CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 3:13. Jesus … baptised.—He received the rite as ratifying the mission of the great forerunner, and He also received it as the beautiful symbol of moral purification, and the humble inauguration of a ministry which came not to destroy the law but to fulfil (Farrar).
Matthew 3:14. Forbad, διεκώλυεν is emphatic, and implies that John interposed strenuously to hinder Him. The Baptist’s words imply that he had some definite knowledge of the character of Jesus. John 1:33 seems to mean that he did not know for certain, by Divine intimation or revelation, that Jesus was the Messiah, until the event referred to occurred (Morison).
Matthew 3:15. Now = for the present. “The future will make abundantly manifest what we respectively are.” Fulfil all righteousness.—To leave nothing undone which would be honouring to the seemly and significant ordinances of God (Morison).
Matthew 3:16. Heavens … opened.—This and the resultant manifestations were granted probably to John and Jesus only (John 1:32-34). Dove.—Suggesting the idea of completeness and, at the same time, of beauty, gentleness, peace, and love (J. M. Gibson).
Matthew 3:17. This is My beloved Son.—This revelation awakened the Messianic consciousness of Jesus (Wendt). The titles, “Son of God” and “beloved,” or well-pleasing to the Father, according to the Old Testament promises, belonged to the Messiah (cf. Psalms 2:7; Isaiah 42:1). No doubt Jesus was previously conscious that He was the Son of God and an object of the Divine complacency; but through this revelation was awakened the consciousness of a unique pre-eminence of sonship in relation to God, and of the unique significance which, in virtue of this pre-eminence, He should have for the establishment of the kingdom of God and the Messianic dispensation (ibid.).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 3:13-17
Messiah Himself.—“Mightier than I.” So the Baptist, in the preceding verses, had predicted of Christ. What he foretold in those verses is accomplished in these. “Jesus of Nazareth” Himself here appears on the scene. “Jesus of Nazareth” is here openly acknowledged to be all that the Baptist had just declared about “Christ.” This is shown us, partly, by what is related here of the actions of men; and partly by what is related here of the action of God.
I. Of the actions of men.—We say of “men” because of the representative character of the “man” shown to us here. “The law and the prophets were until John” (Luke 16:16). He excelled all before him partly because of the fact that he summarised all. What he does here, therefore, is done in effect by the whole “column” he leads. Hence its significance, in the first place, in the way of remonstrance. Whilst engaged in his work of baptising sinners and bringing them to repentance, Jesus of Nazareth appears amongst them, and asks for baptism at his hands. Such a request, to John the Baptist, seems to put everything wrong. So far from seeing any need of “repentance” in Jesus, His very presence there only makes him the more conscious of the evil to be found in himself. “I have need to be baptised of Thee, and comest Thou to me?” (Matthew 3:14). What a testimony this is (if we think of it) to the character for holiness which this Jesus possessed in the eyes of John, even before the latter appears to have known Him fully as the Messiah (cf. John 1:33). What a testimony from one so holy himself! So discerning! So faithful! So connected, as we have just seen, with all the holiness of the past! Virtually, it was all that holiness effacing itself before Christ’s. In the way of submission. The answer of Jesus to this remonstrance of John says in effect, “As things are now, I ask you to allow this to be done. If it does not seem so at first, it is yet, in reality, in fullest harmony with what I am here to accomplish; the very object I have come for being that of occupying the place of the unrighteous and fulfilling ‘all righteousness’ in his stead.” Convinced by this language, John opposes no more (Matthew 3:15). It is not for him to undertake to deny what this sinless One says. Jesus of Nazareth is not only far holier, He is also far wiser than he. So he confesses by thus “giving way.” So, also, there confesses with him all the true enlightenment of the past.
II. Of the action of God.—As soon as the baptism thus conceded is over, we are in the presence of this. It follows immediately on the coming up of Jesus “out of the water” (Matthew 3:16). It is manifested, on the one hand, in the way of vision or sight. From the “opened heavens” above Him “the Spirit of God” was seen by the Baptist “descending like a dove” upon Jesus, “and lighting upon Him” (Matthew 3:16). Thus, as it were, was the Messiahship of Jesus set forth to the world. The very sign of that Messiahship which John was taught to expect (John 1:33) has come upon Jesus. That sign, as it were, therefore, is the “laying of hands” upon Him as the man called to this work—a gift at once separating and preparing Him for what that “Anointed One” had to do. On the other hand, we see the action of God here in the way of hearing and speech. From the same opened “heaven” there comes, next, the sign of a “voice.” Needless to say, coming thence, from Whom it proceeds. It is the “voice” of that Father whom we are taught to call upon as “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9). This sign is a testimony, therefore, to the unique dignity of the Messiah. Whatever the Messiah was to be in this respect, that this Holy One—this Jesus of Nazareth—is hereby acknowledged as being. “This”—this same one, this just baptised one—“is” truly “My Son.” “With Him,” also—as being such—I am always “well pleased.” Even John’s greatness, as the greatest of servants, is nothing to this.
