Rights and Wrongs

Matthew 3:13-17

April 12, 2026 • Mount Pleasant UMC

I cannot think of the Jordan River without getting a chill up and down my spine. I had never been to Israel during January, and while it is warmer there than it is here, it’s not exactly shorts weather. Still, we had promised that our group would have the chance to renew their baptism near the place where Jesus was baptized, in the Jordan River. So we all changed into our swimsuits, wrapped towels around us, and made our way to the edge of the river. You know how sometimes, when you get into a pool or a body of water that is a little chilly, it will seem warm to you after you’ve been in there a while? That did not happen this time. The water was cold—something like 47 degrees when I looked it up later. And I was in there a long time, but, you know, after about 10 minutes you no longer feel your extremities, so it’s all good. I left that day convinced that Jesus would have been baptized in this river in the summer.

This morning, as I mentioned last week, we’re beginning a quick trip through the New Testament, and we’re going to do it by looking through the lens of twelve different words. Most of them might be considered “fancy, theological words” that only get used in church, but they are important words and ideas for us to grab onto and, even, live out. Dr. Nijay Gupta calls them “load-bearing concepts” (15 New Testament Words of Life, pg. xvii). And a lot of times we use the words without really understanding them. Language matters. We ought to know what we are talking about, especially in a culture that has basically no Biblical knowledge. So twelve weeks, twelve words, all “Words of Life” that the Scriptures indicate are important ideas for us to know and understand. And we start in the Gospel of Matthew with this big word: “righteousness.”

Actually, I’m going to get to Matthew, which you read this last week, but first I want to give some context, specifically from the Old Testament. If you read Matthew this past week, you already know how intent he is to connect Jesus to what has come before. He repeatedly emphasizes that Jesus is fulfillment of everything God had been doing in ancient times with the Israelite people. I think I’ll teach you some words as we go along in this series, so the Hebrew word for “righteousness” is tzadik. Let’s say that together and if it doesn’t sound like you’re sneezing, you’re not saying it right. Tzadik. In general terms, the word is used to refer to a “good person” or a “person of integrity.” As the idea develops throughout the Old Testament, several ideas come to define a “good person,” especially when we read the prophets: mercy, innocence, fairness and a pure heart. Alongside that, such a person is faithful and loyal in relationships, just like God was and is. To be righteous is to be and become like God (cf. Gupta 2-4) and so in many ways, the whole of the Old Testament is a story of righteousness lost and righteousness longed for. It’s the story of a righteous God creating a world where righteousness can flourish, a world where righteousness is rejected, and a world where that same God pursues his creation in order to put it all back together.

  Enter Jesus. Matthew begins his Gospel with a genealogy of Jesus, tracing Jesus’ lineage back to Abraham, the father of the faithful. Luke, as we will see in a couple of weeks, traces it back to Adam, but Matthew is more concerned to directly connect Jesus to the people of Israel. Matthew also wants us to know that Jesus came for more than just Israel, which is why the story of the Magi or wise men is included. And then we come to the story of his baptism, the text we read this morning. Jesus comes from Galilee to the Judean wilderness, where his cousin John is baptizing people. He’s preaching, interestingly enough, the exact same message Jesus will begin preaching after he is baptized: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” (3:2; cf. 4:17). And something in his message is getting to their hearts, because people are gathering at the river and confessing their sins, asking to be baptized (3:6). John even has religious leaders, Pharisees and Sadducees, coming to the river, but they don’t seem to be coming to actually be baptized. They seem to be coming to check out this new preacher in the desert (Davis, Come Alive: Matthew, pg. 17). John has some choice words for them. He calls them a “brood of vipers,” which I’m sure went over very well (3:7). John was not known for mincing words…or being politically correct!

So Jesus makes the 3 or 4 day journey from his home in Galilee to where John is (3:13) and he asks his cousin to baptize him. John is instantly confused. “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” John asks (3:14). In other words: “Jesus, I really shouldn’t be baptizing you. You don’t need baptism.” And Jesus replies, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this…” and pay attention to what he says next— “to fulfill all righteousness” (3:15). To fulfill all righteousness. I mean, there are all sorts of things Jesus could have said here. This baptism was to “fulfill the gospel” or “fulfill the hope of eternal life” or “fulfill God’s plan” (cf. Gupta 5). But instead he says his baptism will “fulfill all righteousness.” What does Jesus mean here? How does his baptism “fulfill all righteousness”?

I mean, I get why John is reluctant. He, out of all the people gathered on that riverbank, knows who Jesus is. When John (the Gospel writer) tells this story (although he leaves out the actual baptism), he has John the Baptist declaring Jesus to be “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Luke tells us that even before he was born, John recognized who Jesus was. When their mothers met, John leapt in his mother’s womb at the sound of Mary’s greeting (Luke 1:44). We don’t know how many times their families might have gotten together when they were kids, or how many times before this John and Jesus have talked, maybe about the future and their respective ministries. John knows and tells people over and over he is preparing the way for the savior, the Messiah. “After me,” he says, “comes one is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (4:11). John knows who Jesus is, and that’s why he says, “I need to be baptized by you” (4:13). But Jesus insists, “to fulfill all righteousness” (4:15).

