Why Does Jesus Get Baptized in the Wilderness?

BibleProject

BibleProject Podcast

Christianity, Old Testament, Torah, Theology, New Testament, God, Demons, Tim Mackie, Bible Study, Angels, Bible, Jesus, Spiritual Beings, Jon Collins, Religion & Spirituality, Spirit, Satan

4.8 • 18.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Wilderness E8 –– In the Bible, God often turns wilderness wanderings into times of testing, purification, and preparation for returning to the garden land. The tragedy of the Hebrew Bible, however, is that when people do return to the garden, they keep following their own distorted wisdom and desires. This is why the beginning of every gospel account features a wild prophet named John, who is out in the wilderness by the Jordan River, preaching a baptism of repentance. It’s a symbolic reenactment of when God purified the exodus generation through the deadly chaos waters and treacherous desert. But then Jesus approaches John, also asking to be baptized. Why? In this episode, Jon and Tim unpack the background and ministry of John the Baptizer and how Jesus’ baptism connects to his larger Kingdom mission.

Transcript

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0:00.0	We've been tracing the theme of the wilderness through the story of the Bible.
0:08.6	The wilderness is a dire place, hostile to life, full of tests.
0:13.5	And while the wilderness can feel like a punishment or maybe even pointless hardship,
0:18.1	the biblical authors want us to see the wilderness as an opportunity.
0:22.2	God can take someone's presence in the wilderness and turn it into an important time of
0:29.7	testing and preparation to go back into a garden land.
0:33.8	God brings Israel into an abundant garden land to live by God's wisdom and share God's life to the world.
0:40.5	But they turn from God, and they choose violence and oppression instead.
0:44.7	And so, God lets empires take them out of the land.
0:48.6	What Ezekiel calls the wilderness of the nations.
0:52.1	But Ezekiel sees hope. That God's going to transform his people in the wilderness
0:58.0	so that they can become his covenant partners in the garden land.
1:02.0	This hope remains beyond reach as the Hebrew Bible comes to a close.
1:07.0	But, lo and behold, the story of Jesus begins with a prophet preparing the way of God through the wilderness.
1:14.7	This is John the Baptist.
1:15.9	He's baptizing people in the waters of the Jordan River as a sign of repentance,
1:20.0	a symbol to show that Israel is ready to reenter the garden land.
1:24.4	That connection of water and wilderness are opposites, but they become parallel
1:29.3	symbols of something deadly or dangerous. And when God leads people through the waters or through
1:36.5	the wilderness, they both have a purifying effect. Jesus comes on the scene and he asks John to
1:43.3	baptize him. And John knows who Jesus is and he asks John to baptize him.
1:46.9	And John knows who Jesus is and he refuses.
	...

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