Jeff Garrison
Mayberry & Bluemont Churches
January 11, 2025
Matthew 3:13-17
At the beginning of worship:
John Burgess, a professor at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, wrote a book titled, After Baptism: The Shaping of Christian Life. I like the title, which implies the Christian life begins with Baptism. This was the case with Jesus, too. His baptism signals his movement toward ministry, as we’ll see this morning. Burgess says this about baptism:
Baptism is not a Christian Nobel Prize that recognizes our outstanding contributions to God or humankind. Rather, baptism declares that God has reached out to us, before we ever knew how to reach out to him or others. This God keeps reaching out to us despite our faults and failures…
And he goes on to say:
God calls us “Son” or “Daughter” and invites us to call him “Abba” [Father]. The triune God is a God who comes to those who are weak and helpless, and lifts them up… Every time the church baptizes a baby, it testifies to a God who knows how to bring life out of death, strength out of weakness, and something out of nothing.[1]
With a birth certificates, our parents gave us a name. At Baptism, we’re given a new name, “Child of God.”
Today we’ll look at Jesus’ baptism and what that means for our Christian lives.
Before reading the Scripture:
We looked at the ministry to John the Baptist during Advent,[2] but now we return to that ministry as we explore Jesus’ baptism. All four gospels tell of Jesus’ encounter with John, but from different perspectives.
Mark’s gospel, as we saw two years ago when I begin preaching through that gospel, has a short account of Jesus’ baptism. Luke’s account is even shorter. In both cases, baptism is a more personal event for Jesus. Jesus is only the one, in Mark and Luke, who sees the heaven’s open and hears the Father’s voice. And the word is directed to Jesus, not to others. Baptism serves as Jesus’ call to begin his ministry. John’s gospel doesn’t even cover the baptism. Instead, the Baptizer points Jesus out of a crowd as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”[3]
In Matthew’s gospel, we hear John resist Jesus’ request for baptism. And after the baptism, when the heavens open and God the Father speaks, it’s not just to Jesus but for all to hear.
Read Matthew 3:13-17
As I said earlier, at the time of baptism, we’re given a new name. Yes, we still have our given names and our family names, but above all that, we’re identified as a “Child of God.” Baptism has been referred to as the initiation into the church.
Which raises the question John asks. Why does Jesus seek baptism? It’s because the God who gives us a new name in baptism is also a God who desires to be with us. Jesus illustrates this through his life, death, and resurrection.
Our text begins just after Matthew introduces John in the opening verses of Chapter 3. As one commentator noted, John expected a Sylvester Stallone-type to be the Messiah. The Messiah would baptize with “the Holy Spirit and fire,” and divide the wheat from the chaff, storing the wheat and burning the chaff. But instead of Rambo, it’s like Mr. Rogers showed up as the Messiah.[4] We witness the humility of Jesus as he insists on being baptized by John.
Nevertheless, John recognizes Jesus as the Messiah. He insists that instead of him baptizing Jesus, Jesus should be baptizing him.
But Jesus insists, telling John to do it as this is a “way to fulfill all righteousness.” So, John agrees.
We’re not given any information about how or even where along the Jordan the baptism occurred.
Interestingly, John chose the Jordan River to conduct his preaching and baptisms. This is the river Joshua crossed with the Hebrew people as they entered the Promised Land. Perhaps John even had those desiring baptism to gather on the east bank, in what had been pagan territory, and step into the middle of the stream, where they were dunked into the waters, before climbing out on the west bank.[5]
Historically, the river marked a boundary between the old and the new, between the slavery of Egypt and the freedom of the Promised Land. And with Jesus baptism, the river symbolizes the crossing of another boundary. Jesus now begins his work as the Messiah. God’s kingdom has come close and those who enter the water and who follow Jesus will enter not just the Promised Land, but in the fulfillment of time, God’s kingdom.
Matthew tells us that when Jesus came up from the water, the skies open. He saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and a voice from heaven saying, “This is my Son, my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” A dove represents the Spirit at Jesus’ baptism. John’s not completely wrong for he earlier says the Messiah will baptize with the Spirit and fire.[6] Fire is another symbol of the Spirit.
Here, at Jesus baptism, we have a reflection of all three persons of the Trinity. The Son is baptized as the Spirit descends and the Father speaks. Also, in Matthew, this voice is given for all to hear. The Father proclaims, “This is my Son,” unlike in Mark and Luke, where the voice says, “You are my Son,” addressing only Jesus. I prefer Matthew’s telling because he captures Jesus’ larger role as the one who came to offer hope to all the world.
