Why was Jesus Baptized?

Baptism of our Lord | Matthew 3:13-17

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Does the Baptism of Jesus surprise you? It certainly surprised John the Baptist.

People came to John from all over Judea and Jerusalem. They came out to the wilderness confessing their sins, admitting their failures, and acknowledging what they already knew to be true: they were unclean. So, John stood in the Jordan River baptizing sinners with a baptism of repentance. That was exactly what this baptism was for: sinners in need of repentance.

But then Jesus came. He stepped down into the same river and asked for the same baptism. “I need to be baptized by you,” John objected, “and do you come to me?” John knew what this baptism was for. He knew who it was meant for. And he knew that Jesus did not belong in that water. Jesus had no sins to confess. No guilt to wash away. No repentance to offer. Everything about this moment felt wrong. The roles were backwards. Nothing lined up the way it should have.

John was right to be troubled. The Sinless One should not be asking for a sinner’s baptism. Yet that raises the question that stands at the center of this text: Why was Jesus baptized? Why does the sinless Son of God submit to a baptism meant for repentance? 

Jesus gives John only a brief answer: “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” That answer does not help remove the mystery. It deepens it. Jesus is baptized for a reason. This morning we are given two reasons. And those reasons are not about Him alone. They are about you. They are about your Baptism. And they are about what God has done for you in Christ.

I. Jesus Was Baptized to Stand in the Place of Sinners

John was right to object. This baptism was not for the righteous. It was a baptism of repentance for sinners, and the people who stepped into the Jordan knew exactly why they were there. And then Jesus stepped into line with them. Jesus deliberately chose to receive a baptism meant for sinners. He did not correct John’s preaching. He did not redefine the meaning of the water. He did not stand on the riverbank and baptize others instead. He went down into the same water, stood in the same place, and received the same baptism. It is as if Jesus looks at the crowd of sinners coming for baptism and says, “I am with them.”

John objected. “This makes no sense, Lord! Don’t you know that baptism is for sinners?” But that is exactly why Jesus came. This was not an accident. It was not confusion. It was obedience. Jesus says, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” To fulfill all righteousness does not mean that Jesus lacked righteousness. It means that He was doing exactly what the Father had sent Him to do. He was submitting Himself entirely to His Father’s will.

And what was His Father’s will? To save you. And to save you, Jesus takes His place with sinners. Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, helps us to understand what’s going on here. He wrote, “The Saviour willed to be baptized not that He might Himself be cleansed but to cleanse the water for us. From the time that he was dipped in the water, He has washed away all our sins in water.”  How does that work?

Imagine the scene.  Imagine a massive flock of sheep gathered on the Jordan bank, pressing toward the water. One by one, they go down to John, standing in the river. These sheep are filthy, disgusting, and covered in muck. They have burrs and thorns caught in their wool, and they are ragged nasty-looking sheep. That’s you. That’s me.

And as these sheep step into the water, John pours water over them and says, “I baptize you in water for repentance.” All the muck and filth washes off of these sheep, these lambs, and they walk out of the other side of the river pure, white, gleaming. Sheep after sheep comes into the water, and all of the dirt and blood is washed off. Sheep after sheep are washed clean, while the water is covered, like a swamp or an oil spill.

Imagine next, one white, gleaming, stunning lamb in the middle of all these dirty, disgusting sheep. This lamb is without spot or blemish, perfect in every way. And now this perfect white woolly lamb comes to the edge of the water, and John sees Him and tries to prevent Him coming into the filth, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do You come to me?”

But this perfect lamb answers, saying, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.” So this perfect lamb steps into the water. As He does, all the filth, muck, stain, thorn, dirt, and blood swirling around on the water is absorbed onto Him. His wool is saturated with your uncleanness and my unrighteousness – all of it. Then the lamb walks out of the river bearing all the filth of each and every sheep. And now the water is clear and pure.

John is standing in the river, and He points directly at this lamb and says, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” This is Jesus, who knew no sin, the One whom God made to be the sin offering for us. Brothers and sisters, in this image we have the baptism of Jesus and the death of Jesus wrapped together. The baptism of Jesus is the first step on the road that ends at the cross. He came to put Himself in the place of sinners. He is being numbered with the transgressors. He is bearing what is not His. He is carrying sins He did not commit. He is stepping into your guilt so that you might step out free.

He is your stand-in. Your substitute. The One who offers His life in place of yours, blood for blood. Jesus did not go into the water because He needed forgiveness. He went into the water because you do. He took responsibility for sins that were not His.

In this baptism, Jesus stands where sinners stand so that sinners may one day stand where He stands. The Lamb who steps into the river will one day be lifted onto the wood. This is the first reason Jesus was baptized: to stand in the place of sinners and to carry their sin away.

II. Jesus Was Baptized to Be Revealed as the Beloved Son

When Jesus comes up out of the water, everything changes. Until this moment, Jesus has been hidden. He has lived quietly in Nazareth. No public preaching. No disciples. No miracles. But now, as He rises from the Jordan, heaven itself opens. The Spirit of God descends upon Him like a dove. And a voice comes from heaven: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Before Jesus does anything, the Father says who He is. The Father’s pleasure does not rest on Jesus’ because of something he has done. It does not wait for obedience, miracles, or success. It rests on His identity. He is the Son. Beloved. Well-pleasing to the Father.

The Father’s words echo the promise spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.” This is also the moment where Jesus is anointed with the Spirit as the Messiah. This is what Peter says in Acts 10:38. At his Baptism, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.” The Spirit descends, to mark Jesus openly as the Anointed One. This is His commissioning. His ordination. His unveiling before Israel. Here, at the Jordan, Jesus is revealed as the Messiah promised in the Scriptures. This is the Servant upon whom the Spirit rests. This is the One sent to bring justice, mercy, and salvation to the ends of the earth.

This is the second reason Jesus was baptized: to be revealed as the beloved Son and publicly anointed as the Messiah sent to save.

Why was Jesus baptized? He was baptized to stand in the place of sinners. And He was baptized to be revealed as the Son who would carry that burden all the way to the end.

This revelation is not only about Jesus. What the Father says about the Son here is echoed again wherever sinners are baptized. That is the pattern of your Baptism.

In Baptism, you are joined to Christ. Saint Paul says it plainly: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3–4).

That means your Baptism is not just a symbol. It is a participation. You are joined to Christ where He stands. Joined to His death. Joined to His burial. And joined to His resurrection life. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God. As Paul continues, “If we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Romans 6:5).

And because you are joined to Christ, what is spoken over Him is spoken over you. The voice that once declared, “This is my beloved Son,” now declares you God’s child in Him. And having been named God’s child, you are given the grace to live as one. Not because you have earned it. Not because you have lived a spotless life. Not because you have fulfilled all righteousness. But because Jesus has. And because you are in Him.

In your Baptism, God does not look at you in isolation. He looks at you in Christ. And seeing you united to His Son in death and resurrection, the Father declares His pleasure over you.

This is what Baptism gives. This is what Christ has done for you. This is why Jesus was baptized.

May the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.