(Mt 3:13-17)

Matthew 3:13 At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptised by John.

Matthew 3:14 But John tried to prevent him, saying, 'I need to be baptised by you, and yet you come to me?

Matthew 3:15 But Jesus said to him, 'Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.' Then John consented.

Matthew 3:16 As soon as Jesus was baptised, he came up out of the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him.

Matthew 3:17 And behold, a voice from heaven said, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased'.

After John had prepared the people with his words, awakening in everyone the expectation of the Messiah, Jesus reached the place where John was baptising, near the Jordan. He went to John to be baptised by him. We too find ourselves at the Jordan, because the text does not literally say that Jesus 'went', but that Jesus 'comes' (Greek paraginetai) to the Jordan. It assumes that we are there. We have listened to John's preaching, we have gone to the Jordan. To do what? To recognise ourselves as sinners.

And what does Jesus come to do? He comes to be baptised. He comes to be immersed, to go deep into human reality. This is the key to understanding the whole Gospel, where every passage shows how God enters our lives.

The Jordan is the river through which the Israelites entered the Promised Land. Therefore, it was right that Christ should be baptised in the Jordan, rather than in the Sea of Galilee or somewhere else.

We know that John's baptism is a baptism of water for conversion. The water that bathed the body was a sign of purification following repentance and confession of sins. Jesus is without sin. He does not need conversion. He has no guilt to repent of, nor any sin to confess. What use is baptism to him? None. This is John's thinking, and that is why he opposed it and prevented him from being baptised. Indeed, it is not right according to our criteria of justice. But Jesus will say that this is precisely how God's justice is fulfilled. Jesus does not baptise anyone; he does not baptise us, but we are baptised in him. That is, he did not come to put us under water; he came to go under water with us, and we are baptised in him in his death, that is, in his love for us. But if he is not baptised, that is, if he does not give his life for us, we cannot be baptised.

John does not know why Jesus asks to be baptised, and Jesus does not explain the reasons for his request. He refers John to the justice that must be done. All justice would be fulfilled in Jesus' submission to the rite of baptism. Jesus almost asks his permission to be baptised: 'let it be done', that is, allow it, grant it 'for now, because it is fitting'. It is good that I be baptised, it is fitting, it is necessary, because in this way 'all righteousness' is fulfilled, the will of God. 'For now' it is right that Jesus should accept the most humble position. It is precisely in this solidarity of the Son with mankind that God's will for the whole world is fulfilled. This is how God's plan is fulfilled. Therefore, Jesus' baptism, his death, is the fulfilment of all God's justice, for the cross is his judgement. His judgement is to give his life for all mankind, and he gives it in the Son.

It is difficult for us to understand that all justice is fulfilled in the fact that Jesus is in solidarity with us. The whole of Scripture is fulfilled in the fact that the Son was counted among the evildoers. John was right to be scandalised! We are not scandalised because we probably cannot understand how the Just One can be considered an evildoer and a sinner. By allowing himself to be baptised by John, it is as if Jesus stripped himself of his will. There is a will of the Father that he must fulfil. In baptism, Jesus surrenders his will to the Father, strips himself of his will, and officially accepts the mission of being the Messiah of God, and also accepts to fulfil the mission always and only in full observance of the Father's will.

Jesus immersed in water is a figure of Jesus dead on the cross; his lowering, but followed by his rising up. And behold, Jesus "came up out of the water". The adverb used by Matthew, euthys (immediately, right away), is very interesting, indicating the immediacy of what follows. This means that the evangelist wanted to tell us that not much time passed between Jesus' descent into the water and his ascent, but that it was almost immediate or at least rapid (Jesus seems to splash out). Jesus does not remain in the water, symbol of his own death, but comes out of it, where the Father's response from heaven awaits him. 'The heavens opened'. The sky is a symbol of God. The earth is joined with the sky in this scene, and in fact the Spirit of God descends. The heavens opening: this tells us of God's irruption into human history. God communicates with humanity.

Jesus is the one through whom the Father visits and encounters human beings. Jesus, therefore, is the historical place of encounter between God and human beings. The salvation of humanity therefore rests on the baptised man Jesus. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus' mission begins and ends with the theme of baptism. If Jesus' first act is to undergo baptism, his last words will be an invitation to his disciples: "Go and baptise all peoples". Baptism opens and closes Jesus' activity. The sending of the apostles to baptise is an invitation to make God known to all humanity, the God whom they have experienced and known, and whom they have made known to us.

Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Apocalypse – exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers – Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ, True God and True Man in the Trinitarian Mystery

The Prophetic Discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All Generations Will Call Me Blessed

 Catholics and Protestants Compared – In Defence of the Faith

 The Church and Israel According to St Paul – Romans 9-11

(Available on Amazon)