From the wisemen as we saw two weeks ago, to the sending of the disciples at the at end of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ message extends beyond those in Israel’s historic boundaries to all the world.[7]
Now let’s go back to John’s reluctance to baptize Jesus. John had preached a baptism of repentance. When we repent of our sins, it means we turn away from sin and strive to live a better life. John invited those at this point in their lives into the waters which symbolizes the washing away of all that’s dirty. With this background, John’s reluctance makes sense. Jesus, we proclaim, remained sinless.
Obviously, for his own life, Jesus didn’t need to be baptized. But Jesus comes in the flesh to experience the human condition and on the cross, takes on the sins of the world. By accepting baptism, Jesus identifies with us. He shows how sin should no longer burden us, that we should be free to step out of bondage as represented by the east bank of the Jordan and into the new life of the Promised Kingdom as we climb up the west bank.
Or, how in baptism as Paul illustrates, we go under the water which represents our dying to sin, and we come up out of the water into new life.[8]
While Jesus doesn’t need baptism to wipe away his sins, he seeks out the sacrament because it is a part of God’s plan for him to fully experience what it means to be human. Jesus wants to identify as one of us. Jesus’ baptism identifies his willingness to be obedient to the will of God. It ushers in a new chapter in his life as he now focuses on his public ministry.[9]
Today, as we recall Jesus’ baptism, we should also recall our own baptisms. Of course, many of us don’t remember our baptism. I was baptized on Easter Sunday in 1957, at the Culdee Presbyterian Church in Eastwood, North Carolina by the Rev. Thomas Young. I was about 3 months old, so I don’t remember it. But I have seen the pictures.
But it doesn’t matter that I don’t remember my baptism, for baptism is a sacrament which reminds us of what God has done for us long before any of us were here. It’s not the act of baptism itself that matters, for baptism only signifies the grace God has shown us in Jesus Christ. Instead, we focus on love of God who gave his life for ours, long before any of us where here. And this God, who came in the flesh for us, offers us forgiveness and new life.
So, remember your baptism. It’s the sign of your salvation. The Reformer Martin Luther, who struggled with depression, when feeling down, would recite, “I am baptized, I am baptized.” He also supposedly remembered his baptism every morning when he washed his face.[10] It’s not a bad practice, for nothing we have is as important as what God has done for us. Baptism reminds us God has, for us, reversed the curse of death[11] and offers us new life. Amen.
[1] John P. Burgess, After Baptism Shaping the Christian Life (Louisville, KY: WJKP, 2005), 4-5.
[2] https://fromarockyhillside.com/2025/12/07/advent-2-the-preaching-of-john-the-baptist/
[3] Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22, and John 1:29-34.
[4] Scott Hoezee, Commentary on Matthew 3:13-17, https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2020-01-06/matthew-313-17-2/. The Biblical reference I added is from Matthew 3:11b-12.
[5] The idea of entering on one side and leaving on the other came from Chelsey Harmon’s commentary on the text. https://cepreaching.org/commentary/2026-01-05/matthew-313-17-4/
[6] Matthew 3:11.
[7] Matthew 2:1-13 (see sermon) and Matthew 28:16-20.
[8] Romans 6:3-4.
[9] Frederick Dale Bruner, The Christbook: Matthew 1-12 (1987, Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2004),102-103.
[10] https://www.goodsoillutheran.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Remembering-Your-Baptism.pdf
[11] Gensis 3:19.
Good read for a Monday.
I’m glad you found it interesting.
John (the Baptist) is one of those people I would like to know more about “someday”.
There is a lot of reference to John in the Scriptures, but it’s just pieces and seems a little confusing when you add them all together. I think he would be a good candidate for someone to write a novel about (and maybe it’s been done and I haven’t come across it yet, but this would have been a perfect target for some of Fredrick Beuchner’s writing).
That’s interesting. I’ve never been baptized but I do have a certificate of blessing from the Mormom church that my dad belonged to. My dad is Mormon and my mom is Baptist. I went to both churches as a kid for a while.
Churches that don’t do infant baptisms often do a “blessing” for infants. Most churches (Protestant and Catholic) do not accept Mormon baptisms as we have significant views on the nature of Jesus.