Christ Fulfills All Righteousness for Us

Epiphany 1| Luke 2:41-52| Pastor James Preus| Trinity Lutheran Church| January 11, 2026

St. Matthew records in chapter 3:

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented Him, saying, “I need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately He went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on Him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

John baptized sinners with a Baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1:4) That is the same reason we are baptized today, as St. Peter says in Acts 2, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Yet, Jesus was not a sinner. He had no sins to repent of. He was not in need of forgiveness. And for that reason, John initially refused to baptize Jesus. But Jesus was not baptized for His own sake. He was not baptized to wash away His own sins, as we are baptized to remove ours. Rather, Jesus was baptized for our sake, as He said, “thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Now, Christ is righteous from eternity. He is the true Son of God. Yet, He took on human flesh to fulfill all righteousness for us humans on our behalf, as St. Paul explains in Galatians 4, “when the fullness of time had come, God sent for His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” Jesus did not join the Baptismal waters to take away His own sins, but rather to join Himself to us sinners, so that in Baptism, we might find a washing away of sins, as St. Paul explains in Romans chapter 6, “all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.” And in fact, we were baptized into Christ’s entire life, as St. Paul writes again in Galatians 3, “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” (vs. 27)

And so, we learn that Baptism joins us to Christ and His obedient life here on earth. In Baptism, we receive Christ’s obedience and merits, so that God identifies us as His dear children in whom He is well pleased. And so, it is fitting for us to learn about Jesus as a twelve-year-old boy and how He fulfills righteousness for our sake.

Christ redeemed us who were under the Law by doing in our place what we ought to have done under the Law. This is called His active obedience. Through His active obedience, Jesus proves Himself as our Redeemer, yet He also serves as a perfect example, because if He does what we are supposed to do, He naturally proves to be a good example. And in our Gospel Lesson, at just twelve-years of age, Jesus sets a good example for us, and especially to all you twelve-year-olds, and those there abouts that age.

In this lesson, Jesus teaches us two commandments. The Third Commandment: Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it. And the Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them. And in this lesson, Jesus does these perfectly, and in the right order.

We find Jesus perfectly keeping the Third Commandment, after His parents search for Him for three days. They had gone up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. And when they had fulfilled the requirements of that feast, they went home. Yet, the parents, apparently used to their obedient Son always doing what He was supposed to do without being told, became lax, and began their journey without checking on Him. They assumed He was among their relatives. Yet, when they had gone a day’s journey and found him missing, they frantically searched for Him and returned to Jerusalem. After three days, they found Him in the temple, surrounded by teachers, learning and asking questions. His mother Mary began to scold Jesus for worrying His parents like that, but Jesus responded, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?”

And your first thought may be, “Well, Jesus is God the Son, so of course, He must be about His heavenly Father’s business.” And that is true. But Jesus is also a human boy here. And the same goes for Him as a human. He must be about His Father’s business; He must be found in His Father’s house. Here, Jesus teaches us that the Third Commandment is greater than the Fourth Commandment. Some are uncomfortable with ranking the commandments, but Jesus Himself does this. He teaches us that the First Table of the Law, which is the first three commandments, is greater than the Second Table of the Law, which is commandments Four through Ten, when He says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

The Third Commandment is part of the first table. It teaches us to love God by gladly hearing and learning His Word, as the boy Jesus does in the temple. The Fourth Commandment is part of the second table. It teaches us to love our neighbor by honoring and obeying our parents, as Jesus does after He first learns God’s Word in the temple. This is a principle that the Apostles also teach us in Acts 5, when they say to the Council, who commanded them to stop preaching about Jesus, “We must obey God rather than men.” (vs. 29) Yes, according to His human nature, Jesus was obligated to obey His parents. Yet, even more, Jesus was obligated to obey His God, to hear and learn His Word.

