Why was Jesus baptised?

Why did Jesus get baptised? Have you ever asked that question?

Baptism was clearly a sign of repentance, as John the baptiser spent every day ‘baptising in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance’ (Mark 1:4). His entire ministry involved calling Israelites to a deep, heartfelt repentance, so they could be ready for the coming of Messiah.

So, you can imagine John’s shock when Messiah Himself comes to him in the Jordan and asks to be baptised ! Matthew’s account tells us how confusing this was to John: ‘I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?’ (Matt. 3:14).

It must have felt so strange, even unnerving for John – who had just announced that he was not worthy to untie his Lord’s sandals – to grab Him by the tunic and lower Him under the water. Why did Jesus submit Himself to a ritual so closely connected with repentance?

There is something quite profound here that stretches right across the whole gospel story. Jesus was, at the start of a ministry that would end in the cross, identifying with sinners. He had come to represent us fully as a man, so that He could take the punishment we deserve at the cross. And at His baptism, He was accepting this God-given calling to be our sin bearer, in obedience to the Father (that’s why heaven was torn open so that God could express His delight in His Son). There is a profound connection between Jesus’ baptism and the cross that lay ahead.

Jesus makes that connection Himself later on in Mark’s Gospel. He says to James and John (the disciple, not the Baptist), who were asking to sit at His right hand in glory, ‘Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptised with the baptism I am baptised with?’ (Mark 10:38).

There is a mixed metaphor here – the cross was both a baptism, and a place where Jesus would ‘drink the cup’. The cup is a reference to the ‘cup of God’s wrath’ from the Old Testament (Isa.51:22, Jer.25:15, Obad.16). It is a similar idea to seeing the cross as a baptism. Jesus would endure the wrath of God, gathered up over centuries of human sin, as our representative.

At the cross Jesus identified with us in the most costly way imaginable; as our sin bearer, drinking the cup of God’s wrath, and being plunged under His judgment, which poured over Him like a torrent. Spurgeon put it best: ‘The heart of Christ became like a reservoir in the midst of the mountains. All the tributary streams of iniquity, and every drop of the sins of His people, ran down and gathered into one vast lake, deep as hell and shoreless as eternity. All these met, as it were, in Christ’s heart, and He endured them all’ (Christian History, Issue #29, 1991).

To which we say: ‘Hallelujah, what a Saviour!’ Jesus chose to fully identify with us and carry all our shame to the cross. And we are now left with the challenge, ‘Am I ready to be identified with the Man of Sorrows, rejected by the world, misunderstood and maligned?’

At the end of Jesus’ conversation with James and John, he points to the cost of true discipleship. ‘You will drink the same cup that I drink, and you will be baptised with the same baptism that I must go through’ (Mark 10:39). If you are facing deep struggle right now for your commitment to Christ, you are identifying deeply with the One who represented you. Don’t lose heart! You are honouring your sin-bearing Saviour more than you can imagine!