While John is telling people about the coming king, the king actually comes. (Mark 1:9) Jesus came, and was baptized by John.
You had no sins to confess and repent of. You don't need forgiveness. You are the One who will achieve this forgiveness we are repenting for. And yet You come and are baptized. Why?
A king coming to the rescue of His people, steps down from His throne to be one of us. He didn't need to repent and be baptized, but we did (and do), and He had come to be with us. To stand with us and be counted among us.
So here You are, on the banks of the Jordan. Where the Israelites stood before they (finally) crossed it and entered the promised land. The Jordan - the “crossing over” river. Crossing over into the promised land. Crossing over from wandering in a desert into abundance and home. Crossing through death into life.
You would also “cross over” - not because You had to - but because I have to.
You stand with me here, even in this. Maybe because You would carry my sin, carry it into the waves of death, and come back out again, alive, dripping with water, having left my sins behind - under the water.
My baptism: I identify with Your death.
Your baptism: You identify with my death. You die my death.
This is what my King does.
You offer me true forgiveness because You die in my place. (1 Pet. 3:18) You stand, not just with me, but for me. You stand in my place. And I stand only in You, hidden in You. (2 Cor. 5:17, Gal. 3:27, Col. 3:3)
Since I am in You, maybe, in a way, the only way for me to really be baptized, is for You to be baptized.
If You don't cross over, then I don't either. If You are not baptized, then neither am I. If You don't pay for my sins, then they will not be payed for. And if You don't rise from the dead, then I have no hope, because I rise only in You.
This isn't Your baptism recorded here. It's mine.
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