Why We Baptize

Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 29; Acts 10:34-43; Matthew 3:13-17

As many of you know by now, I usually follow the lectionary, a three-year cycle of readings that cover the most important aspects of the New and the Old Testament. Today, I had a choice, a choice between the readings of Epiphany, which is the visit of the wise men from the East to the young Jesus, and the readings of the Baptism of the Lord. I chose to go with the Baptism readings, but we should note that both events and readings are united by faith – the faith the wise men had to follow the star hundreds of miles, the faith the wise men had to bow down and worship the young child – and the faith that Christians must show as they encounter Jesus and choose the sacrament of Baptism. Let’s go back in time for a while, back to a day long ago in the dry land of Palestine, back to a young man named Andrew who was a follower of a wild and crazy prophet, a man known to history as John the Baptist. Let's hear Andrew's tale...

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It was another day down at the Jordan River. Our leader, the crazy holy man John – they called him John the Baptist – John was baptizing an endless succession of people who had come down from Jerusalem, down that long, long walk down the 3000 feet from the Mount of Olives, down past Jericho where Herod the foreign King, an Edomite, had his golden palace, and across the valley to the Jordan River.

We had followed him for several months. He told us to repent, to rethink our relationship with God, because the kingdom of heaven has come near. And then he baptized us to clean us of our sins, like the way a farmer washed his hands before a meal to clean the filth off. So many of us had forgotten God’s Law, we had forgotten things in the struggle to survive, we had forgotten that God had led us into this land – not Moses, not Aaron, but they had followed God and we had followed them so many years before. And just like many times before, we had turned away from God and because of that we had been conquered once again.

At first, we thought that John might be the Messiah, the savior of the Jewish nation. But he assured us that he was not the Messiah, yet here was this man acting and dressing like the prophets of hundreds of years ago, living on food that God brought him, dressing in clothes that he made himself, speaking in public the words that all the people wanted to say, all the people except those people who were in power in the land. He reminded us of Elijah, the great prophet that spoke to Ahab and Jezebel and destroyed the priesthood of Baal.

Oh, it was amazing the way he spoke – there was nothing subtle about John! One day some Sadducees and Pharisees came down from Jerusalem, dressed in their fine blue-and-white robes, wearing tassels that each took a woman a day or more to make. Each one of those men wore a robe that would take me three months to buy if I worked every day and saved all the money just for that piece of fine cloth. Can you imagine a single outfit of clothing costing three month’s of your wages?

Of course, they had made deals with the Romans and with Herod, they owned the land, they ran the Temple, they had come from good families whose grandfathers and fathers had bought up land when people couldn’t pay their taxes, the taxes that had built that gold-covered Temple. And us? My brother owned a fishing boat on the lake, and we spent long, hard hours six nights a week catching fish to sell to the Romans and whoever else would buy them. We worked hard, and we had saved up enough money to come and spend a year with this man, the eldest son of a Levite priest.

But earlier that day those Sadducess and Pharisees had come down to the river. It was so hot that day! Down in the valley it was extra hot as the blinding sun beat against the walls of the valley and those rocks bounced the heat down to us. The river’s humidity let green plants grow, it was true, but it made things feel hotter, we were sweating so much, the water was cool but not cold to the touch.

Flies buzzed around, the stink of people and animals and cooking fires bringing them all together here at the riverbank. A dozen of those flies came charging towards me. I moved to avoid the smell of a donkey that had decided to unload yesterday’s meal beside me, the pile that was attracting those flies. Oh, to live in a place without flies! It seemed like everything was rotten or decaying in our land.

John saw those blue-and-white robed men and he shouted, ““You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” – I told you John had a way of saying what we all wanted to say. “Brood of vipers!” Yes, they slithered down the road like the snakes they were. But John wasn’t finished with them:

“Did you come to repent? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.” John was really on a roll today.

“Produce good fruit for God! The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fi-re.” And he said it that special way he always said it for emphasis – Fi-re” and you knew he meant that those priests and those people who split hairs over the Law were headed to hell fire even though they made all the sacrifices, they went to the Temple every week, they did their duty under the Law toward God but they ignored the suffering, despairing, dying people around them and, worse yet, they blamed the problems of the people who were suffering on those people and felt smug about their nice clothes, their beautiful Temple, and their ability to buy and sell dozens of animals when we could barely hope to have a milk cow.

But despite his loud, thundering voice, John was a humble man who knew his place in the world. His duty toward God was to tell the people of the coming Messiah: “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fi-re. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fi-re.”

And it was about that time that the stranger showed up.

