All this stuff is kind of what lurks behind Jesus' comment to John,
when John says, "you're the one that should be baptizing me," you know.
And "we're going to do this to fulfill all righteousness,"
which I think is sort of cryptic language for,
"well, if we don't do it, they're never going to be able to identify me as the new Moses,
so shut up and get on with it."
So, the New Testament refers to Jesus as a prophet.
And a few minutes ago, you mentioned that his baptism
was like his commissioning as a prophet.
Can we take a little closer look at that?
Sure. I mean, let me go to a couple of passages first, then we'll backtrack to the baptism.
In Acts 3:22, here you have these two statements.
There's one in Acts 3 and one in Acts 7, that link Jesus back to Moses.
So that's an important thought.
«Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.
You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you.»
And this is part of the apostles, again, defending their ministry with Jesus.
And Acts 7 actually gives us a few more details here.
So Acts 7.37.
This is Stephen, before his martyrdom, his speech that rehearses the history of Israel.
He says... I'll go up to verse 35.
«“This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—
this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer
by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.»
Okay, so there's a reference to the burning bush incident.
«This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt
and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.»
Now catch the chronology:
burning bush, passing through the water, into the wilderness, okay?
«This is the Moses who said to the Israelites,
‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’»
There's verse 37.
And then he goes on and says, you know, the one that you've killed,
Jesus of Nazareth, is this prophet like unto Moses.
And if you think about the baptism, I mean, just look at what's going on there.
We've got all of those elements sort of combined.
We've got a "passing through the water," if you will, okay, of baptism.
We've got the descent of the Spirit.
So there's the encounter with God.
And then what happens right after Jesus is baptized in the Gospels.
He's "driven into the wilderness," okay, to be tested by Satan.
So these things form sort of a template that when readers
or people who would have been witnessing the events
see these things in succession, if they know their Old Testament,
and they probably don't know a whole lot, but the story of Moses, they probably know.
And they know this passage because it's part of the messianic expectation
of prophet like unto Moses.
They can see these things happening in succession to this one.
And oh, by the way, John says,
«Behold, the Lamb of God, which takes away the sins of the world.»
So you have this reference to a lamb, which is again, specific to Passover.
You have these different connections that refer back into the Old Testament
and link Jesus with Moses.
So the baptism is actually a really significant event.
And I think all this stuff is kind of what lurks behind Jesus' comment to John,
when John says, "you're the one that should be baptizing me," you know,
like, what are we doing here?
And, you know, "we're going to do this to fulfill all righteousness,"
which I think is sort of cryptic language for,
"well, if we don't do it, they're never going to be able to identify me as the new Moses.
So shut up and get on with it."
I mean, the typology is important.
It's important for the people who are going to hear the message
and who are on site at the scene, because it's going to trigger the association.
It's going to open their hearts to this notion that
this could be the prophet like unto Moses.
You know, maybe we should pay attention to him for a while.