I personally don't believe that Christ's baptism was a Mikvah. The full immersion washing known as "mikvah" began around the time of Ezra and was a tradition based off of a Babylonian cleansing custom. It isn't mentioned, described, or commanded by the Torah. It's just another extra-biblical Jewish tradition. Jesus wouldn't have been fulfilling all righteousness by taking part in a man made tradition.
Also, the customs regarding Mikvah were rather strict. It had to be ritually clean water. The Jordan was known for being muddy and wouldn't have fit the bill for the use of Mikvah.
Thirdly, there were three kinds of Mikvah. One was for an initiate who joined the community of faith, one was for ritual cleansings performed regularly before entering the Temple, and the other was a daily washing. If Jesus believed in and practiced the Mikvah custom he'd be being immersed every day as was the very ceremonial Jews. Please note, the washing of an initiate was to be performed with the initiate being naked. We do not read of Jesus being naked when baptized. Also this washing required the candidate to be immersed three times for cleansing.
There's a lot more to this...but I'm convinced that Christ's baptism was not a Mikvah.
Then why was Christ baptized? How did it fulfill anything? First, I do think that age has a lot to do with it. Interestingly, priests under the Law entered priestly service at 30 years of age (
Numbers 4:23, 30, 35). But there’s more; under the law priests were required to be cleansed prior to beginning their priestly vocation with water. Here is a description of the first consecration of the Old Testament Priesthood:
Numbers 8:5-7
{8:5} And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, {8:6}
Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and
cleanse them. {8:7} And thus shalt thou do unto them, to
cleanse them: Sprinkle water of purifying upon them, and
let them shave all their flesh, and let them wash their
clothes, and [so] make themselves clean.
The Old Testament custom in regards to purifying the priests was to sprinkle the “water of purifying” upon them as they stood in or beside basins or running natural water (as they practiced in their exile). I believe that Jesus was preparing for his priestly duties as our great high priest, and was “fulfilling all righteousness” by seeking this purification and consecration for service from John the Baptist. Seeing that Jesus did this at 30 years of age (
Luke 3:23) we see the correlation to this custom of preparation for priesthood. At any rate,
if this is so, Jesus fulfilled the Law perfectly as our high priest by standing in water allowing John to sprinkle “water of purifying” upon him. Many would say that the reference to Jesus coming, “up straightway out of the water”, requires that Jesus was completely immersed. However, it can also be understood as Jesus immediately walking out of the river in which he stood as John baptized him with the sprinkling of the water of purifying.
In this manner Jesus “fulfilled all righteousness”, pointing to the Law. If one believes this, they will believe that Jesus may have stood in the water while John sprinkled him with water or poured water over him with a bowl.
Also consider,
Hebrews 9:9-14
{9:9} Which [was] a figure for the time then present, in
which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not
make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the
conscience; {9:10} [Which stood] only in meats and drinks,
and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed [on
them] until the time of reformation. {9:11} But Christ being
come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to
say, not of this building; {9:12} Neither by the blood of
goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption [for
us. ]{9:13} For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the
ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the
purifying of the flesh: {9:14} How much more shall the
blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God?
Here, these washings are described….
Numbers 19:17-22
{19:17} And for an unclean [person] they shall take of the
ashes of the burnt heifer of purification for sin, and running
water shall be put thereto in a vessel: {19:18} And a clean
person shall take hyssop, and dip [it] in the water, and
sprinkle [it] upon the tent, and upon all the vessels, and
upon the persons that were there, and upon him that touched
a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or a grave: {19:19} And
the clean [person] shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the
third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he
shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself
in water, and shall be clean at even. {19:20} But the man
that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul
shall be cut off from among the congregation, because he
hath defiled the sanctuary of the LORD: the water of
separation hath not been sprinkled upon him; he [is]
unclean. {19:21} And it shall be a perpetual statute unto
them, that he that sprinkleth the water of separation shall
wash his clothes; and he that toucheth the water of
separation shall be unclean until even. {19:22} And
whatsoever the unclean [person] toucheth shall be unclean;
and the soul that toucheth [it] shall be unclean until even.
The purifying element of these washings was the
sprinkling of the “water of separation”. Even more interesting is the Greek word the writer of Hebrews uses for these sprinkled “washings”; the writer uses the Greek word, “baptismos”, also translated in the Authorized King James Version as both “washing” and …“baptism”. These sprinklings are therefore “washings” (baptismos), meaning... a form of baptism.
And lastly, there is the prophecy of Pentecost:
Ezekiel 36:25-27
{36:25} Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye
shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your
idols, will I cleanse you. {36:26} A new heart also will I
give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give
you an heart of flesh. {36:27} And I will put my spirit
within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye
shall keep my judgments, and do [them.]
Why would God place such a strong emphasis on Mikvah... seeing that it is only a later development, a tradition of men?