A muscular man, about thirty years old, s bit on the tall side, he looked a bit like John, except where John was all crazy looking and loud, this man was calm and had a pleasant smile. And His eyes – they pierced you when He looked at you and you knew that He knew everything about you and yet even though He knew everything about you, He cared for you still, He wasn’t repulsed, He was waiting to help you. But that came later…

Today, this man walked down to the water. I was standing there close enough to hear John and Him talk. John must have known Him – I later found out they were cousins. The new man said, “John, please baptize me.”

John’s eyes opened wide and said, ““I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”

That got my attention! Who was this stranger? Who was this man that John claimed was holier than John, for that is the only conceivable thing that John could mean when he said, “I need to be baptized by you.”

The stranger looked at John with those eyes and said, “Nevertheless, we need to do this because righteousness demands it. It is the right thing to do.” And then John relented and baptized Jesus.

It was soon after that that Jesus chose me to follow Him and I left John behind, as well as the fishing boat. Over the next three years I came to know Jesus well, as did my brother Peter and the rest of the twelve. Jesus always did the right thing, never taking shortcuts, never turning aside from the path that He had set for Himself. And it always puzzled me why He had to be baptized...

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People today also wonder about baptism. Why do we get baptized? Is one baptism better than another? What’s the deal here?

There are three basic positions on baptism today. There is the Reformed position which many - but not all - Baptists hold to, there is the simple church-joining position, and there is the third position which is held by Methodists, Lutherans, Episcopalians and thoughtful Catholics.

First, let’s look at the most common Baptist position, which is also held by many Reformed churches:

Their idea is that baptism is a public announcement of becoming a Christian – no more, no less. To a good Reformed Southern Baptist, there is nothing more to baptism than this public announcement. An easy thing to teach and remember. Yet, despite this idea that it is only a public announcement of a faith you already have, most Baptist groups have a tremendously detailed list of requirements – you must be baptized by immersion – some groups maintain you must be baptized in a river or creek – you must be a particular age - in some cases you must wear a white robe - and there is a belief that goes along with this that you can - and probably should be - baptized multiple times, with the “best” baptism being immersion occurring in the Jordan River, just like Jesus’ baptism.

Yet there is a fundamental contradiction here. If baptism is simply a public announcement, why the big deal over the details? Couldn’t we just take out an ad in the local newspaper – or make a posting on Facebook – “John Smith announces that he has become a Christian believer?”

At the other extreme, you have the simple church-joining position. The Amish, some Lutherans, and some Catholics take baptism to be your acceptance of God’s Laws as expressed by the church. Through baptism you join the church – a particular church. Once again, simple and easy to handle, easy to remember.

Yet there is a much richer, deeper purpose to baptism in mainline theology, the theology that includes thoughtful Catholics, Episcopals, Methodists, most Lutherans, and some other groups. Here’s how baptism works.:

When you believe and declare you are following Christ, you are now right with God. God’s wrath is gone from you. When you ask for God’s forgiveness, He truly forgives and forgets your sins. So far, so good. Through praying for forgiveness and declaring your belief in Jesus’ worthiness to God, you are now okay with God.

But there is a fundamental change that needs to be made in our souls if we are to remain in God’s good graces. We need to change our spirit. Will you all say, “Amen”?

John the Baptist told us that he baptized with water to remove our sins, "but there is one who is coming who will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit." Let’s explore that a bit.

People are inherently lazy and uncomfortable with change. You know it and I know it. If I asked you to switch sides of the aisle today, it would be disturbing to almost all of you. I know. It was disturbing to me when a pastor once asked us to move at a church I attended.

Do you think God understands this? Of course God does.

A minute ago, I asked you all to say “Amen” and about half of you did. It is relatively easy, from the security of your pew, to say you believe in Jesus or, for that matter, almost anything. But if I ask you to get up out of your seats, to do something mildly uncomfortable, few of you will do it. How do I know this?

Last week, we had Holy Communion. I asked about ten people to help serve communion, and most of you turned me down, which is fine. Really. But why did you turn me down? Because it involves people watching you. It puts you in a position where you might make a mistake and you remember that day back in grade school when you were asked to read, made a mistake, and everyone in the classroom laughed at you. That fear makes us uncomfortable.

We don’t like being uncomfortable. And God knows this. So God asks us to get over our fears and get wet to prove we are really going to follow His Son when the going gets tough. For God may ask us to do something really uncomfortable someday. Christ had to do some very uncomfortable things, like hang on a cross until His death. Being Christians can lead to some uncomfortable things in our lives.

