Baptism As Commissioning

 Beginning a new job often involves receiving a license or some other official indication that the practitioner has official permission and authority to engage in the profession. Doctors, lawyers, nurses, various sorts of therapists, and even many clerics receive a piece of paper that grants them authority to do their jobs, and attests that they are qualified. 

Scripture gives us a lot of information about Jesus’s birth but then there is very little about his childhood other than a trip to the Temple. The next time we see Him, he’s meeting John the Baptist at the Jordon. John has told us that Jesus is the One who is greater than himself and he wants people to pay attention to Jesus.

Before the two of them leave the Jordan that day, Jesus will ask John to baptize him and after an initial balking, John agrees. So they go into the river and John baptizes Jesus. While they’re in the river after the baptism, an amazing thing happens—the heavens open like they did when the angels announced Jesus’s birth. This time though, there are no trumpets, but the voice of God Himself speaks.

Depending on which of the synoptic Gospels we’re reading, God says “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” The Spirit of God then descends on Jesus. In this scene, we have all three persons of the Godhead—the voice of the Father, the presence of the Spirit, and the Son in the center of this vignette. 

This event, his baptism and the declaration of the Father and the “anointing” of the Spirit is often referred to as Jesus’s commissioning for His ministry. If there had been any doubt, if the antics of a twelve-year-old boy among the religious leaders hadn’t given us a clue, this rather powerful display of affirmation leaves no question about who Jesus is and God’s endorsement of what He will do. 

Following this, Jesus begins His ministry “officially,” by being driven into the wilderness by the very Spirit that had descended on Him in the river. 

Many have wondered why Jesus had to be baptized to “fulfill all righteousness.” If he was sinless, why be baptized—isn’t He already righteous? If we take a broader view of the scene and what baptism images in Scripture, we might gain a bit of insight. Jesus and John aren’t the only ones at the river. There are others being baptized too and John has told them that this is a baptism of repentance—only those who are prepared to repent and follow God are eligible for this baptism.  Jesus wants to be baptized for this reason; to publicly declare His intent to follow YHWH.  

Paul will tell us eventually that baptism displays our denial of ourselves—our death to ourselves —and our returning to life to follow God. Our baptisms are also baptisms of repentance. In a similar sense they are also our commissioning and involve our anointing with the Spirit.  Our baptism is remarkably similar to Jesus’s and it serves also as our commissioning as children of God. 

What are we doing with our commissioning?