13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.
16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
John baptizes Jesus in the Jordan river.
This action serves a couple of functions in Matthew’s Gospel. 1) It is a transition point from John’s
ministry to Jesus’. If John represented the consummate OT prophet, Jesus’
baptism marks the end of one epoch and the beginning of the new age of
salvation that Jesus has come to initiate. 2) It also affirms a continuity
between the actions of John and of Jesus.
Both figures serve in the divine mission of bringing salvation.
The
baptism scene itself reaches its climax in vv 16-17 when the heavens open and
the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus.
At this moment, the voice of God is heard: This is my son, the beloved one, with whom I am well pleased. God’s speech is an amalgam of two texts: Ps
2:7 and Isa 42:1. The deployment of
these OT texts has several missional implications:
1)
Psalm Two is about Yahweh’s anointed king (Messiah). It is a psalm that celebrates the coronation
of Israel’s king and his charge to serve as God’s human representative on
earth. Psalm 2 is audacious is in its
claim that God reigns through the person of his chosen king. 2:7 reads “He said to me, ‘You are my son;
today I have become your father.’”
This
rule is not merely over Israel but over the nations. Vv. 10-12 conclude the psalm with an
invitation/warning:
Therefore, you kings be
wise; be warned you rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear and
celebrate his rule with trembling.
Kiss his son, or he will be
angry and you and your ways will be destroyed, for his wrath can flare up in a
moment.
Blessed are all who take
refuge in him.
First,
by God invoking Ps 2 in his blessing of Jesus’ baptism, God is asserting that
he is reinaugurating his rule through the person of Jesus who is his Christ, i.e., the anointed human
ruler. Second, the international flavor
of Ps 2, that is its insistence that the scope of God’s Christ’s rule is
inclusive of the nations, points to the cosmic significance of Jesus. Jesus’ mission is not limited to the
restoration of Israel. Jesus’ mission
will have implications for the global community of nations.
2)
Isaiah 42 is the first of the Servant Songs that dominate the second half of
the book of Isaiah. By offering a
quotation from 42:1, God is affirming that Jesus is the fulfillment of the
servant passages in Isaiah—Jesus is the servant. 42:1 reads:
Here is my servant, whom I
uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my spirit on him and he
will bring justice to the nations.
Jesus
is God’s spirit filled servant who will usher in the new age of salvation. Isaiah 42 is powerful because like Ps 2 it
likewise has a cosmic scope in its portrayal of God’s plan of salvation. The servant will be empowered to bring justice to the nations (42:1)…He will not falter or be discouraged till he
establishes justice on earth (42:4)…[God]
will keep and make [him] to be a covenant for the people and a light for the
Gentiles (42: 6).
This
cosmic scope is rooted in the affirmation of God as creator and sustainer of
the cosmos:
This is what God the LORD
says—he who created the heavens and stretched out the earth with all that
springs from it, who gives breath to its people and life to those who walk on
it.
The
Creator has sent his Son, his human respresentative to usher in a new age of
salvation that will bring to fruition God’s desire to extend salvation to all
of humanity. Jesus, the Son, is God the
Father’s authorized agent of all of this.
His baptism marks the public affirmation of this mission.
If Jesus’ baptism was marked
by a sense of the cosmic implications of his coming work, what would it look
like for our communities of faith to see our own work as Jesus followers in the
same light?
Isn’t it time to recapture
mission as the center of our communities?
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