On Christmas at Monroe Chapel, we had two baptisms. I offered both people the chance to get immersed in the creek, have a pitcher of water poured over their head, or get sprinkled. And both chose sprinkling – a choice which has been around since the earliest days of the church. I can’t understand why someone wouldn’t want to get dunked in a freezing creek on Christmas Day…

Now when we get baptized, with the cleansing of our sins, God reaches into our heart and flips a metaphorical switch. And a minute later, I pray for the Holy Spirit to come upon you and now you have a new spirit, a spirit that wants to do good instead of that natural, rebellious spirit that you were born with, that spirit that wants to do everything your way and not God’s way. Where before you were saved from God’s wrath by your belief, now you have a chance to be saved from your own foolishness because now your spirit – the Holy Spirit – wants to lead you along the right path instead of the foolish, rebellious path. And so you will gradually see that now you can notice your sins and get free from them with the prayerful help of God, where before you were blind and enslaved to your sins. And since the change in your heart only happens once and the Spirit comes into you only once, then you never need to be baptized a second time, for it is not about what you or your pastor knew or saw or felt, but baptism is about what God did for you and your eternal soul, and surely God could not make a mistake!

And its worth noting that wherever the leaders of the early church traveled, they told the story of Christ’s Resurrection, they baptized people with water, and they laid on hands to give the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There is even a couple of stories in Acts of believers earlier receiving baptism without the laying on of hands, and the apostles then lay on hands to these believers to complete the job, for they considered the transfer of the Holy Spirit to be of supreme importance. The writer of Hebrews considered it to be an "elementary teaching" of the faith (Heb 6:1-2). When I’ve laid hands on people, many of them have reported feeling strangely warmed, just as John Wesley reported being "strangely warmed" the night hundreds of years ago when he first understood that Christ’s salvation is truly a gift of God, without price. We have heard of the fire that came to the believers with the Holy Spirit during Pentecost. Is this warming the fire of the Spirit moving into a new person? I can’t say for sure, but a deep change happens when someone receives the water and the Spirit, a deep change that goes beyond the joy that happens when we first believe and choose to follow Jesus.

The earliest known meaning of the Greek word baptizo that we translate as baptize meant what happens when a cucumber becomes a pickle. It is baptized – there is a change of something essential in the cucumber. Later on, the word took on the meaning of dyeing cloth, changing its color, which you could do by putting the cloth in the dye - or by pouring or sprinkling the cloth with the dye. We even find in Mark 7:4 that the Pharisees ceremonially purified cups, pitchers, utensils and – according to some early Greek copies of the Gospel of Mark – even dining couches by baptizing them, which meant that those couches were sprinkled to purify them. And so, baptism creates an essential change inside of us and purifies us.

But why did Jesus, the sinless Son of God, need to be baptized? He was already pure.

There were ultimately two reasons. The first was that it showed humbleness to do something uncomfortable for God’s sake. Jesus said that it was “to fulfill all righteousness”. It was simply the right thing to do, it was how things should be done, it was proper and even  - or perhaps especially - Jesus, Son of God that He was had to do the right thing.

And that leads to the second reason. Following Jesus is a matter of faith and sometimes things happen in our lives which lead us to develop our faith. As we get to know Him, we should develop a deeper, more mature and well-grounded faith. Simply put, having faith in Jesus means that we trust Him even when we don’t understand. Jesus said He needed to be baptized – we trust Him – so we can put this question off until we can ask Him in person: "Jesus, we know you had a good reason. Why did you have to be baptized?"
And, you know, there are three mysteries we don’t understand.

We don’t really understand death and how Jesus will bring us back to life after death. Yet, we trust that His promises and His power are so reliable that we have faith we shall be resurrected.

Secondly, we don’t really understand all the ins and outs of Holy Communion. We don’t understand just how deeply He meant it when He said that the bread is now His body and the wine or grape juice is now His blood. Yet, on a regular basis we eat and drink those elements and have faith that Holy Communion is a way to grow closer to Jesus.

And third, we don’t fully understand all the details of the relationship between Jesus, the living water which He said keeps us from every getting thirsty again, and baptism. We know that in some way water is tied up with our birth, the new birth, the crossing of the Red Sea, the crossing of the Jordan River, life and new life. Perhaps Jesus needed to be baptized to purify the water? We simply don’t understand it fully. But what we do understand is this: If we have faith in Jesus, we are to be baptized, especially since Jesus said that His baptism was necessary to fulfill all righteousness.
And so we all have to make a decision. In some cases, our parents had such strong faith that Christianity was the right choice that we were baptized at an early age, even as infants, and hopefully those parents raised us up to be Christian believers, declaring to the world ourselves that we were believers as we were confirmed as teenagers.

In other cases, we became adults, unbaptized, having to make that decision ourselves. You may still be in that condition, believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and worthy of being followed, but you haven’t yet stepped forward and received the water of baptism yourself. Now is the time to make that decision.

The wise men who traveled from the East also did not know many things about the Babe of Bethlehem. Yet, they had faith, and so they bowed the knee when they found Him and they worshiped Him, not fully understanding, but fully having faith that worshiping this young child was the right thing to do. Will you do the right thing? Will you show your faith and be baptized?