Devotion - Wednesday, August 25

A student was passing me in the hallway, outside the LCM Lounge, when he said, “I have a question for you. Why did Jesus need to be baptized?” Good question, and like most good questions it wasn’t asked in Sunday School or Bible Study. It was asked during the course of a normal day as we were going about normal tasks.

A teacher once said that preachers have it easy. We talk for twelve minutes on a Sunday morning. We spend hours thinking over every word. It is the lay members of the church who have it rough. They are asked the good questions, while passing someone in the hallway. Coming up with an answer, on the spot, when you least expect to be asked a significant question – now that is tough.

Back to the question. It arose for me again this morning as I was reading from opening verses of John, chapter 4. The verse reads, “When the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John (although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples.)” That last phrase is not my insertion; it is the way the verse appears in scripture.

Jesus is baptized by John. Jesus’ disciples begin to baptize as others begin to follow Jesus. The baptism being practiced here differs from the baptism we would see on a Sunday morning at our local congregation. Differs, in that a Christian baptism is a baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ. We baptize into the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The baptism offered by John (accepted by Jesus) and the baptisms being carried out by the disciples of Jesus would have been connected to the Jewish rites associated with repentance. John tells his hears to repent and be baptized. That baptism is a ritual washing, participated in by those who wished to embody the turn they were making in their lives.

Now, Christians have not stopped talking about repentance. And certainly, when we baptize, there are traces of repentance language and thought. However, when we baptize, ours is making real in our lives the immersion and rising of our Savior.

Jesus was baptized (some have come to believe) as a way of joining his fellow seekers. He, like others who came out to hear John, was devoted to living as God would have them live. They were committed to turn away from all that would detract them from their Lord. It was a way of living out what they believed. He may have been one who “knew no sin,” but he was a human, walking the earth and desirous of walking the path of God with others.

The baptism offered by the Christian Church differs. It is an acknowledgment that our inability to perfectly walk that path will not stand between us and God. God has solved that dilemma. God has taken that task onto Himself.

Jesus could not be baptized in a Christian Church. Our baptism is a baptism into his death and resurrection. His baptism was to incorporate him into the group of believers who were coming to understand that God was doing an amazing thing. Realizing the Truth of John’s message, they wanted to get on board and be a part of what God would do next.