Matthew 3:13-17

The following are text excerpts from Volume I, chapters 10: “From Nazareth to the River Jordan: ‘You Are My Son, the Beloved; with You I Am Well Pleased’,” pp. 205-208.

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MATTHEW 3:13–17 The Baptism of Jesus, According to Matthew

13Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14John would have prevented him, saying,

“I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

15But Jesus answered him,

“Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.”

Then he consented. 16And 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. 17And a voice from heaven said,

“This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

  1. We ask two questions again here that we will ask repeatedly in this series: What do you notice about the similarities and differences between Mark’s version and Matthew’s? What might they signify?
  2. Does Matthew have a different understanding of the practice of baptism than Mark?
  3. What does “righteousness” refer to in this passage?

The last time that we were with Jesus in The Gospel According to St. Matthew, he was a baby. Joseph had moved the Holy Family to Nazareth when their days in Egypt ended. While the dangers of Judea were less acute than at the time of the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, it was far from a safe place. Judea was under the rule of the brutal and incompetent Archelaus. An angel had warned Joseph to take the family to Galilee, where they settled.

Now, thirty-some years have passed. Jesus is an adult. Matthew’s story resumes with Jesus traveling from Galilee to see John at the Jordan. Jesus has come to be baptized by John.

When studying Mark’s version, we questioned why, exactly, Jesus was to be baptized. We found no easy answers. Our still-challenging task may be a little more approachable in Matthew’s gospel, as he has already taken a few steps to help us along the way.

Matthew eliminates one problem. He does not describe John’s baptism as being for the forgiveness of sins.1

Matthew helps us solve a second problem by describing the baptism in a slightly different way. The same question we raised in Mark—why does John baptize the “more powerful one,” instead of the other way around?—is resolved by the verbal exchange between John and Jesus. John argues that Jesus should be the one baptizing him. His idea is compatible with the description of the coming one as “more powerful.” However, Jesus shows John to be operating under a misconception. Righteousness itself requires the baptism Jesus seeks.

Why? There is some thought that Jesus is simply affirming the relationship between the two of them. John’s description of one “coming after me” speaks not to the timing of their public appearances, but to Jesus having been John’s disciple.2 This linkage would properly place John in the role of Jesus’ baptizer. From this perspective, Jesus’ decision to have John baptize him makes perfect sense.

The use of the word “righteousness” to explain the baptismal decision also aids the reader. According to Professor Long (See footnote 10, supra), there are two main lines of thought about what righteousness means in this context. One is that the term refers to human righteousness, or the possibility of human beings entering into a right relationship with God, and each other, through Jesus’ “total involvement in the human condition, his sharing in the fullness of human experience, in order that humanity may be forgiven, saved, and made righteous.”3 The second idea is that the phrase denotes a cry to God for his righteous deliverance in order to “set things right.”4

Either interpretation leads to the same outcome. By stepping into the baptismal waters of the Jordan, a place frequented by sinners who came to hear John preach, Jesus is identified with humanity itself. It is a sacramental expression of what the opening verses of Matthew foretell. Jesus is called “‘Emmanuel,’ which means ‘God with us’” (Matt. 1:23).
Matthew also follows a different course than Mark in describing the heavenly voice. Here, the heavens are opened up—not torn—and Jesus sees the Spirit of God descending like a dove to alight on him. A voice from Heaven then says “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” The baptismal experience Matthew describes is not a private communication, as in Mark; it is a third person declaration to those present that Jesus is the Son of God.
What might be Matthew’s purpose in having the heavenly voice publicly validate Jesus? As is often the case, we can look to the Old Testament for clues. Chapter 42 of Isaiah begins this way:

1Here is my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
2He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
3a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
4He will not grow faint or be crushed
until he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

By invoking Isaiah’s prophecy, Matthew connects the Old Order to the New. Jesus is identified as God’s servant upon whom his Spirit rests. His mission is to establish justice, practice mercy, and walk humbly with God. The prophetic tradition of Micah 6:8 continues.

  1. Mark’s version of the baptism holds more mystery than Matthew’s. Does one speak to you more than the other? Why?
  2. In Mark, we see a tendency to conceal information about Jesus’ identity. In Matthew, we see a tendency to disclose it. Mark’s technique is sometimes called the “Messianic secret,” a concept to which we will be more formally introduced later in this series. Why might Mark use this technique? Why might Matthew take a different approach?
  1. John’s baptismal candidates do, of course, confess their sins in Matthew (See Matt. 3:6). Even so, the baptismal rite itself is not specifically connected to forgiveness of sins, as in Mark. [↩]
  2. A disciple is one who learns. Calling Jesus a disciple of John does not subordinate either his character or his power to John’s. As used here, the word describes the process through which Jesus gained the knowledge and discipline that his human nature needed in order to carry out his mission. For more on this and related topics, see Professor Boring’s commentary on Matthew in The New Interpreter’s Bible series, at 159–160. See also Thomas G. Long’s commentary on Matthew in the Westminster Bible Companion series, at 32–34. Professor Long is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. He has been affiliated both with Columbia Theological Seminary and Princeton Theological Seminary. [↩]
  3. See Long, supra, at 33. [↩]
  4. Id. [↩]