Passage of the Day - December 20, 2012

Luke 3:21-22

²¹ Now when all the people were baptized, Jesus was also baptized, and while He was praying, heaven was opened, ²² and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

Luke 4:16-21

¹⁶ And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

²⁰ And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. ²¹ And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

I Samuel 16:13

¹³ Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

These three passages, linked together, show what the baptism of Jesus was really all about.  Much of what we understand about baptism really makes it difficult to understand why Jesus was baptized, other than being a model for us.  However, these verses point to an anointing.  Jesus Christ was anointed with water that with the Spirit, He would fulfill His special purpose which God has ordained for Him.  In Jewish history this was the significance of anointing kings, priests, and others for special purposes.

Let’s look at the items in the prophecy:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He anointed Me”- This points to Jesus being anointed for a special purpose.  Also, notice that it was the Spirit that did the anointing, not John the Baptist.  The Spirit indwelling Christ is the actual anointing, just like the Spirt indwelt David.

“To preach the gospel to the poor.” – This points both to Jesus being a priest and to being a priest after God’s own heart, the poor.

“He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives”  - Who was the last person to do that?  Moses proclaimed the release to the captives.  Jesus is our deliverer and the next Moses.

“And recovery of sight to the blind” – Healing, as we see throughout the Old Testament, was done through the prophets.

“To set free those who are oppressed” – The only one with the power to actually set people free was the king, like King Zedekiah was supposed to do, but failed to, in Jeremiah 34.

“To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” – This was in reference to the Jubilee.  This was every 50 year occurrence when all slaves were set free.  This ordinance was enacted by the very Word of God.

So what do we hear Jesus calling Himself?  Jesus is calling Himself the fulfillment of the prophecy of an anointed good priest, deliverer, prophetic healer, king, and the very Word of God.  Kinda bold, don’t you think?  Yet, He truly did fulfill them all.

The question is, “Now that we know this about Christ’s baptism, what does this mean for the meaning of the baptism of His followers?”

The answer to this question will continue to be forthcoming, but I hope this will help illuminate our reading of the Bible in the meantime.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®,
© Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (http://www.lockman.org/)