JESUS CHRIST’ S PUBLIC MINISTRY WAS UNVEILED AND INAUGU-rated at His baptism in the Jordan River at the hands of John the Baptist.2 Luke tells us that Jesus was around thirty, the age when the priests of Israel could begin to be ordained.3 Although Jesus didn’t need a baptism Himself for the remission of sin, He was ritually washed on behalf of Israel and of all humanity. Jesus’ baptism was a sign of His identity and mission, foreshadowing both crucifixion and death, as well as resurrection and new life—in the redemption of the world.
JOHN THE BAPTIST
A few words about John the Baptist.4 The First Testament predicted the coming of this one whom Jesus regarded as the greatest person to ever penetrate the womb of a woman.5 Isaiah foresaw Him as the voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of the Lord.6 Malachi foresaw Him as God’s messenger, sent to prepare the way before the Lord.7
He was known as John the Immerser.8 His prophetic ministry included a baptism of repentance. To be baptized by John meant that you were being purified from your sins. That you were being freed from the burden of the filth of your past and loosed from the burdens that were attached to it. It meant you were starting all over again. Or in a more Jewish understanding of John’s baptism, being plunged into the waters was the symbol of a people who would “turn” from sin and pride and “re-turn” to right relationships with God. The Greek word for “repent” is metanoia, which means to turn back, to turn around, to return to the waters of creation and to the wellspring of God’s covenant. Baptism symbolized the restoration of a right covenant relationship between God and the people of Israel. When Jesus, the new Noah of Israel, came up out of the waters and saw the dove, the covenant was once again sealed. Jesus’ baptism signifies the ultimate restoration of that covenant relationship.
Although water initiatory rituals were not uncommon among various first-century religions, John’s use of the rite raised both eyebrows and questions. There was nothing and no one quite like John the Baptizer.
First, he did it for you—you didn’t baptize yourself. Unlike the self-baptizing of Gentile converts to Judaism or the daily dunkings self-administered by the Qumran sectarians, John immersed those who came to him.
Second, and even more unsettling, he issued a demand for repentance and emphasized the need for baptizing to a Jewish audience—those who were by definition already God’s chosen, privileged people. John’s baptizing practices were controversial, and those most concerned with issues of proper purification, the Pharisees, demanded some additional explanation.
Third, John made the repentent enter a river, and he plunged them into the water. Even more, the Messiah got into the water right with His followers and submitted to John’s baptism.
Fourth, John based this new baptism not on cultic practice or commandments but on a coming kingdom. It was future oriented, not past.
John the Baptizer was the new Elijah, hanging out in the Jordan River region that was Elijah’s old stomping grounds9 and wearing a fur mantle. But where Elijah withheld the dew and rain, John the Baptizer gave back the water if there was repentance. Elijah’s message was “Repent or no water.” The new Elijah’s message was “Repent and receive water.” Elijah baptized the pagan altar with water, drenching it with so much water it became an island, and God provided the fire. John the Baptizer said he would come baptizing with water, but Jesus would baptize with fire.10
THE HINGE BETWEEN THE TWO COVENANTS
With John the Baptizer, God was turning a new page in the human drama. John was the hinge from the old covenant to the new covenant. With John the Baptizer, the era of Moses and the Law was coming to an end. The era of grace and truth brought about by the promised Messiah was beginning.
John was the result of a miraculous birth. His mother, Elizabeth, was well along in years, past the age of conception. His father, Zechariah, also well up in years, was a priest.11 John was filled with the Spirit of God when he was in his mother’s womb—something both mysterious and inexplicable. John was six months older than Jesus.12 His mother, Elizabeth, was Mary’s older cousin.
At the time John met Jesus, he had been living in the wilderness.13 All the Gospel writers tell us that John’s ministry was foretold by Isaiah and Malachi.14
At some point, John began his ministry of preaching repentance and baptizing. It was no small feat to come out to hear John. The desert’s scorching heat would sometimes reach 170 degrees in the day, with the temperature dropping to below zero in the evening.
As far as outward appearances go, John was a spectacle. His skin was probably calloused by the blistering heat of the Judean desert. His hair was never cut. Perhaps it reached to his waist. He lived on a diet of locusts and wild honey, which may or may not have been a Spartan diet.15 His clothing was woven from camel’s hair, and he donned a belt of leather.
This is the one whom God chose to raise the curtain for the promised Messiah, the King of the world.
If you lived in that day, John didn’t come to your town to preach. You went out to see him.16 People from all over Judea came to see John in the desert, arguably by the hundreds. They came to see and hear this rare spectacle of humanity.17 Joseph Ratzinger points out that Israel didn’t have a genuine prophetic voice for many years preceding John. This made John quite a sensation.18
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Yesterday he was the historical Jesus; today he is the Christ of faith. But it is the identical Jesus Christ with whom we have to do, whether we think of him as he was in the early decades of the first century, or as he is in the closing decades of the twentieth century, or as he ever will be. The Christ of faith, if disunited from the Jesus of history, is apt to be a figment of the pious imagination.