As with everything Jesus does, there are layers of meaning here. To be sure, Jesus is part of the long, unfolding plan of God that has been detailed in what we know as the Old Testament. He is the fulfillment of the hopes of both prophets and preachers, saints and sinners alike. Like I said earlier, that’s part of the point of the genealogy at the beginning of the Gospel; Matthew intends to show us that Jesus is part of Israel and has come to fulfill and finish all that has gone before (cf. Davis 17). Jesus’ baptism also inaugurates his ministry; he comes to be baptized to identify with “the sinful men and women he had come to rescue. If it is a cause for momentary confusion, so be it” (Card 41). He sets us an example by submitting to the waters. The path to righteousness begins with baptism. It still does; what we call the sacrament of baptism today is still a sacrament of beginnings—the beginning of a walk with Christ.

But I think there’s still more than that going on here. Everything that has gone before, everything the prophets and authors of the Old Testament have said about tzadik, righteousness, is embodied in Jesus (cf. Gupta 5). He is a “good person,” a “person of integrity.” He is a person who embodies mercy, innocence, fairness and a pure heart. He is faithful and loyal in all of his relationships. He is God incarnate, the living God walking among us, and so of course he is the prime example of what righteousness should be because righteousness is something we live out, not something we obtain. Righteousness is who we become and how we live. And, in some way, the first step in that, at least from Jesus’ perspective, was baptism.

And then, throughout the Gospel, Matthew tells us what righteousness looked like in Jesus’ life. In the very next chapter, we have the famous Sermon on the Mount which begin with what we call the Beatitudes or the “blessings.” Pastor Rick talked about those a few weeks ago, and I hope you noticed when you read them again this week how those 9 statements of blessing really turn the world upside down. None of them are what we expect them to be; none of them, many would say, are “how the world really works.” It’s the fourth blessing that should capture our attention today, though: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (5:6). The other night, I was sitting in our family room and I told Cathy I was hungry. Not that I expected her to do anything about it; I I just thought she should know. I get those before-bed cravings for a snack that I shouldn’t have, just like most of you do. And I was really hungry, but I couldn’t put my finger on what I wanted. I went roaming through the kitchen, like you do, opening the pantry and the refrigerator. Nothing sounded good, and more importantly, nothing sounded like it would satisfy the craving that I was having. I don’t know if it was a flavor or a texture or what it was, but I couldn’t find it. I never did figure it out and went to bed that night without a snack. And I kind of think that’s what it must be like to “hunger and thirst for righteousness,” especially in today’s world. We look around and see so much unrighteousness. We see a world full of wickedness, empty of justice, lacking integrity and full of people who are just so angry about everything. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness must be starving. But Jesus’ vision of the world was one where those who have such a craving for the world to be the way God intended it to be are satisfied. They will be “filled,” he says. Jesus believed in a world that God was making new, where righteousness is overflowing. That’s the kingdom he came to bring; that’s the kingdom he was inaugurating when he was baptized (cf. Gupta 6).

Another chapter over (and relax, I’m not going to go through all 28 chapters of Matthew’s Gospel). Here we find what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” but really should be called the disciples’ prayer. Jesus doesn’t use the word “righteousness” in the prayer; instead, he tells his followers to pray for it using these words: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (6:10). Being part of God’s kingdom has never been about flying away to some heaven in the sky. The kingdom God came to bring is coming down, heaven and earth are being joined together—that’s the picture in Revelation 21—and ultimately all creation will be a place where God’s will is done, where righteousness is the standard. That’s what the kingdom is: the place where God’s will is done, where God’s people are living God’s way, where heaven and earth are no longer separated by sin, evil and injustice. Every time we pray that prayer, we’re asking God for more righteousness in the world, more of God’s way in the world. Your kingdom come, Lord, not mine (cf. Gupta 6).

One more example, along the same lines, near the end of that chapter. It’s a famous verse that I remember singing in Sunday School many years ago: “Seek first his kingdom and his”—say it with me, “righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (6:33). We yank that verse out of context with out really knowing what “all these things” are. This verse comes in the midst of a long description of life without worry. Wouldn’t that be nice? Life without worry! Jesus says it is possible if we pursue his kingdom first, and if we do, then all the things we worry over and try to take care of ourselves will be taken care of. C. S. Lewis put it this way: “Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth 'thrown in': aim at Earth and you will get neither.” Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness. Seek the life God has for you and live the way he intends for you to live (cf. Gupta 7).

