It has been said that humor is the coming together of two incongruous things. In that context, one of the more humorous events depicted in the Bible is the baptism of Jesus. After all, baptism is conducted, first and foremost, for the remission of original sin. If Jesus is indeed God, and God cannot sin, then the baptism of Jesus is undoubtedly the coming together of two incongruous things.
Humor aside, the baptism of Jesus presents an interesting theological question. Why did God – in the person of Jesus – get baptized? To explore this question, I will review what Catholicism has to say about the sacrament of baptism. I will then examine how Scripture depicts Jesus’ baptism and conclude by treating the purpose served by Jesus’ baptism.
While baptism is the sacrament most associated with entry into the Christian faith, its origins appear in the Jewish ritual known as “tevilah” as described in the book of Leviticus. Specifically, these rituals describe the process of spiritual cleansing.
The book of Leviticus develops a leitmotif upon ritual washing and the necessity of cleanliness before God. One must be pure before sacrificing in the Temple, the center of Jewish life. This cleansing was also considered a form of repentance, and it is in this vein that John the Baptist would baptize. Repentance was necessary for the forgiveness of past sins. However, as John the Baptist understood, this was insufficient, and the One who came after John would “baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Matthew 3:11).
Understanding the spiritual significance of water in both Judaism and Catholicism may be helpful. The word water occurs over five hundred times in the Old Testament and is used to signify both creation and regeneration. However, water’s power to cleanse makes it symbolic of baptism. As Saint John Damascene writes, “Water, then, is the most beautiful element and rich in usefulness, and purifies from all filth, and not only from the filth of the body but from that of the soul, if it should have received the grace of the Spirit.”
Baptism symbolizes this new birth, this being born again, that allows one to become an adopted child of God and a member of Christ’s body, the Catholic Church. For baptism cleanses us from original sin, reinstating our status as adopted children of God and heirs of heaven, a quality lost at the Fall. This, then, leads to Jesus’s baptism.
The baptism of Jesus is depicted in Matthew’s Gospel. “Then Jesus came from Galilee to John [the baptist] at the Jordan to be baptized by him. John tried to prevent him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?’ Jesus said to him in reply, ‘Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he allowed him. After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove coming upon him. And a voice came from the heavens, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:13-17).
All of this, then, leads to the question, why did Jesus seek to be baptized? Five reasons can be ascertained as to the purpose of Jesus’s baptism.
Prior to Christ being baptized, the process of baptism was symbolic. That is to say that baptism was only able to express one’s desire for repentance. The first effect of Jesus being baptized was to sanctify the baptismal waters. By so doing, Jesus gave the sacrament of baptism the power to communicate His Grace.
Secondly, Jesus’s baptism made apparent physically what is true spiritually. It is physical matter that makes evident the spiritual realities. This facet is true of the sacraments in general. Ultimately, sacraments “Are an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace.” (Saint Augustine).
The third reason for Christ’s baptism is to accustom people to the need for baptism. In this sense, His baptism provides a foundation or preparation for the sacraments.
The fourth reason builds on the second reason in that it places an emphasis on the need for repentance as a necessary condition for salvation.
The fifth and final reason for the baptism of Christ involves the nature of baptism itself. Since ancient times until today, water symbolizes, among other things, death. This symbolism extends to the sacrament of baptism. When one is baptized, one is said to die to himself and to be born again in Christ. In the case of Jesus’s baptism, it provides a foretaste of His death on the Cross. Moreover, in Christ’s death, we have the foundation of the Gospel message. It is in His death that He provides propitiation for our sins.
When one considers whether Christ needed to be baptized, one quickly concludes that He did not. For if Jesus is God and God is the maximally great being, then God has no need for anything, including baptism. Why, then, did Jesus seek to be baptized? In this paper, I have enumerated five reasons why Jesus was baptized. Ultimately, it seems that He did so for many of the same reasons that God took the form of a human being, to effect our salvation. In being baptized, Jesus baptized the water that allows our baptisms to have the salvific power it possesses.
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