Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 3:13

"Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to the Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him." — Matthew 3:13 (ASV)

Then cometh Jesus. We are brought face to face with the question that the legend just quoted sought to answer, and we cannot turn away from it: Why did the Lord Jesus come to the baptism of John?

The Sinless One had no sin to confess and no need of repentance. We cannot even attribute to Him that consciousness of evil which weighs on the hearts of God’s saints almost in exact proportion to their holiness.

Yet we must believe that His righteousness was essentially human and therefore capable of increase, just as He increased in wisdom and stature. Holy as He was at every stage of life in proportion to its capacities, heights of holiness yet unattained still rose before Him—heights for which we may reverently say He “hungered and thirsted.”

For that attainment, the baptism—which to others was a stepping-stone out of the mire of despair—might well have seemed a means, if not a condition. It was fitting that He should fulfill all righteousness in all its forms by accepting a divine ordinance, even, perhaps, because it seemed to place Him in fellowship with sinners.