John the Baptist baptises Jesus

John baptises Jesus

Matthew 3:13-17, Luke 3:21-22

Jesus' baptism

People had done wrong things. Some people were sorry for the wrong things. John baptised those people. Jesus came to him, with other people, for baptism. John tried to stop him (Matthew 3:13). Christ himself had done nothing wrong. He had no sin to repent of. But Jesus was going to begin his public work. This was the time. He wanted to show that he was a man. People should think that he was a man. He came to rescue people. He was like these people. Immediately the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus like a bird. A voice spoke from heaven, ’You are my Son. I love you. I am very pleased with you‘ (Matthew 3:17).

John recognized that
Jesus was the Messiah

God had told John how to recognise the Messiah. ’I would not have known him, if God had not told me this. The Holy Spirit will come down and remain on him. He will be the man who will baptise with the Holy Spirit‘ (John 1:33). At this time God gave power to Jesus. Jesus had work to do. It was the power of the Holy Spirit for this work (Acts 10:38).

On another day, John saw Jesus near him. The Holy Spirit told John to say this to the crowds, ’Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world‘! (John 1:29). Neither John nor the crowds could have understood this completely at that time. Later, Jesus died. He then came to life again. Jesus said many things. After that, men could understand many of these things better.

The Lamb of God

This name for Jesus is only here in John 1, in the New Testament. ’The Lamb‘ is sometimes a name for Jesus in the Book of Revelation. It is not clear what John the Baptist meant. It is not clear what his disciples understood by this phrase. Here are some of the possible meanings:

• The Passover Lamb  Exodus 12
• To remind us of the animal which God gave in Genesis 22:13. It was the sacrifice in place of Isaac
• The lamb which Isaiah 53:7 mentions
• The lambs which the Jews offered every morning and evening as sacrifices in the Temple
• The lambs which Jews gave to God as sacrifices, when they were sorry for their sins.

’The Lamb‘ could mean any of these. Perhaps John did not mean only one thing. What is important is the idea of sacrifice. Jesus would be the sacrifice to take away sin.

John's authority to baptise

John spoke about Jesus with great power. People believed that John was a prophet. He showed this by the simple way that he lived. He showed this by what he said.

Afterwards, the men who ruled in the Temple came to Jesus. They came just before he died on the cross. They asked him what authority he had. Why did he do the things that he did? Jesus replied with a question:

The men from the Temple refused to answer Jesus' question. They could not say that men told John to baptise people. All the people believed that God had appointed John to be a prophet. So Jesus then replied, ’Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things‘.