Around age thirty, Yeshua had specifically sought out John to be baptized. "Baptize" is a transliteration of the Greek word meaning to submerge. The baptism is generally considered to be the start of his ministry. Submerging and ritual bathing had always been a part of Jewish tradition since the days of Moses; especially for ritual cleanness. That’s generally thought to be because of the poor sanitary condition thousands of years ago.
But John had preached a new kind of baptism: to clean the soul. According to Christian philosophy this kind of baptism also was prophetic. It represented the later death burial and resurrection that Yeshua was to go through.
When he found John, he was at first reluctant to do the deed. “I would need to be baptized by you, and yet you come to me?”
But Yeshua replied, "It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires." So John agreed to baptize him.
All three of the synoptic gospels say that it was a spiritually significant moment for Yeshua and it was remembered as a turning point in his life.
Following the baptism Yeshua was driven into the wilderness for Satan to test him. Specifically Satan tested Yeshua with tuning rocks into bread during his fasting, to jump from a high point in the temple for all to see God rescuing him, and to sell his soul for physical power. This event has been the source of much debate, and speculation over the centuries.
Most American Christians look for a secular meaning to what the particular sin Satan was trying to get Yeshua to commit. The most typical answers seem to be that in the first, Satan wanted him to use his powers for selfish purpose, the second was suicide, and the third was to worship Satan. Reading the passage in Greek offers very few extra insights.
One common interpretation that I like is that Satan was tempting Yeshua with three inferior paths for becoming the messiah. The first was in being a humanitarian, something he did do to an extent anyway -- to which Yeshua responded: Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. The second was in becoming a conservative preacher showing off great feats of God -- to which Yeshua responded: Scripture says, Do not put God to the test. The third and most obvious was as a secular king, and something the Jews were expecting from him anyway -- to which Yeshua responded: We are to worship and serve
only God.
What do you think what the purpose of Jesus' baptism? Why do you think Satan tempted Jesus in the desert?
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Comments (8)
It appears that I commented too soon in the previous post. You still haven't put the whole post up to the end, but I'd be far happier with the ending you chose being here than where "part one" left off. Thanks! And I apologize for my previous presumption.
For anyone wanting to read the whole piece it's at: http://nidan.revelife.com/759972763/who-is-jesus/
I think Jesus deigned to be baptized to more fully identify Himself with those He came to save, so that later in His ministry people would say, "He's one of us; He was baptized by John, too." His baptism calls to my mind Philippians 2:7-8 "...he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself..."
As to His temptations in the desert I see Satan trying to tempt Christ into forsaking His humanity and seizing upon His own divinity. After all, I imagine after forty days of hunger, thirst and solitude He was feeling His humanity pretty severely! Which is precisely what I think troubled Satan; that time in the desert brought the humanity of Christ very much to the foreground. In tempting Christ in various ways I think he hoped to get Christ to grasp His divinity, to just be God again for a little bit. But in doing so Christ would no longer be fully human but only seem to be human; an illusion. He would have filled Himself up a little bit instead of emptying Himself. The slave would have been the master, would have been self-sufficient, would have saved Himself, committing the same act as those who derided Him on Calvary tempted Him to do.
I think it very timely that just after His divine identity as God's Son was so beautifully revealed at His baptism He is driven out into the desert where His humanity is put to the test, though not tested to its fullest until His passion and death.
@Ancient_Scribe@xanga - Didn't John and Jesus have a bond that started when they were both in the womb?
@sometimestheycomebackanyway@xanga - Surely! And being cousins I'm sure they knew each other well. But John was a little more "up to date" on things than the rest of Israel!
@Ancient_Scribe@xanga - I don't think it's a coincidence that Jesus was baptized by someone who knew what he was doing.
@sometimestheycomebackanyway@xanga - I don't think anything in Jesus' life was a coincidence.
Thank God!
Should not Christ's example of baptism be one for us, and not the sprinkling of infants it has in turn become? Did he not say, "Go and do likewise?"
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