But Jesus answered him, Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he consented. Jesus' explanation — let it be so now — does not argue with John's theology but overrides it with a larger purpose: fulfilling all righteousness. All righteousness here means the complete plan of God, the totality of what God's covenant requires. Jesus is not being baptized because he needs repentance but because his solidarity with sinners is part of what God's righteous purpose demands. Isaiah 53 describes the servant who bears the iniquity of all — Jesus enters the water where sinners have been washed as the first act of the bearing he will complete on the cross. Then he consented — John's resistance gives way to obedient participation in something he understands only partially.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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