John tried to prevent him, saying,
“I need to be baptized by you,
and yet you are coming to me?”
Jesus, was the spotless lamb of God, entirely without sin. Thus he had no need of a baptism of repentance. John seemed to say, 'This is not for you. Its for sinners'. But this is not altogether different from when Jesus announced his intention to allow himself to be put to death and Peter responded, "Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you" (Matthew 16:22). He had no need of baptism any more than he was deserving of punishment for sin. But in a way his baptism and the cross were part of one reality. When he was submerged beneath the waters of the Jordan it represented his death. And when he rose up from the waters it pointed ahead to his resurrection. Only Jesus could be the ark that would not be swallowed chaotic flood waters of baptism. Only he was the life that death could not end. Only in union with him could we survive that destruction and live again.
Jesus said to him in reply,
“Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us
to fulfill all righteousness.”
In being baptized Jesus acted with God's own covenant righteousness toward humanity. It fulfilled the Father's saving plan for the world by revealing Jesus as his beloved Son with whom he was pleased. But it also set the stage for us to be made righteous through the sacrament of baptism. Jesus's baptism sanctified the waters that could henceforth be unsealed by his Church. After this it became possible for Christians to experience adoption by God as his sons and daughters, and to receive his gift of the Holy Spirit. As Saint John Paul the Great wrote:
However, through the divine sonship conferred by baptism, it can be said that the Father's words, "You are my beloved son", apply to every person baptized and grafted on to Christ.
- John Paul II, General Audience, April 1st, 1998
Things that would have remained merely symbolic became sacraments because of their contact with Jesus. It is similar to how the Passover seder was transformed into the Eucharist. He touched realities that were previously merely pedagogical and made them transformative by his contact with them. The reason this was possible was that his divinity meant that such contact was not merely momentary. It was absorbed into the eternity of God. Henceforth baptism and the Eucharist would always allow for contact with Jesus himself, who was present whenever they were celebrated, since the minister of a valid sacrament is always acting in persona Christi.
In our own baptism we were conformed to Jesus Christ. We took on a new identity as little Christs who were so fully the children of the Father that we came to share in the inheritance that is proper to Jesus. As Paul wrote, "if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ" (see Romans 8:17). Yet it seems to be widely the case that many of us don't really appreciate all that we have received in baptism. Most of us have a hard time processing an entirely gratuitous gift with no strings attached. The promises of baptism thus seem overstated, too good to be true, since the attainment of them seems to easy. And yet they could only be gifted, since they are beyond price. One could never pay ones way into membership in a family in any real sense. Yet we are God's children now. One could never afford the price for the gift of the Spirit living in us or the Blood of Christ washing away our sins. Yet these things are ours in baptism.
In spite of the gifts we have received we often live without filial trust in our Father or confidence in the gift of the Spirit living within us. How would our lives be different if we truly recognized that these riches were ours? Since we have in fact received them we can heed the advice of Paul to Timothy to fan into flame the gifts we have received (see Second Timothy 1:6). Then we will escape the scarcity mindset of the world and begin to live with God's abundance.
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly (see John 10:10).
Matt Maher - Come To The Water
Jamie MacDonald - Left It In The River
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