John 1.31-34
“I myself did not know him, but for this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” And John bore witness: “I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit’ And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.”
John is adamant that he did not know Jesus which, given the fact that they were cousins who both had experienced miraculous births, and whose families had been in contact about these births, seems highly unlikely. We need to conclude that John is not saying he was not acquainted with Jesus. What he is saying is that he did not fully appreciate Jesus’ high position. He knew him as a man, and he was aware that Jesus had a special role in God’s kingdom, but he didn’t know the extent of that role. Then John witnessed a miracle that made a big impression on him.
The book of Matthew provides a few more details to this miraculous event: Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, 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 3.13-17).
We should not overlook the confirmation of the Trinitarian nature of God described in this passage. God the Father speaks from heaven, as the Spirit descends from heaven and alights on Jesus, Son of God.
It’s interesting that the description of the Spirit’s descent is that it is “like a dove”. Do doves descend differently than other birds? Or does John mean that the Spirit, while clearly not a dove, reminds him of a dove? We cannot infer that the alighting of the Spirit on Jesus is what makes him God, because other passages make it clear that Jesus is God and has always existed as God.
White generally represents purity in the Bible, so the alighting could serve as a proclamation of that purity in Jesus. Matthew 10.16, Jesus tells his disciples, “I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Another possibility is a confirmation of Jesus’ sacrificial role. Lambs were the most noteworthy animals in the Jewish sacrificial system, but doves, too, were common, for various specific reasons, as well as to address concerns of financial hardship.
All these ideas may be valid associations as we think of the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus. However, I am inclined to think that the primary reference is to the days of Noah and the dove that returned to the ark bearing an olive branch. It’s true that the Spirit at the baptism carried no olive branch but, then, the salvation the Spirit represents is not from the great flood that has made the earth uninhabitable. The olive branch demonstrated that the earth was once again nourishing the plants, which meant critical nourishment for animals and humans. In this situation the rescue is, as Jesus later puts it, from the bondage of sin and death. This rescue is greater than the rescue of Noah. It is greater than the delivery out of Egypt. It is the rescue from our selves. The descent of the Spirit is the promise of peace to people whose hearts are in turmoil…and whose very existence is fragile and under the shadow of Death. The dove is the sign to us that we have reason to hope. This dove alights on Jesus, revealing that he is the source of that hope.
An additional take-away from this passage is the double testimony about who Jesus is. Throughout the Gospels the question of Jesus’ identity is brought up for debate and discussion. The religious leaders press him for proofs. Here we have an extremely important confirmation of Jesus’ identity. The very famous John the Baptist proclaims that he is the Son of God. He proclaims it without reservation because the one who had sent him to baptize in the first place is the one who told him how he would be able to identify the Son of God. The other obvious witness is God the Father. In John it reads as if God’s affirmation is a private message to John. Matthew gives the sense of a voice from heaven that a number of people may have heard. It is not clear whether these are two events or one, or whether God spoke out loud or only to John.
The alighting of the Holy Spirit on Jesus also testifies to the nature of Jesus. The Spirit alights because Jesus is holy and because Jesus is the source of delivery from the bondage of sin and death. No one but God can be pure or provide everlasting deliverance. Thus the two other persons of the Trinity confirm that Jesus is God in this event. There will be many others who come after, both in the New Testament writings and in the 2000 years of Church history who give this same testimony, but this testimony that is the critical one. Other proofs follow because John is very keen in his Gospel to present Jesus as God, Lord, and Savior. This first one should not be skimmed over or taken lightly.
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