Stein on the Baptism of Jesus

Chapter 6 of Robert Stein's Jesus the Messiah, moving through Jesus' life chronologically, deals with his baptism  in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. It is subtitled "The Anointing of the Anointed."

"With the coming of John the Baptist the voice of prophecy was once again heard in Israel [for the first time in 400 years]. The spiritual drought of the past four centuries had come to an end. God was again visiting his people. Yet John's message was not an end in itself. Integral to (and the highlight of) his message was the announcement of the Coming One. A person greater than the greatest of the Old Testament prophets (Matt. 11:9-11), was present in John the Baptist, but a far greater one was at hand. John labored to prepare the people for this person, and it was a privilege to baptize him. Whereas John later had questions concerning Jesus' messianic status (Matt. 11:2-6), Jesus' reply was apparently satisfactory. At least the evangelists want us to understand the incident that way.

At his baptism Jesus began his ministry as the Anointed One, the Christ or Messiah. "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations" (Isa. 42:1). Even as prophets (1 Kings 19:16), priests (Exo. 29:7, 21), and kings (1 Sam. 10:1) were anointed for their tasks, so the Prophet-Priest-King also was anointed for his ministry. The issue of how Jesus would fulfill his divine role and the kind of Messiah he would be now faced him. This would be resolved in the wilderness."