prayed, by the descent, and the abiding in Him, of the Holy Ghost, and by the testifying
Voice from heaven. His inner knowledge was real qualification - the forth-bursting of His
Power; and it was inseparably accompanied by outward qualification, in what took place
at His Baptism. But the first step to all was His voluntary descent to Jordan, and in it the
fulfilling of all righteousness. His previous life had been that of the Perfect Ideal Israelite
- believing, unquestioning, submissive - in preparation for that which, in His thirteenth
year, He had learned as its business. The Baptism of Christ was the last act of His private
life; and, emerging from its waters in prayer, He learned: when His business was to
commence, and how it would be done.
18. But the latter must be firmly upheld.
That one outstanding thought, then, 'I must be about My Father's business,' which had
been the principle of His Nazareth life, had come to full ripeness when He knew that the
cry, 'The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand,' was from God. The first great question was now
answered. His Father's business was the Kingdom of Heaven. It only remained for Him
'to be about it,' and in this determination He went to submit to its initiatory rite of
Baptism. We have, as we understand it, distinct evidence - even if it were not otherwise
necessary to suppose this - that 'all the people had been baptized,'19 when Jesus came to
John. Alone the two met - probably for the first time in their lives. Over that which
passed between them Holy Scripture has laid the veil of reverent silence, save as regards
the beginning and the outcome of their meeting, which it was necessary for us to know.
When Jesus came, John knew Him not. And even when He knew Him, that was not
enough. Not remembrance of what he had heard and of past transactions, nor the
overwhelming power of that spotless Purity and Majesty of willing submission, were
sufficient. For so great a witness as that which John was to bear, a present and visible
demonstration from heaven was to be given. Not that God sent the Spirit-Dove, or heaven
uttered its voice, for the purpose of giving this as a sign to John. These manifestations
were necessary in themselves, and, we might say, would have taken place quite
irrespective of the Baptist. But, while necessary in themselves, they were also to be a sign
to John. And this may perhaps explain why one Gospel (that of St. John) seems to
describe the scene as enacted before the Baptist, whilst others (St. Matthew and St. Mark)
tell it as if only visible to Jesus.20 The one bears reference to 'the record,' the other to the
deeper and absolutely necessary fact which underly 'the record.' And, beyond this, it may
help us to perceive at least one aspect of what to man is the miraculous: as in itself the
higher Necessary, with casual and secondary manifestation to man.
19. St. Luke iii. 21.
20. The account by St. Luke seems to me to include both. The common objection on the
score of the supposed divergence between St. John and the Synoptists is thus met.
We can understand how what he knew of Jesus, and what he now saw and heard, must
have overwhelmed John with the sense of Christ's transcendentally higher dignity, and
led him to hesitate about, if not to refuse, administering to Him the rite of Baptism.21 Not
because it was 'the baptism of repentance,' but because he stood in the presence of Him
'the latchet of Whose shoes' he was 'not worthy to loose.' Had he not so felt, the narrative