  These stories from the Bible are not simply moments in the past.  They are revelations of the God who continues to reveal himself to us today.

Today we focus on the baptism of Jesus.  It’s a moment that is both mysterious and illuminating.  In other words, it’s a moment that is so filled with holiness it’s a little beyond our ability to comprehend, but at the same time, it sheds light on God’s nature.  At first glance, it looks like a simple act of obedience.  Jesus comes to the Jordan River, steps into the muddy water, and is baptized by John.  But as we look closer, the heavens open, the Spirit descends, and the Father speaks.

Jesus’ baptism shows us one of the clearest pictures of the Trinity in Scripture.  Here we find Father, Son, and Spirit, together, in love, revealing the very heart of God.  Jesus’ baptism story reveals that God is eager to share his life with us.  So we too are  baptized into belovedness, as we share in Jesus’ baptism.

Jesus Comes to Us     

Matthew begins:

“Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him” (Matthew 3:13).

That one sentence holds a world of grace.  It reminds us that Jesus comes.

John had been preaching in the wilderness.  John was calling people to repent.  He urged them to turn from their sins and prepare for the coming Messiah.  Crowds were going out to hear him in the wilderness; people were leaving their towns and villages to find John at the river.  But notice: Jesus does the opposite (to what John did).  He doesn’t wait for crowds to find him or for John to come to him.  He doesn’t stand on the shore calling for John to ascend to his level.  Instead, Jesus goes to John.

That’s always how grace works.  God doesn’t sit back waiting for us to find him; he comes to us.  The Incarnation is the eternal Son stepping into our wilderness, walking into our dust and confusion.  The God who creates the universe stoops low enough to stand in a muddy river with sinners.

This is the first great epiphany of the story: God comes near.  He is not distant, aloof, or waiting for our progress.  He moves toward us in love.  The whole story of the Bible is the story of a God who keeps coming closer.

Grace Persists

When Jesus arrives, John is startled.  He recognizes who stands before him and tries to stop him.

“I need to be baptized by you,” John says, “and do you come to me?”  (Matthew 3:14)

You can almost hear the confusion in John’s voice.  He’s been preaching repentance from sin, yet here is the sinless One asking for baptism.  John senses the reversal and resists.

John resists, but  grace persists.

But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”  Then he consented.  (Matthew 3:15).

This exchange tells us something profound about how God relates to us.

First, we see that Jesus initiates.  Grace always begins with God.  Even when we are confused, hesitant, or resistant, God moves toward us in patient love.

Second, we see that God’s righteousness is fulfilled not by separation but by solidarity.  Jesus doesn’t stand apart from humanity; he stands with us.  Just as he stepped into our human existence of sin and transformed it, Jesus steps into the water with  sinners (by the hypostatic union).  He joins himself to us fully.  Jesus identifies with our weakness and understands our failure and brokenness. (See Psalm 103:14)

John’s resistance is understandable.  But Jesus doesn’t let that resistance have the final word.  Grace persists.  Jesus draws John into obedience, transforming his hesitation into consent. “Then he consented,” Matthew writes.

Even our response to God’s initiative is part of God’s gift.  When we say yes to God, it is because God said yes to us first and Jesus always responds to his Father in faithful obedience.  God, in Christ and by his Spirit, has already been at work.  He has been softening our hearts, reshaping our resistance into trust.

Who Needs to Be Baptized?

John asks the question, “Do you come to me?” (verse 14).  It raises the central question of the passage: Who needs to be baptized?

The practice of baptism wasn’t exactly a new practice.  For centuries, the Jewish people had a tradition of ritual washings for the purpose of purification.  In other words, they had ceremonies involving water that they believed made them “clean.”   Converts to Judaism were baptized to signify a new identity.

John’s ministry expanded that.  He called all people, who were willing, to repentance through baptism.

But now Jesus steps into the water, and the question explodes in meaning.  If anyone had no  need  of baptism, it was Jesus.  Yet  he comes to be baptized.  Why?

