Why did Jesus get baptized even though he already was free of sins?
That’s a good question, especially on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord. When we are baptized, our sins are forgiven, including Original Sin and any sins we have personally committed if we are baptized later in life. Also, we receive new life from God; the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us. However, Jesus was sinless and as the Son of God, he was already in communion with God the Father and the Holy Spirit. So why was Jesus baptized? Even John the Baptist finds Jesus’ coming to him troubling. “John tried to prevent him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and yet you are coming to me?’ Jesus said to him in reply, ‘Allow it now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’” (Mt 3:14-15)
The key is in Jesus’ response, “to fulfill all righteousness.” If we think about it, this is a foreshadowing of Jesus’ passion and death on the cross which did indeed fulfill all righteousness—his perfect obedience to the Father. In Baptism, the descent in the water represents death, and the emergence out of the water represents rising to new life. Thus, obviously baptism is intimately linked to Jesus’ death and resurrection. But if we continue to think about Jesus’ suffering, we recall that Jesus, though sinless, took our sins upon himself. As St. Paul said, “For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Cor 5:21) Thus, Jesus is baptized because he becomes one with us. He does not commit sin, but he takes on our sin, our burdens upon his shoulders and carries them to Calvary where he overcomes both sin and death and rises to new life. All those sins that get washed away from us in the waters of baptism have to go somewhere—it is Jesus who takes them away.
Thus, Baptism is not some afterthought, superstitious ritual, or mere symbolic act. Baptism is how we participate in Christ’s death and resurrection! Christ entered into baptism to unite himself with us and gives us this Sacrament of Baptism as the way for us to unite ourselves to him. St. Paul said, “We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.” (Rom 6:4) Once we are baptized as Christians, the rest of our life is our attempt to live up to our baptismal calling in Christ.
-Fr. Greg
