To Fulfill All Righteousness

First Sunday after the Epiphany

January 12, 2014

Matthew 3:15

To Fulfill All Righteousness

In the name of Jesus.

I.

Like everything in Jesus' life, His baptism was an exchange with sinners. This perfectly clean Son of Man was baptized to get dirty, so that He could wash dirty people clean.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

God the Father made His Son, Jesus, who is sinless and clean to be our sin and filth for us. And Jesus revealed the truth of this in His baptism at the River Jordan.

II.

When homes didn't have faucets and indoor plumbing, taking a bath was a real chore. The water had to pumped or scooped and then carried to the tub. If you wanted hot water, you'd have to build a fire and boil the water. Then you could take a bath.

I remember reading that in pioneer days after the bath had been prepared, there was a pecking order to bathtime. The grown-ups would each take their turn, then the older kids, and finally the little kids would wash. These days we think that drinking out of the same cup is gross, so my skin crawls thinking about the state of that water when the last little kid jumps in. Ugh.

III.

This disgusting water might give you an idea of the kind of water Jesus was stepping into when He stood in the water of the Jordan River on that momentous day. Remember what John the Baptist had been doing for hundreds, if not thousands, of dirty sinners.

People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. (Matthew 3:5-6)

The water in that river was filthy, and now Jesus was standing in that same dirty sin-drenched water, that congealed black pool of our hatred and envy, our lust and pride.

But He wasn't simply the last man in the water; He is the Anointed One who stepped—purposely—under the gushing faucet of our sin. He was completely covered in sin and evil and wickedness that is not His own, but that is just as Jesus wants it. He desires that His Father look down on His sin-covered Person and punish Him in our place. And so it came to pass.

IV.

This inaugural event in Jesus' life marked the start of His public teaching and travel. It served to connect His birth in Bethlehem with His death outside Jerusalem. In His birth, in His baptism, and in His death, He exchanged Himself for us. In His birth, the Giver of the Ten Commandments placed Himself under the authority of right and wrong to fulfill all righteousness.

When the set time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. (Galatians 4:4-5)

Then at His baptism He stepped into our filth and in His mercy exchanged His status as the Righteous One of God for a declaration of guilty. Again: “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us.”

This is what confused John the Baptist. Why would the Perfect Eternal Son of God need to be baptized? Baptizing washes away the stubborn black of sin—and Jesus had none! So naturally John spoke up and tried to stop Jesus. But Jesus had the answer,

“Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15)

God's righteous plan to save us was all about righteousness and justice. And Justice demands blood for blood. Our sins cry out for our blood, but Jesus stepped into to become the Blood that satisfied Justice on our behalf.

So finally on the cross He took on Himself the wages of sin that were not His own. And He died to fulfill all righteousness.

V.

John the Baptist recognized how filthy he was and how much blood he had on his hands. Let us stand with John and marvel at our loving Savior Jesus as He walked into that filthy water, our sin.

With John, we ask in amazement, “Why?” And listen to Jesus' answer, “To fulfill all righteousness.” He is baptized into our sin and baptized into our death, so that He may baptize sinners—above all you—into His righteousness and into His life and resurrection.

Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life. For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection. (Romans 6:3-5)

In the name of the Father

and of the + Son

and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.