Our Sermon from January 11th, 2026: Let It Be So Now, Matthew 3:13-17

Xačʿatur. Baptism of Christ, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56383 [retrieved January 13, 2026]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/medmss/8614784984.

Matthew 3:13-17
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented.  And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw God’s Spirit descending like a dove and alighting on him.  And a voice from the heavens said, “This is my Son, the Beloved,[a] with whom I am well pleased.”

Let It Be So Now: Matthew 3:13-17 
As Kat Alldredge notes in her commentary on this text, in the book of Matthew, the first time we meet Jesus as an adult is here in the wilderness with John.  We don’t know anything of Jesus’ childhood, adolescence, or young adulthood beyond that fact he spent time in Egypt and was raised in Nazareth after his family’s return. Then, there is a big jump in the story from Jesus’ family returning to Nazareth after King Herod’s death to an adult John out in the wilderness urging people to repentance and an adult Jesus going out to see him. There’s not even really a mention of Jesus and John being related. What we do know about John is that he has a vital role in Jesus’ story.  

Scripture tells us that John’s work in the wilderness fulfills a prophecy from Isaiah. Isaiah describes “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” Matthew tells us that John is that voice. He is described as wild, like many of the prophets of the Hebrew Bible. His clothes are unusual and his food foraged... honey and locusts. According to J. Andrew Overman, locusts were acceptable for food under Jewish religious law, but not typical provisions for the area. As we know, acceptable and “typical” are very different things. John was not typical, and powerful people would come to find his mission unacceptable. 

He taught out there in the wilderness, connecting repentance with a particular ritual, baptism. He gave people, people of all genders, of all social background, regardless of how much money they had (though most were probably poor), the opportunity to confess their sins... that is, the things that disconnected them from God... and start anew, reconnected to God and ready to have their lives and behavior shaped by this connection. Scripture tells us thateh welcomed a lot of people into baptism. He also held a lot of powerful and influential people accountable in a way that not many in the community would. His offer of repentance would come with strong critique when necessary. The first time we see him do this is when some Sadducees and Pharisees come to be baptized.  

Within Judaism of the time, much like within Christianity in our time, not all people agreed on every aspect of their shared faith. There were two influential groups called the Sadducees and the Pharisees. They disagreed about which books were Holy Scripture. The Sadducees only really accepted the first five books of Torah: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And, they did not accept traditions of interpretation of Jewish religious law outside of those books. According to Overman’s notes on Matthew, the Sadducees rejected the idea of resurrection which explains their conflict with both the Pharisees and John and with Jesus and his followers.  

Jesus and his followers would develop some conflicts with the Pharisees, too, usually about how to apply the wisdom of Jewish law and also manage the authority they’d been granted in community. All of this to say, if Sadducees and Pharisees showed up in the same place, you might expect some arguing, at least between them. There was also a third Jewish group called the Essenes. According to Overman, John might have been a part of the Essene community given his frustration with the Sadducees and Pharisees, and his clear assumption that God’s judgement was soon at hand.  

As I said earlier, some people from both of these groups were moved by John’s message, and came to him to be baptized. Baptism as a ritual is similar to Jewish rituals embraced by most Jewish people at the time, so it’s not suprised that they would be interested in the ritual. In a commentary on this text, Diane Chen notes that John’s baptism was similar to the Jewish purification ritual that involves immersing oneself in the ritual bath called a mikveh. Where the cleansing in a mikveh would happen at regular intervals in a person’s life, John’s baptism appeared to be a one-time event. Essenes also had regular purification rituals to prepare for God’s impending judgement.  John’s practice might have been influenced by them. 

Knowing the history of conflict among these groups, it might not surprise you that John would be openly critical of Sadducees and Pharisees to who came to him to be baptized. The critique was not without risk. Both the Sadducees and Pharissees had more communal authority than he did as a wild man prophet. It is no small thing to be critical of respected and connected people. And, yet, John was loudly critical. In verses just before today’s reading, he calls the group who came to the wilderness “a brood of vipers!” He warned them that their shared ancestry would not be enough to connected them to God’s hope yet to come. He told them that they must “bear good fruit” in order to be a part of the reign of God. That is, he said that they had to do something, not just be something, in order to demonstrate their faith.  

