OUR FATHER WHO SENT A HERALD TO POINT TO THE MESSIAH PART 2

Having introduced John the Baptist and his mission, Mathew, in chapter 3 verses 13 - 17, then describes the momentous convergence of John and the Lord Jesus at the river Jordan.

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.”

John, going about his work baptizing those who responded to his preaching and repented of their sins, suddenly realised that one of the people standing in line to be baptized was the One whose imminent arrival he had been proclaiming.

John immediately felt too inadequate to administer the rite of baptism upon so great a person whom he had already declared as one whose sandals he was unworthy to carry and tried to pursuade the Lord Jesus to baptize him rather than the other way around.

Jesus, in a gentle rebuttal to John's objection, told him that the baptism was nessessary to "fulfill all righteousness" and asked him to set aside the internal conflict he was feeling and baptize him anyway.

John was ultimately pursuaded and he baptized Jesus.

The reality of Jesus' words that the baptism was necessary was, at least in part, made clear when Jesus emerged from the water because that moment was chosen by God to be when the official public pronouncement of the credentials of Jesus was made.

On the banks of the Jordan river, the eternal Holy Spirit, descending like a dove, alighted on Jesus and the heavenly  Father declared audibly that Jesus was His beloved Son and that He was well pleased with Him. 

The Father and the Holy Spirit registered their presence alongside the Son of God to mark this event  as one of the few mentioned in all of scripture where all three members of the Trinity are geograpically together.

Amen.

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