Matthew 3:13-17
What is the situation?
This is the first of three commands given by Jesus before he begins his Sermon on the Mount. John the Baptist, the “voice cries: In the wilderness prepare the way of Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God” (Isaiah 40:3), has appeared in the wilderness of Judea, preaching with great urgency that all people should repent before God. He identifies himself as the one whom the prophet Isaiah spoke of long ago. John is baptizing people in the Jordan River, telling them to repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
He has just preached to the people that someone greater than he is coming, someone whose sandals John is not worthy to carry. He preaches that the coming one will baptize them, not with water, but with the Holy Spirit and with fire.
To Whom Is Jesus Speaking?
Just then, Jesus appears in the crowds, and he speaks directly to John. Standing directly in front of John, Jesus asks to be baptized. But John is appalled, protesting that he should be the one who is baptized, not Jesus! At the very beginning we see that Jesus does not command us to do anything that he does not do himself.
Jesus commands John: “’Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’”
This is Command No. 1.
What Does the Command’s Verb Tense Suggest?
Translated from the original Greek, the word Jesus uses for “Let” has the meaning of “leaving it to someone to do something, with the implication of distancing oneself from the event (Louw & Nida 13.140), letting go, allowing someone else do what God has told them to do. The verb tense conveys a sense or urgency. Putting all this together, Jesus is saying to John, “Just let go of your protest right now, this second, and baptize me, because I must do this with my Father to fulfill all righteousness before my Father God.
John is the one baptizing Jesus physically, but more importantly, he is enabling Jesus to baptized by the Holy Spirit for all the world to see, in the same perfect unity God and Jesus had at the beginning of creation.
What Is the Over-Arching Theme of This Command?
Command No. 1 establishes the importance of immediate obedience to Jesus’ commands. Both John and Jesus have both humbly modeled perfect unity with God and with each other.
Let it be. Just get it done in perfect unity. The first command of Jesus.
Discussion
Was there a time in your life, maybe on the playground as a young child, when you boasted about something, and someone else said, “Aw, that’s nothing,” and proceeded to upstage you? Did you shout back in anger? How about now? Can you just “let it be” like John the Baptist did and smile with the inner peace of Jesus?
What situations are you facing right now that cause disunity between you and another person?
Can you just let it be and pray for that person?
Take some time to pray for perfect unity and let it be that the commands of Jesus take center stage in your life, pursuing perfect unity with him!