So we could go on through Matthew tracing this theme, but I trust these little snippets begin to paint a picture. Righteousness is being a person of integrity, which means our inside character and our outside actions match. We’re the same person, integrated, whole. It means we can be not just a “good person” but a “God person.” It means we are faithful and loyal in our relationships, and that might be the key factor actually. I was listening this past week to a podcast interview with a missionary who lived in India for a long time—Tiffany Clark. One of the things that really caught my attention was when she was talking about the difference between the way we in the west perceive a relationship with Jesus and the way those in the east do. For we western Christians, heavily influenced by Greek and Roman thinking, righteousness tends to look like a list of rules. Want to live righteously? Then follow these rules: a, b, c, d and so on. If you can check those off at the end of the day, you’ve been a successful Christian. The problem with that is we can easily turn into Pharisees, more concerned with the rules than we are with the people in front of us and that leads to all kinds of wrongs (cf. Gupta 7). Like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time, we become very selective on what rules are the most important, which ones we think are the key to being righteous. And we want to hold other people to the list of rules we have decided is most important. We become legalistic about our self-imposed rules Many years ago, I had a church member come to me very concerned about another church member whose car they had seen parked outside of a bar in town. Would a real Christian go in there? Well they might if they had the best catfish in town. A similar thing happened to the pastor I had growing up. He felt called to reach out to those who were struggling with alcoholism in a day before programs like Celebrate Recovery were popular. So where do you go to find people like that? And people began talking about his car being seen at the tavern down the road. What I learned is this: if you don’t want people to know you are somewhere they think you shouldn’t be, borrow someone else’s car! My point is this: people were hurt because somehow righteousness got reduced to a small set of rules. It’s easy to become a Pharisee.

In fact, it’s so easy that sometimes I wish righteousness was as easy as that. But it’s not because it’s not and never has been about the rules. This podcast interview went on to talk about the eastern perspective on a relationship with Jesus, and we need to remember that most of the Bible was written from an eastern perspective. It’s worthwhile to listen to how they think because that’s the world Jesus lived in. For eastern people, the focus is on relationships rather than rules. Sin is something that breaks a relationship, whether that’s between you and another person or you and God. You don’t steal your neighbor’s property because it harms his livelihood. You don’t commit adultery because you’re breaking many relationships (and hearts). You don’t break the sabbath because you’re taking away rest that’s needed for both you and others—and that dishonors the image of God in each person. I challenge you to try this: read the so-called “laws” in the Old Testament through the lens of relationship. See if it doesn’t make a whole lot more sense when they are read this way. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, the Top Ten Laws—the Ten Commandments—begin not with “thou shalt not” but with “I am the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:2). It’s all about loyalty and faithfulness in relationships—to God and to each other. And while I’m at it, what did Jesus say is the greatest commandment? Do not steal? Do not murder? Do not spit on the sidewalk? Nope, none of those rules. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (22:37-40). And, jumping ahead in the story a bit, that’s why Paul tells the Corinthians that they’re okay to eat meat that has been sacrificed to idols, that the idol is not a god and so it’s not really been offered to anything, but if they know it will upset someone, they’re better off not to do it—because sin is anything that breaks the relationship. Paul writes, “No one should seek their own good, but the good of others” (1 Corinthians 10:24). To me, it goes back to the question Andy Stanley asked in a book several years ago: what does love require (cf. Not In It To Win It)? If the greatest commandment is to love God and love people (which it is), then righteousness is about living that way. What does love require? Paul concludes this way: “For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many so that they may be saved” (1 Corinthians 10:33).

So if you were hoping for a list of rules to follow or a plan for being righteous, you’ve come to the wrong place. In fact, you’ve come to the wrong savior. Jesus never gave us a list and he argued with the Pharisees who were passionate about the word of God but had missed the point by turning it into rules. It wasn’t about the rules; it was about the relationships. It was about loving God and loving others. St. Augustine said, “Love God and do what you please.” By that he did not mean we could do anything; he meant that if our hearts are in line with God’s heart then we will want to do what he wants us to do. We will want to see his will done on earth as it is in heaven. We will want to be people of integrity, honesty, dare I say righteousness. We will want to make sure our relationships are solid and that we are living with a heart of compassion and a desire for justice in this world. We’re not so concerned with being good rule-followers as we are with being good people, people of righteousness. Did you know there was so much wrapped up in Jesus’ baptism? He is our forerunner; he is our example. He is the righteousness we hope to be.

When Jesus comes up out of the water, Matthew says, a dove descended upon him and a voice spoke: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (3:16-17). The Trinity was together in that moment: The voice of the Father, the Spirit in the form of a dove and the Son, dripping wet from the Jordan River. And we don’t know if only Jesus heard and saw that or if others on the riverbank did, too. It doesn’t really matter, though, because this is one more piece that points toward true righteousness. The Father blesses Jesus the Son and is “well pleased” with him before he does anything. At this point in his life, he has not taught anything or healed anyone. He hasn’t done one single “act” of righteousness other than being baptized. No, the Father is simply “well pleased” in who Jesus is, right at that moment—because righteousness is about relationship. When you live as a person of integrity, faithfulness, honesty and loyalty, you, too, will cause the Father to say, “With you I am well pleased.” He’s not looking for what you do; he’s looking at who you are. That’s the righteousness God is seeking. Let’s pray.