Why Does Jesus Need to Be Baptized?
Reflection on Luke 1: 39-55
Friends, I will admit to you that, since I was a child, I have always felt just a little bit nervous when reading the Gospel passages that recount the baptism of Jesus. I have a distinct memory of sitting in church — I can’t have been older than 11 — and listening to Pastor Ron preach about how Jesus insisted that John baptize him and thinking to myself, “Why does Jesus need to be baptized?” I mean, I knew (or had an inkling at least) why I should be baptized. I knew there was an element of repentance involved, and I knew that baptism somehow signified my union with Christ. But I could not figure out why Jesus would need those things — he has nothing to repent of and he certainly couldn’t be united to himself, could he? I remember being frustrated because I didn’t think the pastor really attempted to answer this question, and to me it seemed like the key to understanding the relevant passages in scripture.
As I grew older, I was exposed to some attempts to answer to this question. One strand of thought, dating back to antiquity, is summarized in a line from a prayer that Martin Luther included in his service of baptism: “Through the Baptism in the Jordan of Your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, You sanctified and instituted all waters to be a blessed flood, and a lavish washing away of sin.” So, the idea is that Jesus’ baptism somehow created baptism for all of the rest of us. Jesus went into the water, and in so doing, he sanctified all water so that in our baptism we receive that blessing.
Now I happen to like this explanation, but there are two problems with it. First, I don’t think that this explanation is really drawn from the Gospel texts, even if it is compatible with them. And more importantly, even if it is true in some sense, I don’t think it really captures everything that is described in the Gospel accounts. What about the other people who were baptized by John? What are we supposed to make of the Holy Spirit descending like a dove? What does it mean that the voice from heaven said to Jesus, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”? (Luke 3.22) At best, this explanation is a way of simplifying the baptism of Jesus to a kind of theological nugget to fit into a “grand explanation” of the story of our salvation. And more and more, I find this kind of tidy explanation unsatisfying.
You see, I was brought up thinking that the Bible was a kind of manual — a holy text to be mined for answers to all of life’s important questions. I don’t know if my family or my church explicitly taught me this, but it was certainly implicit in the way we approached the scriptures. Every verse had a specific meaning, and the task of the Bible reader was to tease that out, kind of like solving a puzzle. But as I’ve grown older and as I’ve learned about how many people who are much smarter than I am continue to be puzzled by questions of interpretation, I’ve moved away from this approach. More and more the scriptures seem to invite reflection and further questioning. More and more, I want to answer the questions like the one I had about Jesus’ baptism like this: “I’m not sure, but isn’t it interesting that…” Maybe Luther, following Athanasius and St. John Chrysostom and others are right about the baptism of Jesus being a blessing for all waters. I can certainly get on board with that. But I don’t think I can stop there. I’m not sure that this is right, and even if it is, I don’t think that’s all we can say about Jesus’ baptism.
For example, did you notice how Luke’s gospel describes the actual baptism? It doesn’t! This is what it says: “Now when all of the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized…” (Luke 3.21) Now isn’t that interesting? The evangelist doesn’t describe the baptism itself, but the text does note that Jesus’ baptism took place in the context of other people being baptized. That is to say that Jesus is participating in this act together with other people.
How about this one? Did you notice what Jesus was doing when the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit came down like a dove, and the voice from heaven spoke? He was praying! Isn’t it interesting that he was praying? Jesus, who was baptized along with other people was praying, which is an activity that we as the church also do on a regular basis. And it was at that point that we have this picture of the Trinity: The Father’s voice from heaven, the Son in prayer, and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove.
Now these details invite another series of questions. Why is it significant that Jesus was baptized with other people? Why does it matter that Jesus was praying? And I am trying to take my own advice here and, rather than rush to a one-sentence answer that slots neatly into a theological system, I want to reflect on those details for a minute. I’ll share my thoughts, but first I’d like to pause in silence for just a moment for each of us to consider these questions.
I’d like to share a few thoughts that came from my own earlier reflection on this passage. Your reflections may have gone in a different direction, and that’s wonderful. One strength of reading scripture as a community is that we have many ways of thinking. For me, it is important that Jesus was baptized with other people because I see him participating in the life of the Christian community together with me and with all of us. And it’s not just me — Jesus works together with all of us, friends. Jesus did not hold himself apart from us; instead, we are made one with him in baptism. It is also important to me that Jesus was praying, because prayer is the ongoing work of the church. And this matters to me because I get discouraged. Sometimes I find it difficult to maintain hope in the face of the threats of war or of climate change, of constantly fluctuating interpersonal relationships, of health challenges, of the loss of loved ones. Praying for these things is part of what we do as the church, and it helps me knowing that Jesus does this alongside us. We pray for the well-being of all people, for the life of the world. And in fact, we pray for the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who descended like a dove, to act among us when the priest prays for the gifts of bread and wine: “Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of your Son, the holy food and drink of new and unending life in him.” Jesus, it seems to me, participates with us in our lives, not merely as the recipient of prayer, but as one who prays with us and for us, too.
I share this because it all helps me to make sense of the baptism of Jesus, even if it does not answer all of my theological questions. I still don’t know why Jesus was baptized, and I’m not sure that I ever will. But I find comfort in the fact that he was, and that he has shared his life with us in this way.
Image: Jerzy Nowosielski (Polish, 1923–2011), The Baptism of Jesus Christ in the Jordan, 1964.