The Life of the Messiah (Continued)

Jesus in the Wilderness (His Baptism)

When the day arrived for Him to be revealed to Israel as their Messiah He left the family home and His workplace for the last  time and went out into the wilderness, along with many other Israelites to be baptised of John. Not for the same  purpose as them for He    needed no baptism of repentance as John’s initial reaction revealed, for “John tried to   prevent Him, saying, “I need to be  baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” (Matt. 3:14) However, He had been led of the  Spirit to  be baptised by John for several reasons.

The first was to signify the acceptance of His Messianic mission, for the only hope for these repentant sinners that John was baptising was for Jesus to die in their place. This meant His identification with them, and this He did by joining them in John’s baptism.

The Scripture also makes us aware that Jesus, who had fully embraced the limitations of the incarnation was strengthened in His mission when He received confirmation that taking on the form of man did not limit His relationship with His Father. The Father’s voice testified: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:17)

A third reason for the baptism was it presented the perfect opportunity for John to be reassured regarding his own ministry and identify Jesus as the ‘greater’ who was to follow Him. “I did not know Him,  but  He  who  sent  me  to  baptize  with  water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” (John 1:33–34)

In addition, the Spirit of God used the baptism to signify a break   between the private life of Jesus and His new public life as Messiah. But that new public life could not begin until His diabolical foe was confronted and resisted. The Spirit of God having descended on him in the form of a dove, soon ‘drove’ Him further into  the wilderness, into a more inhospitable region, to be tempted of the Devil (Mark 1:12) and there to defend His recently  confirmed status of ‘Son of God’.

Next Time: His Temptation