“…it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Thirty years of purposeful purity prepared John for one moment. The years of preparation poured over into preaching as he prepared the people for their Messiah. And the people responded—thousands came from all over to hear his preaching and recognized their sin and need for repentance.

The same happened to John when Jesus arrived. In the presence of the sinless Jesus, John could not compute how he would baptize Jesus. So John prevented it from happening (Matthew 3:14). The original word translated as ‘prevent’ means to utterly prohibit or forbid. From John’s perspective, Jesus’ request to be baptized is backward—if anyone needs baptizing between them, it's John.

But Jesus put John’s mind at ease. He knew what John needed to hear—“Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15) This was all that John ever wanted—righteousness. He wanted to prepare the way for the public, earthly ministry of The King of The Kingdom that was at hand. What better way to start than by being baptized? In doing so, Jesus acknowledged the ministry of John and publicly identified with sinful humanity, whom He came to save.