This combination of testimonies, as well from earth as from heaven, brings before us, in conclusion:
1. The greatest of Teachers.—Who can be better qualified as a teacher than One on whom the Spirit of truth (1 Corinthians 2:11) thus descends and remains? In thus altering the decision of John, also, do we not see Him instructing one who had surpassed all teachers before? Well, therefore, may He be accepted as the Teacher of all teachers to come!
2. The completest of Saviours.—What He undertakes here to do is just that which sinners most of all need, viz. to provide them with that which shall secure them acceptance with God. How striking to find this thus spoken of on His first appearance in public! How equally striking to find that the Father sets His seal on this from the first!
3. The profoundest of mysteries.—How plainly we seem taught here that there are three persons in One! How nothing short of this seems to satisfy all that is shown to us here! How fully this does satisfy all that is shown to us here! No other key cart turn this lock with its multitudinous wards!
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 3:13-17. The coronation of the King.—
I. The becomingness of the apparently unbecoming baptism.—The whole mystery of Christ’s identification of Himself with sinful men, and of His being “made sin for us, who knew no sin,” lies in germ in His baptism by John. No other conception of its meaning does justice to the facts.
II. The Divine anointing or coronation.—The symbol of the dove seems to carry allusions to the grand image which represents the Spirit of God as “brooding” over chaos, and quickening life, as a bird in its nest by the warmth of its own soft breast; to the dove which bore the olive branch, first messenger of hope, to the prisoners in the ark; to the use of the dove, as clean, in sacrifice; to the poetical attribution to it, common to many nations, of meek gentleness and faithful love. Set side by side with that John’s thought of the Holy Spirit as fire, and we get all the beauty of both emblems increased, and understand how much the stern ascetic, whose words burned and blistered, had to learn. Meekness is throned now.
III. The Divine proclamation.—
1. The coronation ends with the solemn recitation of the style and title of the King.
2. The voice attests the Divine complacency in Him.
3.The Father’s delight in the Son is through the Son extended to all who love and trust the Son.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Matthew 3:13-15. Christ coming to be baptised.—The mighty impulse of the Spirit leading Christ to Jordan. Appears from the circumstance:
1. That He came from a great distance.
2. That He came alone.
3. That He came fully decided on the course before Him.—J. P. Lange, D.D.
Matthew 3:15. Christ in His humiliation.—
1. Some things were necessary to be done by Christ in the time of His humiliation, which otherwise would not have become the dignity of His person.
2. It is a thing both right and comely for each man to do what his calling requireth.
3. When the Lord makes His will clear unto us, we should renounce our will and follow His. “Then he suffered Him.”—David Dickson.
The mode of Christ’s baptism.—As to the baptism, there has been great discussion about it. It is very curious to me that when the great moral lesson of this incident has stood confronting the church, instead of considering what is the real meaning of Christ’s baptism, it has gone discussing what Professor Swing has so well characterised as a question whether the water should be applied to the man or the man to the water. We do not know which was done in this case. An ancient picture, dating, I think, from about the fourth century, rude and rough, in the catacombs of Rome, represents Jesus and John standing in the water, and John pouring the water from a shell on Jesus’ head. We know that in early times water was poured on the heads of priests to anoint them. I think myself it most probable that the baptism of Jesus by John was neither that which the Baptist sect nor that which the other sects have generally pursued, but one which, so far as I know, no considerable denomination of Christendom has ever used, the method of pouring.—L. Abbott, D.D.
Matthew 3:16. Like a dove.—
I. In His purity like a dove. Hence He finds at first only one resting-place—the head and heart of Jesus.
II. In His gentleness like a dove. Hence addressing Himself to man.
III. In His harmlessness like a dove. Hence conquering the wicked one.
IV. In His love as a dove. Hence imparting life to the church.—Lange.
The baptism of Jesus.—Even the pure offspring of the Spirit needed the anointing of the Spirit; and it was only when His human nature had grown strong enough for the support of the fulness of the Spirit that it remained stationary and fully endowed with power from above.—Olshausen.
Matthew 3:16-17. The Holy Trinity.—Here, in the baptism of our blessed Head, we find ourselves in the presence at once of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, into whose adorable name we are baptised (Matthew 28:19). The early Fathers of the church were struck with this, and often advert to it. “Go to Jordan,” said Augustine to the heretic Marcion, “and thou shalt see the Trinity.” Nor is it to be overlooked, as Lange remarks, that, as it is at Christ’s own baptism that we have the first distinct revelation of the doctrine of the Trinity, so it is at the institution of baptism for His church that the doctrine brightens into full glory.—D. Brown, D.D.