Baptized into the Kingdom: A Homily on Matthew 3:13-17

In case you hadn’t noticed, we live in a fallen world. We all have experienced  plenty of examples of this in our lives. We have lost loved ones: parents, spouses, and children. We have experienced strife and brokenness in relationships. We have witnessed crime and addiction. In short, we have sinned against others, others have sinned against us, and we have experienced the curse of death and enmity of God brought about by the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. 

The world today is a far cry from how God designed and made it in the six days of creation. Creation has gone from very good to what we see today. Yet God has had a plan to fix creation from the very beginning. A plan that began with the baptism of Jesus which we just read about in Matthew 3.

We might be tempted to say that God’s plan of restoring creation began with the establishment of Israel. In some ways that is true, but Israel suffered from one major flaw: it was made up of sinful men. So Israel couldn’t actually do anything to undo the damage of sin. Though it could serve as a model or an image of what was to come. 

As Matthew makes clear in his gospel, Christ is the True and Faithful Israel. The One who can repair the damage done by sin. And we see that in various parallels between figures in Old Testament Israel and Christ. These are blessings from God that we can see as we not only see and read the text of Scripture, but also listen to the echoes of the text. 

For instance, there was a parallel between Moses and Jesus. When both were born, babies were killed. To avoid this, Moses had to be hidden in a wicker basket in a river, while Jesus was taken to Egypt–which is where Moses just happened to be born. Both ascended a mountain. Both witnessed God’s glory on the mountain which shown from them–although with Moses the glory was reflected while with Jesus the glory came form within. Both received wisdom from God about the people of Israel. And we also see how Herod is the New Testament equivalent of Pharaoh. 

We can also see a parallel between Jesus and Joshua in the baptism of Jesus. Joshua led the people through the waters of the Jordan to conquer the Promised Land. So Jesus will lead His people to conquer the Promised Land through the waters of baptism in the Jordan. The difference between the two is that Jesus will conquer the entire world instead of a small strip of land in the Mideast. And that Jesus conquest will be complete and permanent. Also, the corrupt Canaanites of Joshua’s time are now the corrupt Pharisees and Sadducees and Sanhedrin.

Jesus is baptized at the age of 30. This is not new in Israel’s history. There were baptisms in the OT but almost all of them are baptisms by oneself. The main exception to this was the baptism of priest. As we saw in the passage from Exodus 40, priests were washed with water, or baptized, when they were ordained. And guess what the usual age for baptizing priest was? Thirty, just like Jesus’s age when he was baptized. 

So when we see Jesus being baptized, we are witnessing His ordination as a priest. One who can deal with all our sins. We are reminded of this when the curtain in the temple is ripped in two at His crucifixion. The curtain symblozed that the heavens are actually being ripped open. Jesus is now the eternal priest who has bridged the gap between heaven and earth because he has mediated between God and man by taking care of man’s sin on the cross. 

When we hear God speaking to Christ and His baptism, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” is echoes God’s sentiment in Psalm 2:6–9: “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (ESV)

This reminds us that in His baptism Jesus is also being annointed as the new King of Israel. But just as with King David before Him, Jesus doesn’t assume His kingship immediately. Instead, He must humble Himself, suffering through a period of humiliation first. The humiliation of the cross. But He then takes His throne when he ascends to heaven as His disciples stand watching from below. Daniel actually sees this from the perspective of heaven in a vision in Daniel 7: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” (ESV)

What does this mean for us when we are baptized? Well, our baptism is the beginning of a new priesthood for us. This is because it is an inclusion into His baptism. So we are baptized into His priesthood and His kingship. In other words, we are baptized into His kingdom work. 

Our kingdom work begins in worship. What we do in worship is the most important thing that we do. If we don’t worship God, then everything is is for naught. This also reminds us that our prayers actually change the world in ways even the best ministries can’t. Because our prayers go to Jesus who brings them to the Father. And both of them send them to the Holy Spirit who changes the hearts of the people of His kingdom. So what we are doing here today is literally changing the world. 

Yet this doesn’t mean we can’t serve in Christ’s ministry of baptism in many other ways. There are all kinds of opportunities for this. The only thing I’ll say about these is that our ministry should be one of sacrificial service. And this is the case whether the sacrifices you can make seem big or small. 

Friends, I’ll close with this. If you are baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you too have been baptized into the ministry of Jesus. Even if all ou can do is pray, you can serve in His ministry. If you haven’t been baptized, I pray that you will so that you too can enjoy the healing of Christ’s ministry against sin. 

In either case, I exhort you: It is time to put get to work in the baptism of Jesus Christ.