Jesus enters fully into our humanity and is baptized “to fulfill all righteousness.”  He identifies with us completely.  He takes upon himself the human story so that we might be taken up into the divine story.  Jesus steps into the water to be baptized not because he needs repentance, but because we do!

The magnitude of the Incarnation cannot be overstated.  As the Son of Man, Jesus is baptized on behalf of all humankind.

In that moment, Jesus is not only setting an example, but he is also enacting salvation.  He immerses himself in the depths of our condition so that he can lift us up into his life with the Father in the Spirit.

Baptized into the Life of the Trinity

The Greek word baptizo means to dip, to immerse, to dye.  It gives us a picture of total saturation.  It’s like the idea of a piece of cloth soaked in color dye until every fiber shares the shade of what it’s been immersed in.

That’s what Jesus does for us.  He immerses himself in our humanity, and through him, we are immersed in the life of God.

Before time began, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit existed in eternal communion — immersed in love, joy, creativity, and mutual delight.  This is the “baptized life” of the Trinity.

Now, through Jesus, we are included in that life.  Baptism is not just a ritual or ceremony that symbolizes cleansing; it is a sign of our participation in God’s own relationship as Trinity.  Christ has plunged us into the divine love.  Now, through baptism, we actively and personally take part in the love the Father has for the Son in the Spirit.  And we begin to experience the reality of our place as an adopted child within the divine fellowship.  What Christ has done for all becomes personally our own.

So, who needs to be baptized?  In the light of Jesus’ baptism, the answer is all of us — and even God himself, in Christ, for our sake.

Heaven Opened: Creation is Restored

Matthew continues in verse 16,

“When Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him …”

Those words, “the heavens were opened,” echo the very beginning of the Bible.  In Genesis, the Spirit of God hovers over the waters, and God speaks creation into being.  In Jesus’ baptism, we hear those echoes of the first creation.  The Spirit hovers again, the Father speaks again, and the Son stands as new creation.  The Son is the meeting place of heaven and earth, the union of God and humanity.

This is the dawn of a new creation.  The Incarnate Son is not just another prophet in a long line.  He makes all things new.  When he steps out of the water, creation itself begins to heal.

The Spirit Descends: God Dwelling Among Us

Matthew tells us, “He saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him” (Matthew 3:16).

The Spirit rests on Jesus.  This is not because the Son lacked the Spirit, but  because humanity needs the Spirit.  In this moment, the Spirit’s descent on Jesus is the Spirit’s descent on us.  Jesus receives the Spirit so that we may receive the Spirit.  The Son of God has taken our human nature, and now the Spirit fills that nature with divine life.

The image of the dove recalls another story: the Flood.  When Noah’s ark came to rest after the waters subsided, he sent out a dove that returned with an olive branch.  It was a sign of peace and new beginning.  In Jesus’ baptism, the dove descends again, signaling the end of judgment and the beginning of restoration.

This is what God has always desired — not a world condemned, but a world filled with his Spirit.

 

The Father’s Voice: The Heart of the Gospel

Finally, we hear the voice from heaven, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).

Here is the very center of the gospel.  The Father speaks his love over the Son, and through the Son, the Father speaks his love over us.

In Jesus, the heavens are open not only to reveal God’s glory but to declare God’s affection.  The voice that created the cosmos now speaks to assure us of belonging, love, and delight.

“This is my Son.”

To belong is the deepest longing of the human soul.  The Father claims Jesus publicly, and in doing so, claims us in him.  Through baptism you are publicly declaring, “I am God’s child.”   When the world tells us we don’t belong, God’s voice thunders otherwise: You are mine.

“Whom I love.” 

The Father’s love for the Son is eternal, unbroken, and pure, just as the Father’s love for all is.  But we were alienated from God in our minds and hearts.  We were unable to know or receive God’s love.

Now, God speaks his words of love over us in a way that we can receive them.  In Christ, the Beloved, we can now know and experience our belovedness.  Now we can receive the love that flows eternally within the Trinity and which flows toward us.  We are able to share in the Trinity’s love as God’s adopted children.

