Here, Jesus' earthly ministry begins. He comes to John asking to be baptized. Interestingly, John at first objects -not at all for the same reasons that he objected to baptizing the Pharisees and Saducees. Those of the religious elite John had objected to on the basis of no inward repentance. They had been seeking baptism as a symbolic gesture to demonstrate to the crowds their "holiness." But, John, not seeing any true repentance -no change of thinking and no change of spiritual direction, had refused to baptize them. In Jesus, however, what John saw was no need for repentance. And John was, of course, correct.
Nevertheless, Jesus insisted that John baptize Him to "fulfill righteousness." I believe what Jesus was saying was simply, "John, it is what Father wants, so it is the right thing to do." And John baptized Jesus.
This baptism was a kind of passing of the mantle from the prophet to the Messiah. John had been announcing the coming Kingdom and preparing the way for Messiah. When Jesus arose from the water and the Holy Spirit manifested and settled upon Him, and declared with an audible voice from Heaven to those gathered there that Jesus was His Son and He was pleased, Jesus was no longer the carpenter from Nazareth; in a very real sense the Kingdom had arrived -Messiah had come.
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