John the Baptist was out in the wilderness preaching the message of repentance, calling for people to transform their thinking and see the kingdom of heaven. He was preparing the way for the Lord, declaring the coming baptism of Holy Spirit and fire.
But why were people going out to the wilderness to be baptised? And why would Jesus need to be baptised by John? What purpose would it serve as John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance?
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’” Matthew 3:1–3
It appears strange for Jesus to come to John the Baptist and seek to be baptised. Jesus had no need for repentance as he was sinless, so was something more significant taking place?
This was a significant moment. Jesus was about to enter public ministry and was publicly being recognised by John the Baptist, his forerunner, the one who significance was prophesied about in Isaiah. John was acknowledging and decreeing that this was the one that they had been waiting for. This is the Son of God. But there is even more to this recognition than first meets the eye.
18 years of training led to this moment
Jesus had not solely spent his first 30 years working as a carpenter though it is likely that he would have trained in the skills of his father Joseph, the carpenter. He had trained as a ‘rabbi’, as was the desire of most boys in His day.
As a ‘rabbi’, Jesus’ interpretation of the Torah and his way of life, was called his yoke. Which is why Jesus said to his followers that they should take His yoke and learn of Him because His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
However, for Jesus to say take ‘my yoke’, He would need to have ‘authority’. As you train to become a ‘rabbi’, you spent 18 years learning the yoke of a rabbi. That’s 18 years in the ‘Beit Talmud’, the house of learning, where you spent that time sitting at the feet of a rabbi, saying ‘teach me your yoke’.
Once you became a ‘rabbi’, you were then in charge of taking that ‘rabbi’s’ yoke to the next generation. But most rabbis did not have authority; they did not have ‘semikhah’. Only the very select did.
A rabbi without authority was still a ‘rabbi’, however, they had to teach the yoke of their own ‘rabbi’. In contrast, when a ‘rabbi’ was with semikhah, they could make up their own yoke.
Who’s authority?
And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Matthew 21:23
When Jesus entered the Temple, probably into the inner courts, away from public view, the Pharisees challenge Him, asking where his authority or semikhah came from. Jesus responds by asking them about where the authority of John the baptist came from.
He was not evading their question, instead, Jesus was making a point. Jesus’s earthly authority (semikhah) came from John, which was an authority other than a Pharisaic source.
Training School
When you trained to be a ‘rabbi’, you were required to have memorised Leviticus by the age of 6. Then, between 6–12 years, you would memorise the whole Torah: Genesis-Deuteronomy — word for word, the whole thing. When they were 12 years old, they graduated by having a Torah exam.
So when Jesus was 12 years old, He was already wowing the teachers of the law with His questions and the best ones that had impressed the teachers with their questions graduated to the Beit Talmud. This was 18 years long, lasting from ages of 12–30, in five stages.
This understanding helps to explain why Jesus disappeared from 12 to 30 and then everybody started calling Him rabbi. Completing these five stages resulted in what is called semikhah, that is ‘rabbinical’ authority.
The significance of Jesus baptism
When you graduated from ‘rabbi’ school, you would be baptised as ‘baptism’ was commonplace when you changed social status. This was especially true if you went from unclean to clean so as to declare that you can now be touched without contaminating people.
Today, we get baptised as a public profession of faith in Jesus Christ and more importantly, it publicly declares that ‘I was once unclean, and now I am clean’. So when you went from non-rabbi to ‘rabbi’, you would be baptised and at the baptism it was decided if you had semikhah or not.
To do that, you required two verbal witnesses at your baptism; two people would speak out for you at your baptism, which in the case of a ‘rabbi’ was basically his ordination. In the gospels, it says that when Jesus was 30 years old He went out to the desert to be baptised.
This is the moment that Jesus is graduating from rabbi school. He goes into the water, and John says: “Behold, the lamb of God, that takes away the sins of the world; whose sandals I am not worthy to untie!” John is the first witness. John baptises Him, and Jesus comes up out of the water. At that point, He is a regular rabbi without authority — until a second voice from heaven speaks.
And when Jesus was baptised, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:16–17
This second witness means that Jesus isn’t just a ‘rabbi’ — He’s a ‘rabbi’ with semikhah. As a ‘rabbi’ with authority, He then spent the rest of His life wrecking everybody else’s yoke, as the preparation for transitioning to the new covenant!
After the baptism of Jesus, this authority followed Him His whole life. “You do not teach as the other ‘rabbis’ teach, but You teach as one with authority”.
Their proclamations meant that they had never heard of a yoke like that before. They are saying that Jesus must have authority to teach this yoke; otherwise He did not have any rights to teach His yoke.
Footnote
Semikhah is derived from a Hebrew word referring to the laying on of hands and which is commonly used to refer to “authority” or “ordination”. This word commonly refers to the ordination of a rabbi within Judaism. Semikhah is the transmission of rabbinic authority to give advice or judgement concerning the Torah and only someone who had semikhah was authorised to give religious and legal decisions. Semikhah is a system of ordination that according to tradition, traces its line of authority back to Moses and the seventy elders. Photo: Son of God movie resources
Article originally published at Inspired2Think