He also told them, and everyone listening, that he wasn’t the one, the Messiah, they were waiting for. He said that The One was coming, though, and he said that he is not worthy to tie that one’s sandals: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and fire.” then, just after we hear John’s rebuke and prophecy, we see Jesus come to John to be baptized. John initially refused, deferring to Jesus as the more powerful one. As Chen reminds us, with baptism comes vulnerability. In the culture where they lived, men especially would work to “amass honor.” To present oneself as a sinner, to confess to sins in public, to allow someone hold and move your body was to risk negative social attention and possibly harm your reputation. In today’s story, we can see the first sign that Jesus wasn’t very worried about his reputation.  

“Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Chen and Overman both note that attention to righteousness is a central theme in Matthew. Chen argues that righteousness in Matthew is a “relational concept.” What she means by that is that one’s righteousness is measured in terms of one’s closeness with God. For example, Abraham was far from morally perfect, but he was righteous because he trusted God (Genesis 15:6). One who is righteous tends to their relationship with God.  

Jesus’ baptism then is best understood as affirmation of his relationship with God. And, given the tenor of that relationship, Jesus does not fear appearing vulnerable or somehow less than John. This baptism isn’t about a hierarchy between John and Jesus. It is about preparing Jesus for the next step in his journey, and reminding him of his particular, special embodiment of the Divine just as he is discerning his mission in the world. In asking John to baptize him, Jesus affirms his connection to both God and humanity in one act of vulnerability. And, from that act, is affirmed by God as “beloved” with whom God is well-pleased. This will set to the tone for the rest of Jesus’ living ministry and the standard for the Body of Christ going forward. 

Jesus will need this extra dose of connectedness to prepare for what’s next. Shortly after hearing God’s words of love, Jesus will be led by the Spirit into the wilderness. In Matthew, he is described as being alone and fasting until the tempter shows up. The tempter will offer him all possible means of power and comfort that a lonely and hungry man might want. And, Jesus will refuse. You see, he has been fortified by God, through baptism, into a righteous covenant. He has promises to uphold. Even when he is uncomfortable, even when he is hungry, even when presented with what appears to be an easy means to an end, he must not succumb to the temptation to use his power in ways that run counter to God’s demand for love and justice.  

Ultimately, Jesus will choose to wield his power in a way the reflects his connection with God as affirmed in his baptism. He will act fiercely in love. He will heal. He will invite people to renew their covenantal relationships with God and neighbor. He will make himself vulnerable to the power of others. And, his loyalty to his mission of love will eventually result in his death. We know that death will not be his end... that resurrection is coming... but hard things will happen before Renewed Life. And, right now, we know something about kinds of hard thing that make us wonder if renewed life is possible.  

 This is a season in our country when many are asking questions about what it means to wield power, living relationally, and risk vulnerability. Unlike John and Jesus, not everyone can be trusted to use the power granted to them for good. We watched someone this week who had been granted authority over other’s life and death, use that power to kill someone without cause. He did it because he was angry, and because, even now, he thinks he will be able to get away with it. That was not a Christ-like expression of authority, love, or neighborliness. 

Today’s reading shows us power used righteously. It is power that connects people, allows people to make amends, and fortifies people for challenging work ahead. When we are wonder about how to discern if an authority figure is using power righteously, we can look to John and Jesus as examples. Authority as John uses it affords him both bravery to call out abusive and ineffective leaders and humility when he recognizes the One he has been waiting for. Authority as Jesus uses it connects him to God and prevents him from abusing the power he has been given. As followers of Christ, joined to the Body of Christ through Baptism, this spirit of loving, risk-taking Authority lives within us. May we wield it wisely, and always to serve the vulnerable as Christ did. The Tempter will tell us we can use it to make us great. Christ will remind us to use it for good.  

Resources consulted while writing this sermon:  
Karri Alldredge: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/baptism-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-313-17-7 
J. Andrew Overman's notes on Matthew in the The New Oxford Annotated Bible: The New Revised Standard Version with Apocryphya, ed. Michael Coogan (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001) 
Diane G. Chen: https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/baptism-of-our-lord/commentary-on-matthew-313-17-6