Tuesday: Then Jesus went from Galilee to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?” But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” So John agreed to baptize him. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” Matthew 3:13-17 (NLT) Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28 18-20 (NLT) Reflection: John the baptizer did not actually invent baptism. There were several purposes for baptism in the old testament. The first is similar to how it is used today – to demonstrate one’s adoption into a new kingdom. Mikvehs, Jewish ceremonial baths, were part of the temple in Jerusalem. They featured a tub of water with steps going down on one side and back up on the other. In the center was a wall coming down from above and sticking down beneath the surface of the water. When a person had converted to Judaism, they finalized the process by stepping down into the waters, ducking themselves under the submerged wall, and coming up drenched on the other side. This symbolized a persons death as a gentile and their rebirth into the Jewish nation. Men had one further step to become Jewish... circumcision... well get to that later. The early church adopted baptism as a symbol of one’s initiation into Jesus’ kingdom. This was different than the baptism of John, and those who considered themselves followers of Jesus, but had only been baptized with John’s baptism chose to get baptized again as an induction into the early church. Initially, all converts to Christianity were Jews. They would have inherited the understanding of baptism as an act of birth into a new nation. When the church spread to the gentiles (non-Jews) there was some controversy as to whether the new believers had to convert to Judaism first before they could become Christians. To resolve this question, Paul scheduled a meeting with the church fathers in Jerusalem, where it was determined that baptism alone was sufficient to demonstrate citizenship in Jesus’ kingdom. Gentiles everywhere breathed a sigh of relief that the circumcision requirement no longer applied. Today baptism is much less well known. When we offer a baptism service at Riverside we talk about it’s significance in Jesus’ day. In our society, with so little ceremony and few rights of passage, baptism can seem downright odd. And baptism itself does not have the power to save us. Only Jesus can do that. So why do we get baptized? Well, because Jesus asked us to. There are two ceremonies that are unique in the Christian church in that Jesus participated in them, He told His followers to do them, and then the early church made them an integral part of the life of their communities. Communion is one of them (Jesus participated in it, He told His followers to do it to remember Him, and the early church did as He asked on a regular basis). The second is baptism. Jesus was baptized Himself (even though there was no need for Him to be baptized... He had nothing to repent of ;0) by John, He told His disciples to baptized every new convert in Matthew 28 & the in early church every single time a person decided to follow Jesus their next step was always baptism. Well talk more about what Jesus baptism means on Thursday but for today spend some time asking yourself, why did Jesus get baptized? What does it mean that He did it to fulfill all righteousness and what does that mean about how I should live my life? Prayer: Father, help me to understand baptism more from your eyes. And give me the faith that even when I don’t understand that I will still follow Your plan. In Jesus’ Name, amen.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 08:02:09 +0000
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