Matthew 3:15 - Exposition

Suffer it to be so now ; suffer it now (Revised Version); "suffer me now"; ἄφες ἄρτι , only here (apparently) in the New Testament quite absolutely, but Matthew 7:4 slightly favours the Revised Version margin. Now ; at this special season ( ἄρτι ); in contrast to the more permanent relation which shall be recognized later. Our Lord thus slightly removes the trial to John's faith, which a mere refusal might have aggravated. Observe the implied consciousness of his Messiah-ship, even before the baptism. Several of the Fathers ( vide Meyer) infer from these words that John was afterwards baptized by Jesus; but this is to completely miss the point of the expression. For thus . Not exactly "by this baptism," but" by the spirit of submission in us both, which in this case will issue in my baptism." It becometh ( τρέπον ἐστὶν ). Not a matter of absolute necessity ( δεῖ , Matthew 16:21 ; Matthew 26:54 ), nor of absolute duty ( ὀφείλω , John 13:14 ), but of moral fitness ( Hebrews 2:10 ). It befits us, in our respective characters, to perform this sym bolical act. Compare Melchizedek and Abraham; the representative of the cider blesses the representative of the coming age ( Luke 16:16 ). Us ; thee and me. To fulfil ; here only with "righteousness" (cf. Matthew 5:17 ). All righteousness ( πᾶσαν δικαιοσύνην ) . Not the whole circle of righteousness ( πᾶσαν τὴν δικαιοσύνην ), but every part of righteous ness, as each is presented to us (similarly, Acts 13:10 ; cf. also δικαιοσύναι in Ecclesiasticus 44:10; Tobit 2:14, where, although Neubauer and Fuller explain it as "alms." this is improbable after the preceding ἐλεημοσύναι ), and that not merely every part of the righteousness included under the Mosaic, Law, but of that wider righteousness of which that was itself only a part and a type. "Let me be baptized by thee now," our Lord says to John, "for it is fitting for us, in this spirit of submission, to fill up every part of righteousness." Our Lord thus pleads for the absolute submission of John and himself to every portion of righteousness as it may be proposed to them by God to perform; his words thus somewhat resembling those to St. Peter, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me" ( John 13:8 ). Thy duty is to baptize, mine to be baptized. It has generally been thought that in this verse our Lord implies that his baptism was to constitute his own formal recognition and acceptance of his distinctly Messianic duties—an act which involved the complete leaving of his past life and the giving himself up to a new and public life (cf. Weiss, 'Life,' 1.322). But have we any evidence that our Lord came to the baptism with this self-consciousness? May he not very well have known that he was to be the Messiah, and yet not have known that his official life was to begin now? May he not have come to the baptism merely as an individual, feeling the deepest interest in this consecration to the cause of the kingdom, notwithstanding the unique position in which he knew himself to stand with regard to that kingdom? But his voluntary consecration of himself for whatever he might be guided to, was the opportunity taken by the Father for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, which had as its immediate consequence the retirement into the wilderness and the decision there come to. May not, in other words, our Lord's descent into Jordan have been, not the first act of his public life, but the last act of his private life—the former then being the withdrawal into the wilderness, in order there to have uninterrupted communion with his Father, and to meet in his official character his great adversary (cf. especially Edersheim, 'Life,' 1:279, etc.)?