The Baptism of Christ: Matthew 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:29-34

Matthew 3:13; Mark 1:9; Luke 3:21a; John 1:29a

Jesus starts approaching John. Matthew points out that He arrived from Galilee. Mark points out the city, saying “Nazareth in Galilee.” Jesus grew up in the city of Nazareth, which is in the region of Galilee. He is now coming to begin His public ministry.

John 1:29b-31

The gospel writer, John, points out that John the Baptist starts making declarations about who Jesus is as he is approaching John. This is fitting for the gospel writer, John, to point out these declarations, while the others did not mention them, because John wrote his gospel to point out the theology of who Jesus is and to prove He is God. Jesus is the Lamb of God. The reason that He is the Lamb of God is because he takes away the sin of the world. Remember that at the Passover in Exodus, God told them to sacrifice a lamb to avoid God’s judgment on sin. Jesus would be the sacrificial lamb and was being symbolized in Exodus: the lamb who would take away our sin.

Matthew 3:14-15

John understood that Jesus was greater than him; because of this inferior position he thought he wasn’t capable to baptize him. John may not have been worthy of Jesus, although he was considered worthy to baptize Christ. It is good to understand our inferior position to God/Christ, but not to devalue ourselves to an untrue level. Remember that Moses tried to get out of leading Israel out of Egypt, by claiming that he was poor in speech. If you’ll remember, God said He’d let Aaron do the talking, but Moses ended up doing all the talking, because he was capable. Sometimes seeing ourselves less than what we are can hinder us from doing what God wants us to do just as much as pride can have the same affect. Baptism was for repentance, but we must ask what was Jesus repenting of if he never sinned. Paul said that God made Jesus “who new no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). It is not Jesus’ personal sin that He repented of, but perhaps He repented of the sin of the world that He took upon himself. If so, it is yet another indicator of how much Jesus loves us.

Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:21b-22a; John 1:32-33

Matthew and Mark point out that Jesus came out of the water when he was baptized, which indicates baptism by emersion. Notice that Mark will use the word “immediately” frequently. Matthew also uses that word here. All of them point out that the heaven opened, which is a reference to the sky. We can see the term heaven being described as the sky by what is said in Genesis 1:6-8. Because this was a visible thing, it is more likely that it is the sky and not heaven the dwelling place. The Holy Spirit came in the appearance of a dove. Matthew says “as a,” Mark says “like a,” Luke says “like a,” and John says “as a.” All pretty much the same. Now Luke, given his attention to detail and being descriptive, uses more words, “in bodily form like a.” It does not mean that John and or Jesus saw a dove, but that what they could see was similar in appearance as a dove. It isn’t clear who saw and heard this. We know that John saw and heard this (John 1:33). John was told directly from God that he would know the Messiah by seeing the Spirit descending upon him. Even though they were relatives, it appears that they had not met until this point.

Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22b; John 1:34

The voice comes out of heaven declaring Jesus to be the Son of God. Also, that God is pleased with Him. Again, we cannot assume that everyone there heard the voice. John appears to have heard the voice. He begins to testify that Jesus is the Son of God.