Patristic Wisdom: Looking to Jesus' Baptism

Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and are You coming to me?” But Jesus answered and said to him, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed Him. When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matt 3:13-17)

Many raise the question, What in fact was the nature of this baptism with which the Lord was baptized? What did it amount to, the baptism of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who, for the sake of the salvation of all, became human? As such He was to show Himself to be the beginning of a certain paradoxical life on account of which He is called Adam, since for Adam's sake and for the rest of those who have arisen from Adam He becomes the beginning of everlasting life, in the same way that Adam was the original of this temporary and mortal life. This Jesus, I say, recapitulated in Himself everything that pertains to our salvation. For just as He both died and rose again, we also shall do so, in the same way. Since necessarily we were to be symbolically transferred from this present life by baptism and settled in that life which is to come, He saw to it that this baptism should be fulfilled first of all in Himself. In His providential dispensation of things, He had received, before all others, this baptism of adoption which is by water and the Spirit. He thereby showed this baptism to be great and honorable, in that He Himself, first of all, truly accepted it. Moreover, He himself identified Himself with that part of society outside the law of grace, in which we also take part. For it was fitting that the Lord, in humility of spirit, should become subject both to the prophet and Baptist, like a common person from among the people. He was baptized that He might hallow the waters and bestow upon us, through the basin, regeneration and adoption and remission of sins and all the other blessings that came to us through baptism, prefiguring them in Himself. As God, however, He is the One “who takes away the sin of the world,” and as such He has no need of baptism.

Theodore of Mopsuestia, Fragment 14