And so, all you children learn the proper order of the Commandments. As twelve-year-old Jesus belonged in His Father’s house learning His Father’s Word, that too is where you belong. It is more important for you to go to church, where you hear God’s Word and receive His blessing, forgiveness, and strengthening of faith, than it is for you to do anything else. While you should obey your parents and other authorities in your life, God does not give your parents or teachers or coaches the authority to keep you from hearing and learning His Word. Rather, God places authorities over you in your life, first and foremost, so that You may learn to know Him through His Word.

And so, twelve-year-old children, and all children, belong in their Father’s house, hearing and learning His Word. If the Lord Jesus, who according to His divine nature knew all things and did not need to learn anything, humbled himself according to His human nature and learned and asked questions, how much more should you children seek to learn God’s Word and grow in wisdom from the Lord? Yet, Jesus also teaches you to submit to your parents. And if Jesus went home and submitted to His parents, even though they were in the wrong and had set a bad example as parents, how much more should you submit to your parents, even if you think they don’t always have it right. So, Jesus is our perfect example.

Yet, however perfect of an example Jesus is, that does not save us, because we fail to keep His example. What is more important is that Christ has fulfilled the Law for our sake. He did not need to learn according to His divine nature, yet He humbled Himself in His human nature and learned and grew in knowledge for our sake. He had no need of earthly parents, being God from eternity, yet in human flesh, He obeyed His earthy parents, and so, Jesus fulfills the Law for us. He is righteous in human flesh, so that in His Baptism, He may fulfill all righteousness for us.

Yet, Jesus’ perfect obedience under the Law still would not save us, unless Christ also paid our debt of sin and redeemed us. And this brings us into that conversation that the boy Jesus was having with the teachers in the temple. Now, you may say, “How could you possibly know what Jesus was discussing with the teachers?” Well, Scripture gives us a pretty good hint. Jesus was in Jerusalem for the celebration of the Passover. When God first commanded Moses how to celebrate the Passover, He commanded it to be a continual memorial feast. And He said, “when your children say to you, ‘What do you mean by this service?’ you shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the LORD’s Passover, for He passed over the houses of the people of Israel in Egypt, when He struck the Egyptians but spared our houses.’” So, without doubt, Jesus was discussing and asking questions about the Lord’s Passover with the teachers in the temple.

St. Paul tells us that Christ is our Passover Lamb who has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7). And shortly after His Baptism in the Jordan, Jesus’ cousin John confessed Jesus to be the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29-34). The Child Jesus new this. And so, He asked questions about the Passover lamb and the Christ. The Passover lambs needed to be without blemish (Exodus 12:5), and so Christ our Passover Lamb is without blemish, sinless before the Lord. Jesus perfectly kept the Third and Fourth Commandments, both tables of the Law, so that He would be the perfect Sacrifice for our sins. As the Passover lambs shed their blood so that death passed over the people of Israel, so Christ our Passover Lamb sheds His blood, so that death and judgment pass over us, who are marked by the blood of Christ. I think the boy Jesus likely brought up Isaiah 53, which speaks of the suffering servant going silently as a lamb to slaughter bearing the iniquities of us all.  

St. Luke even alludes to Jesus’ death when He mentions that Mary and Joseph searched for Him for three days, and yet Jesus was found just where they should have expected Him. And so, the disciples mourned for three days as Jesus’ lay in the tomb, even though Jesus promised them that He would rise on the third day and meet them, as He did. Jesus was intrigued by the Passover, because it was about Him and our salvation. Jesus, even at twelve-years-old, cared about our salvation.

And so, we seek to keep the Third Commandment not only because of the command to hold God’s Word sacred, and gladly hear and learn it, but because of God’s promise in His Word. Jesus said, “Did you not know that I must be in My Father’s house?” And so, we have a promise that Jesus is never lost, but can always be found in His Father’s house, where His Word is proclaimed and His Sacraments are given. And the Word proclaimed in His Father’s house is about our Salvation! And through these words, we receive this salvation through faith!

In the temple, the boy Jesus proved Himself to be a good Son. And in the Jordan, where Jesus joined Himself to sinners in Baptism, God declared Him to be His good Son. And so, we who are baptized and have faith in Christ, have assurance that God declares us to be His good children for Jesus’ sake. Amen.