Jesus left Galilee and came to the Jordan River, where John the Baptist was calling people to repent and baptizing them. Jesus came to John in order to be baptized.
Jesus had not traveled to the river merely to observe John or speak with him. He approached the man who was baptizing others and presented himself for baptism. His movement from Galilee reached its stated purpose at the water’s edge.
John tried to prevent him. He said that he needed to be baptized by Jesus and asked why Jesus had come to him. John did not treat Jesus as someone who simply stood in the same place as the crowds coming to the river.
John’s first action was resistance, not agreement. The order he thought fitting was the reverse of the request before him: John needed something from Jesus, yet Jesus was asking to receive baptism from John. His question openly expressed the difference he saw between them.
Jesus answered that John should allow it for the present, because this was the fitting way to fulfill all righteousness. John then agreed.
Jesus did not rebuke John’s hesitation. He asked John to permit the baptism “for now” and connected the act with fulfilling all righteousness. John accepted that answer. The one who had tried to stop the baptism now carried it out at Jesus’ direction.
After Jesus had been baptized and came up from the water, heaven opened. He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him. The Spirit came down from the opened heavens and rested upon Jesus.
Jesus came up from the water immediately after the baptism. At that point the direction of the movement changed: Jesus rose from the river while the Spirit descended from the opened heavens. The Spirit did not remain distant but came to rest upon him in a form compared to a dove.
John’s action in the river was followed by God’s action from heaven. The Spirit’s descent was visible to Jesus, and the voice identified the person on whom the Spirit rested. It did not call him merely a teacher or another person seeking baptism, but God’s own beloved Son.
A voice came from heaven, calling Jesus God’s beloved Son and saying that God was pleased with him.