Three Satisfying Reasons Christ was Baptized
If Jesus was sinless, why did He seek out the Baptism of John? Saint Thomas gives us three reasons why it was fitting for Christ to be baptized.
…as Ambrose says on Luke 3:21: ‘Our Lord was baptized because He wished, not to be cleansed, but to cleanse the waters, that, being purified by the flesh of Christ that knew no sin, they might have the virtue of baptism.’
Christ was baptized in order to sanctify the waters and endow them with the power to cleanse us in our baptism.
…as Chrysostom says, “although Christ was not a sinner, yet did He take a sinful nature and ‘the likeness of sinful flesh.’ Wherefore, though He needed not baptism for His own sake, yet carnal nature in others had need thereof.” And, as Gregory Nazianzen says “Christ was baptized that He might plunge the old Adam entirely in the water.”
Christ was baptized in His human nature so that He might totally redeem human nature which had been wounded after the Fall. Christ assumed a weakened nature like ours in all things except sin. Chrysostom even goes so far as to say that Christ assumed a “sinful nature.” This does not mean that Christ had any sin, only that He assumed a nature that suffered the defects of sin such as suffering and death.
…as Augustine says in a sermon on the Epiphany, “because He wished to do what He had commanded all to do.” And this is what He means by saying: “So it becometh us to fulfill all justice (Matt 3:15).” For, as Ambrose says (on Luke 3:21), “this is justice, to do first thyself that which thou wishest another to do, and so encourage others by thy example.”
The third reason is that Christ wishes to set us an example. He is unwilling to command anyone to do anything that He Himself is unwilling to do.
Thanks for reading,
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