Bible verse wall art
Matthew 3: the baptism of Jesus
Matthew 3 is the moment Jesus steps out of thirty quiet years and into public view. It happens in a river, with a voice from heaven and a dove, and it is one of the few scenes in which Father, Son and Spirit appear together.
Matthew 3 prints
Matthew 3 · King James Version
16 the Spirit of God descending like a dove
17 This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
A voice in the wilderness
John the Baptist appears in the wilderness of Judea preaching, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew identifies him with the voice described in Isaiah 40, crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. John wears a garment of camel's hair with a leather belt and eats locusts and wild honey, a deliberate echo of the prophet Elijah. Crowds come from Jerusalem and all Judea to be baptized in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
When Pharisees and Sadducees arrive, John calls them a generation of vipers and warns that the axe is already laid at the root of the trees. He announces someone mightier coming after him, who will baptize with the Holy Ghost and with fire.
Why was Jesus baptized?
Then Jesus comes from Galilee to the Jordan. John tries to stop him, saying that he is the one who needs to be baptized by Jesus. The question John raises is one Christians still ask: why would someone without sin take a baptism of repentance? Jesus answers, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. He stands with the people he came to save, in the same water, before he ever preaches a sermon.
What does the dove mean in Matthew 3:16?
As Jesus comes up out of the water, the heavens are opened, and he sees the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. The Gospels say “like a dove,” describing the manner of the Spirit's coming. Readers have long thought of Genesis 1, where the Spirit of God moves over the waters of creation, and of the dove that brought Noah an olive leaf when the flood had ended. A new beginning is taking place in the Jordan.
Then comes the voice from heaven in verse 17: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. The words gather two Old Testament passages, Psalm 2, where God addresses the anointed king as his son, and Isaiah 42, where God delights in his chosen servant. Nothing Jesus has yet done in public earned this approval; it rests on who he is.
From the Jordan to every baptism
The scene shapes Christian baptism everywhere. Jesus later sends his disciples to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost (Matthew 28:19), the very three present at the river. Catholics and many Protestants keep the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord in January, while Orthodox churches celebrate Theophany on January 6 with a solemn blessing of water. The dove has become the most common symbol of the Holy Spirit in Christian art, and a print of it is a natural gift for a baptism, a christening, a confirmation or an adult believer's baptism.