“Jesus is baptized by John.” St. Helen’s Catholic Church, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

This weekend is the last Sunday of the Christmas season, and every year it is set aside to celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. All four evangelists report Jesus’ baptism (Mt 3:13-17; Mk 1:9-11; Lk 3:21-22; Jn 1:31-34) which means that it is extremely important.

It seems odd that Jesus would be baptized. When we are baptized, our sins are washed away, but Jesus was free of sin; we are admitted to the Body of Christ, but Jesus is the Christ and the head of the Body of Christ, the Church; we receive grace, but Jesus is grace. Since Jesus is God, it would seem that he would be excused from a ritual intended for mere mortals. At first glance his baptism may appear unnecessary, but it makes a number of powerful statements.

It gave Jesus a public forum to endorse John the Baptist’s prophetic ministry. John renounced empty worship and chose an extreme lifestyle to devote every ounce of his energy to God’s service, a decision Jesus approved. John challenged the people to turn from sin, a message Jesus would repeat often. And John confronted the hypocrisy and corruption of the religious leaders, something Jesus would also do.

Jesus, sinless though he was, by asking for a baptism of repentance identified himself with sinful humanity. Jesus was fully human, experienced our sinful condition, and was tempted in all of the same ways that we are (Heb 2:17; 4:15).

Jesus took upon himself the sins of us all (Is 53:6), so when he received John’s baptism for the forgiveness of sins, it was a sign from the outset of his public ministry that Jesus would be the one to take away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29).

Jesus’ baptism gave the Father an opportunity to disclose Jesus’ identity as the Son of God, “This is my beloved Son.” Moreover, “Son of God” was a well-known term to most Jews from Ps 2:7, a messianic psalm, and it indicated that Jesus was also the long-awaited Messiah. When the Father added “with whom I am well pleased,” he placed his official seal of approval on his Son’s intended ministry plan.

The Father knew that Jesus would encounter many difficulties over the next three years, and he wanted his Son to be fully equipped to carry out his mission, so the Father conferred the gift of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. The Spirit that Jesus received empowered him to bring glad tidings to the poor, proclaim liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind, let captives go free, and proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord (Lk 4:18-19).

By being baptized, Jesus served as a role model and a good example. If he accepted baptism, he expects his followers to be baptized.