LUKE 3:19-22 - JESUS BAPTIZED BY JOHN

LUKE 3:19-22

JESUS BAPTIZED BY JOHN

Luke 3:19 But Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother Philip's wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, Added yet this above all, that he shut up John in prison.

Susie: Luke does not necessarily present information chronologically. This is a prime example. He is on the topic of John the Baptist and mentions his future imprisonment by Herod but then returns to the time while he was still baptizing in the Jordon river. Matthew’s gospel makes clearer Herod’s issue with John the Baptist:

Matthew 14:3-5 (ESV) For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet.

Susie: Herod had married his brother Phillip’s wife. This was NOT a levirate marriage (marrying a deceased brother’s wife to have children in his name) because Phillip was still alive! John the Baptist had called Herod out for this obvious adultery, angering both Herod and his former sister-in-law, Herodias, who was then his wife. Therefore, he had John imprisoned. More on that episode in Luke chapter nine.

Luke 3:21 Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying. . .

Susie: Matthew records John’s reluctance to baptize Jesus and Jesus’s reply:

Matthew 3:13-15 Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him. But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered him.

Susan: Interesting note here: Luke was the only one of the four gospel writers who recorded the fact that Jesus came up out of the water praying.

Susie: Luke does not record the words of Jesus’s prayer.

Susan: Just conjecture, but perhaps the discourse between the Son and His Father was too intimate to be recorded.

Susie: I believe the next verse relates the answer to Jesus’s prayer.

Luke 3:21b-22 . . .the heaven was opened, And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.

Susie: In this description of the events following Jesus’s baptism, we see all three members of the Trinity in one verse—the Holy Spirit, the voice of the Father, and Jesus the Son.

Susan: Doves are representative of 1) sacrificial offerings made in the Temple and 2) peace. The Hebrew word for peace is “shalom” which means, “nothing missing, nothing broken, to make whole again.” One of the titles for the Messiah, Jesus, is “Prince of Peace.”

Susie: By the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, Jesus grants true shalom to all who trust in His finished work on the cross to redeem them from their sin. Our broken lives are made whole again by His grace.

Susan: Next, Father God affirmed Jesus as His own Son. He voiced His approval of His Son before He even had begun His earthly ministry.

Susie: Luke does not record a reaction from the crowd. Therefore, we do not know if anyone else heard the voice from Heaven. But the gospel of John does record that John the Baptist saw the dove:

John 1:32-33 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.

PONDER THIS: Jesus humbled Himself to become a man, temporarily giving up His glory. He again humbled Himself to submit to being baptized by a man even though He was sinless and fully God. He humbly obeyed the Father even to the point of sacrificing Himself on the cross (Philippians 2). If Jesus, the Son of God, could exhibit such humility, why do we have a difficult time humbly submitting to His will?