NOTES for Mat 3:13-17

Why is Jesus baptized? He is sinless and has no need of repentance. To set us an example? But surely not an example of something meaningless! John the Baptist senses this keenly, which is why he “tried to prevent Him.” Yet it is precisely in this way that Jesus “fulfills all righteousness,” bringing righteousness in this world to its fullness: by descending into the waters of baptism, He makes them capable of cleansing us from our sins; thus He takes those sins upon Himself and later bears them to the Cross. And John, standing in that water, suddenly receives a possibility hitherto unknown to humanity: to see God in the relationship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to hear the revelation from heaven of God’s good will manifested in Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God.