Why did Jesus go to John the Baptist to be baptized?
Why did Jesus go to John the Baptist to be baptized?
John's baptism was a baptism of repentance and was intended for sinners who wanted a change of life. So what did such a baptism have to do with Jesus? Was he not without sin? In fact, as the Gospel of Matthew tells us, even John himself initially objected when Jesus asked him to baptize him (Mt 3:14). Why then was Jesus baptized?
As we have already said, here begins the public ministry of Jesus, so the fact that he did not address the religious leaders in the temple, but went to John the Baptist to be baptized by him, fully confirmed John as prophet of God and also marked from the beginning his distancing from the official religion of his time.
But without a doubt, the most important reason why he went down to the waters together with the sinful people was in order to identify himself with them. Just as Moses had abandoned his regal position centuries before to identify himself with his people and free them from slavery, so Christ had temporarily left his throne in the Majesty on high to come to save sinners.
pixabay
Thus, his baptism showed his identification with sinners and anticipated the moment when he was to be "made an offering for sin."
Jesus, the only holy and innocent man, presented himself as the representative of all sinners, just as the prophet Isaiah had announced.
(Is 53: 6) "All of us have gone astray like sheep, each of us has turned his way; but the Lord has laid on him the sin of us all."
We can say that this was the first step on a path that would lead him to the Cross.