The Baptism of Jesus

At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. (1:9)

The four Gospels are telling Jesus' baptism in a little different nuance. The Book of Mark reports very simply and directly that Jesus was baptized by John. At that time people might think this sounds a little strange. How could it be possible that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, got baptized by Baptist John? Maybe because of that problem, Matthew is telling this situation through John's mouth like this: "But John tried to deter him, saying, 'I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?'"(Matt. 3:14). The writer of the Book of Luke reports only the fact that Jesus got baptized, with omitting the story of 'John' in Mark's Gospel as well as of an excusatory exposition in Matthew's Gospel.

That question why Jesus got baptism is still valid these days. Why did Jesus, who is a sinless person and the Christ for salvation of mankind, get baptism, which means getting forgiveness through confession of sins? (Mark 1:4) It is possible for us to analyze this as follows:

First, Jesus might see the possibility of the light of salvation through John the Baptist like other people at that time. Since the Books of Gospels do not pay attention to the actual relationship between Jesus and Baptist John, we cannot get the precise information about it through the books of Gospel, but somewhat in a practical manner we could say like this: Jesus might consider John's baptism as a renewing power for the people.

Second, Jesus might not be sure of his character as a Messiah. It is strange for him to get baptism from John if he was confident of being a Messiah. It is so hard to figure out from when Jesus starts to embody the idea of being a Messiah. It is not right to insist that he knew it from the time he was a child. Because Christian faith regards Jesus as God himself, it might sound to be blasphemous to say like Jesus' realization of being a Messiah, but without damaging the reality of Christian faith we should keep on asking this kind of questions.

Third, he might get baptism in the sense of being humble down to the human level. His consistency of humbling down showed in the fact that he came down from heaven to the earth as well as that he's been living an ordinary life like other people. On any moment Jesus was not in prestigious state of mind. It was so peculiar that many pious people thought Jesus actions to be very ridiculous. His getting along with the sinners and enjoying wines, there can be nothing wrong with his baptism like other people.

The essence of the incident of Jesus' baptism is summarized that he is historically a real person. A real person who has blood and flesh like us standing on foot so that he needed to get baptism of repentance. Christianity never doubts Jesus' humanity like this in any moment, and it showed such resolute attitudes towards the theory of docetism as heresy, that it tried to scrape of that theory.

Even today we should think the history of Christianity to be very precious. We are the people who were debt practically to the early Christians' faith, their church leaders, as well as to the seniors of faith who have been working through 2000 years of age. Without their heritage of faith, it is impossible for us to have faith today. It could be a harsh nonsense for modern Christianity to give emphasis just on daily spiritual experiences, without knowing theology, which could be history of Christianity, as well as Christian spirituality.

Oh, God. We like to realize Jesus is the foundation of life, who got baptized in the river Jordan, even though he is the sovereignty of the baptism.