Chapter 3
Prepare the Way, Baptism
and Temptation
This chapter will explore the Gospel
accounts of Jesus baptism. Was it necessary and why did it happen as they
detailed it? What was the story line that they felt needed to be told? Why is
there a temptation story in all three of the Gospel accounts? These are
intriguing questions for a Disciple to ponder, reflect and then discern what
God is trying to tell us.
Mark begins his account of Jesus with the
story of John the Baptist. Why? Remember that Mark’s account is written for the
Romans. For Roman citizens Jesus birth lineage would have no meaning. For all
the writers, the connection of John to the prophecy of one bringing a voice
from the wilderness would precede the Messiah was important. John the Baptist
certainly fits this description. Matthew and Luke needed the reader to know the
lineage of Jesus to bring Him in line with David, so their story started there.
It may also be of interest that Matthew and Luke may have both been familiar
with the birth narrative while Mark may not have been. Or this leads us back to
the discussion of Q, the narrative that has never been found or Q could have
been a common narrator that both the writers of Matthew and Luke were familiar
with.
Let’s start with John. What we know of
John from Luke’s Gospel is that he is related to Jesus through Mary (Luke 1:36).
Mark’s Gospel begins with John the Baptizer. Mathew and John simply indicate
that John the Baptizer comes out of the wilderness as if he is a wild man from
God. That may not be far from the truth as we study the extent of John’s
ministry. Historically we know that John existed and Herod of Antipas, the son
of the Herod of Jesus birth, had him beheaded. John preached a sermon of
repentance and baptized through the water a baptism of repentance. This custom
of cleansing with water comes through the Jewish purification rituals that had
existed for centuries. But John adds a twist in that he indicates that the cleansing
must come from within. Come to the water and repent your sins before God and be
forgiven for those sins and go forth in grace and mercy before God. John is
often thought to fulfill the prophecy of Micah 4:1-5 and the prophecies of
Isaiah 40:3 which tell us that one would come out of the world before the
Messiah paving the way for his arrival. Is the similarity between John and
Elijah a possibility that the writer desires you to make that connection? Regardless
of what you believe in that regard, John did in fact pave the way for Jesus
ministry. He brought together a group of followers, some of them would go on to
follow Jesus, and he began the people thinking about repentance to God.
What is it that the writers of the
Gospel want us to hear in the message of John? So what exactly was John
offering? John was offering hope in the midst of great unrest and struggle. On
the one hand the people were struggling with the hard hand of Rome. Taxes were
taking a heavy toll and Rome would put up with very little before lashing out
at the inhabitants of Israel. On the other hand, they were struggling with
their own religious identity. The leadership which called themselves Jewish
clearly was more Roman than Jew. Herod was not a well-liked leader and many
would long for his removal. The Religious leadership of the day in the
Sanhedrin, the Sadducees and Pharisees seemed more about law than they did
about forgiveness and repentance. So John’s message of hope in the midst of
this tension was well received. Josephus, the historian indicates that large
crowds followed him wherever he went. And what he invited folks to do is to get
right with God. Not in the legalistic way that the Sadducees and Pharisees were
demanding, but in the old way of the prophets. And his message that one was
coming after him that would be the Messiah gave people hope that freedom was on
the way. All three of the synoptic Gospel accounts lift this Messianic message
about Jesus and a baptism of the Holy Spirit. It should be noted that John
differentiates between his baptism of repentance and the baptism that Jesus
will bring.
All four Gospel writers spend time with
the Baptism story. In fact it does a number of important things for the greater
story of Jesus. First it promotes the idea that Jesus has been chosen
specifically by God for the message He brings. Second, the Gospels of Mark,
Luke and Matthew indicate that God declares Jesus to be His Son. All three
synoptic Gospel accounts use this baptism to begin the story of Jesus ministry.
Matthew and Luke have birth narratives but we hear nothing about what Jesus
message is until after the baptism story. So for all the Gospel accounts, the
Baptism of Jesus is the beginning of His ministry. Why reveal it in such a way?
First, that God proclaimed Jesus as God’s Son and with whom God is well please
gives Jesus authority to preach and teach. Secondly the baptism of Jesus clears
the way for his message of repentance, forgiveness and love amidst the
struggles of legalism and law that exists.
One of the most discussed questions of
the Gospel accounts of Jesus is whether He needed to be baptized or not. There
are really two theories that dominate the argument. The first is that Jesus,
having been born of God, is born pure from sin. If this is the case then why
get baptized at all. Those who support this argument would say that Jesus
receives baptism from John in order to be obedient to the will of God. So does
He need it? NO! But He needs to do it in order that God will be pleased with
Him and so it is out of obedience. The second theory is more controversial.
Because Jesus was born to a human mother, then all the inherent natures of Adam
are also in Jesus. In other words, Jesus has the inherent nature we all have to
be disobedient to the will of God and so baptism becomes necessary to cleanse
that nature. We have the temptation story to use as argument that the latter
rather than the former reason is true.
So what is the purpose of the Temptation
story? We should note that the story is not part of John’s Gospel. John clearly
wants us to know that Jesus is God right from the very beginning and having a
temptation story lends nothing to that proclamation so it is clearly missing.
Matthew, Mark and Luke though have the story intertwined in the beginning of
his ministry. Why? To tell a story within a story I believe. First we have the
baptism of Jesus and God proclaims Him to be God’s Son. And then we have Jesus tempted
in the wilderness by Satan in the stories in Matthew and Luke which truly
parallel one another. In Mark, it simply says that Jesus went into the
wilderness and was tempted but does not lead us on an elaborate story of that
temptation. Is it possible that Mark was unaware of the actual events? Now if
Jesus could not be tempted why have the story? What if Jesus could be tempted
in His humanness? What if the Jesus temptation story is for us more so than for
Jesus? What if the story is to show us what perfection in human form looks
like? Jesus being tempted by Satan would lead one to believe that He could be
tempted and yet He never succumbs to that temptation. He is tempted in His
hunger, He is tempted in His belief in who He is, and He is tempted in His
power and authority. Yet, in all of that, Jesus never wavers in His obedience
to follow God’s will. In the story, we have the perfect example of what it
means to live as we were originally designed to live.
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