—F. F. BRUCE 20
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In addition, John’s message wasn’t exactly positive. He took dead aim at everything. He declared war on the spirit of the age in the fashion of the thundering prophets like Elijah. John rebuked, corrected, warned, threatened, and laid bare the sins of Israel . . . including that of its religious leaders. To the Pharisees and Sadducees, his words were sharp and pointed—“Brood of vipers!”19 But it was his specific rebuke of the king of Israel at the time, Herod, that eventually got him beheaded.
Indeed, John was seeking to straighten the crooked paths, take down mountains, and exalt the low places. To accomplish this, he used an ax instead of a surgeon’s knife.
Yet amid his consistent denouncements, John announced the Messiah. As “the friend of the bridegroom,” John the Baptizer introduced the heavenly Bridegroom to His much-loved bride, the people of God.21 Let’s go back and try to recreate the scene.
A PROPHET MEETS THE MESSIAH
The day has arrived. John, this unusual prophet who was molded by the hands of the Almighty, is baptizing people in the Jordan. The people are well aware what the Jordan signifies. It is the spot where Israel received her inheritance.22 The Jordan stands for death; the gateway to a new beginning. It was the transition between the old world and the new world of Canaan—the land of promise—the goal of the exodus.
Israel crossed over the Jordan and entered the land. And it was there in the Jordan that the Lord commanded Israel to take twelve stones from the middle of the river and write the names of each tribe of Israel on each. The twelve stones were piled in the land to which they had entered, as a memorial of the occasion. Joshua then took another twelve stones and dropped them into the river, where they remained.23
The Jordan is an apt picture of death and resurrection. It signifies the burying of the old and the beginning of the new. The twelve stones Joshua buried in the river remind us of death; the twelve stones that were laid by the river remind us of resurrection. And now, John the Baptizer was standing in that same river, keenly aware of the rich history that lay behind it.
Crowds had come to confess their sins and be baptized. And Jesus arrived from Nazareth.24 What Jesus did next stunned John. Jesus asked John to ba
ptize Him.25 Understandably, John didn’t want to. He knew that Jesus was the Messiah—the Savior, the One who removes sin. Why then should He undergo a water burial?
Again, baptism means burial. It means the burial of the old life and the beginning of the new. What sin did Jesus have to be cleansed of ? What sins did He need to confess? What in His life needed to be buried? From what did He need to be set free?
The answer is nothing. Jesus’ baptism was a revelation to Israel, not a reflection of His own cleansing. In this act of fulfilling righteousness, Jesus was bringing Himself into solidarity with all humans. He was foreshadowing what He would do on the cross—that is, bear the guilt of humankind. Thus Jesus began His ministry by stepping into the shoes of every sinner. He was anticipating the cross, which He would later refer to as a baptism.26 He was acting as the new Jonah, who said, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea.”27 In His baptism by John, Jesus was identifying Himself with all of humanity and foreshadowing the cross.28 The only way to make seed produce fruit is to bury it in the ground, to plant it in the darkness.
From that point forward, the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ began, and it would always have the mark of the cross (death to self ) upon it.
As John baptized Jesus in the Jordan, Jesus was communing with His Father.29 The heavens were ripped open, and the Spirit of God descended upon Him in the form of a dove. Suddenly the Father spoke from the heavens, saying, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”30
Echoes from the First Testament were loud. In God’s pleasure in Jesus, we are reminded of Isaiah, the “suffering servant”: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him.”31 In the dove descending on Jesus, we are reminded of when the earth was created formless and void, like a wilderness (as we have seen, the Hebrew word for “without form” is translated “wilderness” in other places in the First Testament). In John the Baptist’s appearance as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness,”32 we are reminded of God’s voice in the void that turned sound into sight and light. The dove symbol connects the Jesus story in the Jordan waters to the creation story, where the Spirit descends with wings, “hovering over the face of the waters” of this new creation,33 as well as to the Noah story, with a renewed covenant and a rainbow promise. The imagery is clear: Jesus is the new creation that has come to earth.
Thus the Spirit of God descended upon Him. This one simple scene, so packed with complexity, gives us a peek into the triune God operating together—the Son being baptized, the Spirit anointing, and the Father speaking.
But the baptism of Jesus means more than His voluntary solidarity with fallen humans. Priests, kings, and prophets were all anointed for spiritual service. The baptism of Jesus also signifies the anointing of the Spirit for ministry. Here the Spirit of God, who indwelled Jesus, now empowered Him for service.34
The new David (Jesus) was anointed by the new Samuel (John) with the oil of the Spirit (the dove). The new Melchizedek and the new Aaron was anointed for His priesthood.35
Jesus was the new Moses, anointed to be the mouthpiece of God Himself. Jesus the King was anointed for the service of representing God before humans. Jesus the Priest was anointed for the ministry of representing humans before God. Jesus the Prophet was anointed to bring the present and living word of God to His people. Christ (Messiah) actually means “the Anointed One.”
Interestingly, David was thirty when He was anointed king of Israel.36 David was a king, but he acted as a priest (he wore the linen ephod and ate from the table of showbread, which only priests could do), and he functioned as a prophet.37 Jesus is the new David. He is the real prophet, the real priest, and the real king.
