THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT: In the Place of Sinners

Third Sunday in Lent - Mar 12, 2023; Mar 3, 2024; Mar 23, 2025

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, 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 thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. -Matthew 3:13-15

John’s baptism scene really plays out like a game of spiritual haves and have-nots. Flocking to John are all kinds of sinners. Even Romans and tax collectors were coming to him (Luke 3:12, 14). You don’t have to read too much of the Bible to know that in the eyes of most folks, they were the spiritual have-nots. That’s the type of people he attracted, the spiritual “scum”. 

Then a group of the “haves” show up: Pharisees and Saducees. These were the religious leaders of the day. VERY spiritual. But when the haves show up, John sends them away. “You brood of vipers!” he yells at them (a pretty strong insult in those days). “Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.” he finally tells them (Matthew 3:8). They don’t seem to come for repentance, so John says they’ll have no part in his baptism until they do. It’s a strange thing then: the haves in fact have nothing. Meanwhile, the have-nots are getting baptized and forgiven.

Then Jesus shows up. Is he a have or a have-not? He’s not a have-not, in fact he is the truest of the haves. John doesn’t tell him to get to repenting and then come back, he says that he should be baptized by Jesus. Not only is Jesus not like those spiritual have-nots, he’s not quite like the other spiritual haves either. Then things get weirder: he says that John should baptize him in order “to fulfill all righteousness.” What is happening? Why would a “have” get the baptism of the “have-nots”?

Jesus is siding with the spiritual have-nots. He is stepping already into the place of sinners. He is doing precisely what he will be doing on the cross. The truth is we’re all spiritual have-nots. Even those Pharisees and Saducees, they just hadn’t realized it yet. That’s why John sent them away until they bore the fruits of repentance. But Jesus, the only true person to ever fit the team of the spiritual “haves” goes and plays for the have-nots. He takes the baptism of sinners, and later he’ll take the cross of sinners.

Thus baptism is not so much the place where we say we’re siding with Jesus, but where he is siding with us, dying for us, and fulfilling all righteousness in us.

Fulfill in me, your righteousness, Lord Jesus. May I, in the moments where I see my spiritual poverty, remember it was for me that you were baptized and died. Thank you for taking a stand for my sake in the river Jordan, and on Mount Calvary. Amen

This post is a part of my daily Lenten devotional on Baptism. You can read more about it here.