“With whom I am well pleased.”

To be delighted in is grace beyond measure.  God created humans and took great pleasure in them.  But we became blinded to the loving gaze of our heavenly Father.  We could no longer see or recognize the love of the Father.

Here the Father looks upon Jesus and smiles.  Because Jesus has entered our story, we are able to see and recognize that divine pleasure which rests upon us.  What we were blind to, we can now enjoy and revel in.  The Father is pleased with each of us — not reluctantly, not conditionally, but joyfully.

This is the voice we were created to hear.  The Father’s words answer every ache of loneliness, every striving for approval, and every fear of rejection.  You belong.  You are loved.  I am pleased with you.

The Missional Shape of Baptism 

Notice that baptism is not the end of Jesus’ story — it is the beginning of his ministry.  It’s the moment heaven opens and the mission begins.  The Spirit who descends on Jesus will soon drive him into the wilderness.  Then the Spirit will empower him to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives, and sight to the blind.

In the same way, our baptism is not just a private spiritual moment — it’s a commissioning.  To be baptized into the triune life is to be sent into the world as participants in God’s mission.

The Father sends the Son; the Son sends the Spirit; the Spirit sends the Church.  We are drawn into that sending love.  Baptism is not an escape from the world — it’s an immersion into God’s redemptive work for the world.

So, baptism is both belonging and calling.  We are loved, sent, included, and commissioned.

Living in the Reality of Our Baptism

Maybe this is the first time you are learning about baptism.  The challenge for some of us is not that we’ve never heard these words, but that we forget them.  The noise of life drowns out the voice of the Father.  The heavens still stand open, but we often live as though they are closed.

That’s why the Church keeps returning to this story every year.  We return to the story to remind us of who we are and whose we are.  The Christian life is not a ladder we climb; it’s a gift we live from.  We don’t strive to earn God’s favor — we live out of the favor already spoken over us.

Every time we remember our baptism, we remember this truth: Heaven is open.  The Spirit is given.  The Father’s voice still speaks.  Jesus includes us in his life.

The Triune God at Work

The baptism of Jesus is a single event, but it reveals the eternal pattern of God’s work in the world:

• • The Father speaks love and sends.  
  • The Son listens to the Father and redeems.  
  • The Spirit descends and fills.  

This is the heartbeat of the gospel — the triune God acting in perfect unity for our salvation.

What begins in the Jordan River will continue to the cross and culminate in the resurrection.  The same Spirit who descends like a dove will raise Jesus from the dead, and the same voice that calls him “Beloved” will call us beloved forever.

A Word for the Church Today

In a world fractured by division, fear, and shame, the baptism of Jesus is a living proclamation: God has entered our waters, our lives.  He is not ashamed of us.  He joins himself to our humanity and calls us his own.

That means our calling as the church is not to stand apart, pointing fingers.  Instead, we wade into the waters with our neighbors.  We reveal God’s compassion as we share in their struggles.  The same Spirit that rested on Jesus rests on us, empowering us to be agents of reconciliation and hope.

When we extend grace, when we forgive, when we love without conditions, we are living our baptismal identity.

Conclusion: The Voice Still Speaks

Epiphany is the season of revelation — of seeing what was always true but now made visible.  At Jesus’ baptism, heaven is opened.  The Spirit descends, and the Father’s voice declares what is eternally real:

• • You are mine.
  • You are loved.
  • I am pleased with you.

The triune God has entered our story and included us in his.  The waters have been made holy by his presence.

So, who needs to be baptized?  All of us.  God himself in Jesus Christ entered the waters  first  for all of us.  It’s love beyond comprehension.

This is the good news of Epiphany: God has come to us.  He has claimed us and we are baptized into belovedness.  And in the voice of the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit, we hear the words that define us forever:

“You are my beloved child.  With you, I am well pleased.”

Amen.

 

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SONG OF RESPONSE

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