Baptism

“Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”  Mark 10:38

Baptism – Jesus puts this question to all of us.  Most of us don’t have any idea what he is really asking, so we respond just like the disciples.  “Oh, yes, Lord.  I am able.”  Our answers are disappointing because they demonstrate the shallowness of our spirituality.  Do you know what Jesus is talking about?   I used to think that I did.  One day God had to lead me into the wilderness in order for me to understand.  Let’s look a little deeper and see what’s really going on here.

Baptism is a Greek word that was moved intact into English.  The Greek is baptizo.  It was never translated.  It means, “to be submersed”.  It is usually found in religious contexts.  However, it can also mean, “to be overwhelmed, to be saturated”.  Baptism plays a very important role in the New Testament.  You might give some thought to relationship between baptism and death (see Romans).  But of all the baptisms in the Bible, none is more significant than the baptism of Jesus by John in the river Jordan.  What it symbolizes is so important that it sets the stage for all of the rest of Jesus’ ministry. 

Many years ago, Ulrich Mauser wrote a tiny little book called “Christ in the Wilderness”.  It has been out of print for years.  In that work, Mauser demonstrates that the baptism of Jesus is symbolic of two critical elements in God’s message to Man.  The first is that Jesus affirms his identity as the true Israel.  Just as Israel became a people of God through the baptism of crossing the Red Sea, Jesus takes on the role of the true Son by being baptized before his ministry begins.  Baptism is the event that moves Jesus from his preparation stage into the calling of God.

But baptism symbolizes something else.  That other thing is found here in this verse.  The children of Israel moved through the sea to emerge in the wilderness, a place where they were to learn complete and utter dependence of God, to embrace His rule and authority and to become a nation of priests.  They failed.  Their failure meant that the wilderness became a place of judgment and wrath.  When Jesus accepts baptism, he announces that he is ready to accept God’s judgment, a judgment that culminates in bearing the sin of the world on the cross.  To be baptized is to accept judgment.  That’s why Paul ties baptism to death. Baptism for the true Israel is the decision to die under the judgment of God. 

There is resurrection, but it is not my doing.  Resurrection is God’s doing.  My work is to die.  My choice is to put my life under God’s judgment, to trust Him completely whether or not I will exist.  That’s exactly what Jesus did.  He died for me.  And it started right at the baptism.

So, Jesus asks us, “Are you ready to be baptized with my baptism?”  I took on God’s judgment for you.  Will you now die for me?

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