Jesus was anointed for a ministry of power and authority at His baptism. Although the Spirit was within Him at birth, He was now clothed with the Spirit’s power, something that would happen to His followers after His ascension:
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and . . . he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.38
“Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him.”39
“I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”40
Consequently, the popular idea that Jesus did miracles, discerned people’s minds, and healed the sick “because He was God” is false. Jesus did all of those things as a human being anointed by the Holy Spirit. Keep in mind that Peter also did miracles, discerned people’s minds, and healed the sick.41 The same is true for Paul of Tarsus.42 And neither Peter nor Paul was divine. They were operating by the same Spirit that empowered Jesus. In this regard, Jesus truly is our example, the prototype of a human being.
The Gospels strongly imply that Jesus did no miracles before His baptism. He healed no sick people. He proclaimed no new messages. He was simply a tekton (artisan) from Nazareth. There was no indication that He was a prophet, let alone the Son of the living God. All that went on in His life before His baptism was preparation.
JESUS’ MINISTRY BEGINS
Now His ministry began. This is confirmed in Luke 4. The wilderness temptation account ends in Luke 4:13. In verse 14, Luke said, “Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside” (NIV). Then in verses 18–19, we have the words of Jesus Himself laying out His mission statement (more on this in chapter 9):
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.43
Isaiah’s prophecies converged on Jesus in the Jordan River.44 The four spices that made up the holy oil that was used to anoint the priests of Israel came rushing together as “the Spirit of the Lord” anointed Jesus to preach the good news, set the captives free, heal the blind, and release the oppressed.45
Later the chief priests, scribes, and elders challenged Jesus concerning the source of His authority, and He responded with a question regarding John’s baptism.46 The implication is that Jesus’ authority to proclaim Himself as God’s authority came from His anointing of the Spirit at John’s baptism.
At His baptism Israel’s Messiah was unveiled to the nation. This world’s true King made His appearance. The Jews believed the promised Messiah of Israel would rule the world.47 Hence throughout the Second Testament, Christ (“Messiah” to the Jew) and Lord (“King” to the Gentile) signify the same thing: Savior and Ruler of the world.
At the Jordan River the Father’s voice was heard from the heavens, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”48 Consider those words for a moment. Before His baptism, Jesus had done no ministry yet. He had healed no sick person. He had set no one free. He had not selected His disciples, or done any mighty works for God. And yet the Father’s full pleasure was upon Him.
There is a message here for every adopted child of God. God’s pleasure is not based on what you do for Him. It’s based on whether you are His child. If you are in Christ, you are a child of God, and He accepts you because you are in Christ. Because the Father is pleased with His Son, He is also pleased with you. You are, as Paul put it in Ephesians, “accepted in the beloved.”49 The Christian, therefore, does not work toward the pleasure and acceptance of God. The Christian lives from the pleasure and acceptance of God.
If Jesus’ immersion into water anticipated the cross, then His rising out of the water anticipated His resurrection. Both Luke and Paul wrote that Jesus was declared to be the Son of God by His resurrection.50 When Jesus came up out of the Jordan, the Spirit fell upon Him, and God the Father spoke from heaven audibly, declaring that Jesus is the Son of God.
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Why Jesus? Becau
se he is the most fascinating person in the world.
—WILLIAM WILLIMON 52
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A short time later John publicly declared that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.51 Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover Lamb—the blood that would save Israel from the death angel. Jesus is the reality of the Passover Lamb—the meat that gave Israel the strength to leave Egypt. Indeed, the Lamb made the exodus possible.
The Second Testament repeatedly witnesses that Jesus is the reality of the Passover Lamb, and every sacrificial lamb whose blood was spilled for the sins of Israel. We find this witness in Paul,53 John,54 Peter,55 and the writer of Revelation.56 Jesus’ baptism foreshadowed His ministry of being the Suffering Servant, the Lamb, bearing the sins of many.57
A PERFECT HUMAN VERSUS A FALLEN ANGEL
After Jesus was empowered and anointed for ministry, the first thing the Holy Spirit did was lead Him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. From the heights of the Jordan River, where Jesus’ mission was affirmed, Jesus then went into the depths of the desert, where His mission was besieged. The most dangerous point in anyone’s life is when he is riding the crest of a wave.
The desert in the Bible is a double symbol. It means first a place of encounter with God, and second a place of testing. Many times, the two are related. But a stretch in the wilderness in the biblical drama is not an escape but an engagement, often a face-to-face encounter with God and a higher level of encounter with one’s mission field. Peirazo means “trial” or “test.” This is the same word used when Abraham was “tested” to sacrifice Isaac.
In the wilderness we had a replay of Genesis 2. In the garden of Eden, there was a battle between a fallen angel (disguised as a serpent) and a human. In the wilderness, we had the same battle. But it was between the old serpent and the new Adam. Jesus the tekton (artisan), versus satan the fallen angel. This was satan’s first appearance in the Second Testament. The word used, satan, is the Greek taken from Hebrew meaning “adversary,” one who opposes us in our mission. It is the same word used by Jesus to Peter: the one that would stop him in his mission of God.
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