We are now a week and a half into 2009, and despite the challenges that many expect the new year to bring, there is a lot that I am looking forward to in this new year.
One of the things I am looking forward to is the opportunity to offer a pastor’s class to our young people. A pastor’s class is a 6 or 8 or 10 week class that is typically offered to fifth graders, although the age range is more of a guideline than a rule. I wouldn’t be too surprised if we had a teenager or two in the class.
The purpose of the class is to prepare young Disciples to make a decision regarding baptism. At some point during the class, they will be asked if they’d like to confess their faith and be baptized, and become members of the church.
Most will say yes. That’s why they take the class. Saying “no” is an option, however. And I have even seen one young person respond by saying, “not yet.” He wasn’t sure, he still had some questions, and felt that he wasn’t quite ready to make a decision. Quite a thoughtful young man, he was.
I know that this is going to be a good class. I’ve already had several inquiries about it from kids who want to be baptized, who want to learn more about following Jesus, and who want to join the church. And I’ve already started making plans for the class, which I expect to begin in March.
It’s hard to decide what to include in a class like this. It really does seem that there is a lot to talk about. And then there’s the question of how to organize the class. Right now, I’m thinking that we’ll spend 8 weeks together, and I’ve divided the class into eight topics: worship; history and polity of the Disciples; the Bible; baptism and membership; ministry and service; prayer and spiritual disciplines; stewardship; and other faiths.
At some point, I’m sure we’ll read the story of Jesus’ baptism. Hopefully, doing so will help answer some of their questions about baptism. However, to be honest, I’m pretty sure that we won’t answer all their questions. I say this, because, for me at least, reading the story of Jesus’ baptism raises more questions than it answers.
For example: what’s with John the baptizer’s strange clothes and diet? Mark says that he was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. I know that this is supposed to bring to mind Elijah, who wore similar clothing. The thought was that Elijah’s return would precede God’s arrival, the day of judgment, and the establishment of God’s kingdom. But Elijah didn’t eat locusts and wild honey.
So John, then, is—but is not—Elijah. Which perhaps means that God is arriving, but not as God is expected to arrive. The kingdom is now being established—but it will not be as the people had imagined it would be.
Well, maybe—if I’m lucky—those young people won’t ask about that.
According to Mark’s gospel, John proclaimed: “the one who is more powerful than I is coming after me. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Well, the one who is coming is Jesus, right? … Except that Jesus doesn’t baptize with the Holy Spirit; he himself is baptized. He himself has the Spirit descend upon him.
Maybe the kids won’t ask about that, either.
One of the most intriguing questions for me, I know they won’t ask about. They won’t ask, because the question only arises when one takes a look at the meaning of the words in the original Greek language.
In our English translation, it says that all the people who came to John were baptized in the Jordan River, and that Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River as well. However, a more literal translation would say that, while the people were baptized in the Jordan, Jesus was baptized into the Jordan.
Now I know that there doesn’t seem to be much difference between being baptized in the river, and being baptized into the river. If I say that someone goes in the store, and you say that someone goes into the store, well, that means pretty much the same thing. If I say to my son “get in the car—just get into the car,” he’s not going to say to me, “Well, which one do you want me to do? Do you want me to get in the car, or do you want me to get into the car?”
Well, actually he might.
But not because there’s a difference between saying “get in the car” and “get into the car.” They mean pretty much the same thing.
That’s not the case in ancient Greek. Those who are well-trained in understanding ancient Greek tell me that there is, in fact, a big difference between “in” and “into.” But probably those kids won’t ask about that. Not unless I bring it up.
Which I just did … didn’t I?...
OK. In ancient Greek, the word for “in” implies that the people were in the river, but perhaps not all the way in. Perhaps the water was up to their knees or maybe their hips. The Jordan is not a very deep river most of the year. It’s kind of like the L.A. River, but without the concrete. The L.A. River can rage with a tremendous fury after a series of winter storms, but is usually rather tame. It has been said that, of the Jordan River, more ink has been used to describe it than there is water flowing in it.
Most people in ancient times didn’t know how to swim, standing in water that was up to one’s waist was enough. It was daring enough, it was risky enough. And perhaps, for the baptism, they would have water poured on them, splashed upon them, to symbolically wash away their sins. But their feet were still on the sandy river bottom, and they could walk out of the river at any time.
I’m reminded of when I was a child. I remember when I couldn’t yet swim. At the swimming pool, I’d play in the shallow end, and I’d creep along the edge of the pool, holding on to the sides at all times if I ever ventured to where the water was deep. I was in the water, but my hair was dry, I was holding on to the edge, and it wouldn’t be quite right to say that I had gone all the way into the water.
But Jesus does go all the way into the water. His head goes all the way under, his feet come off the bottom; and remember, in a time when people didn’t know how to swim, doing so was to risk losing one’s life. In the water, you’re cut off from oxygen. Plus, the watery chaos is where the demons dwell. Remember when Jesus cast out the demons from an individual, and they fled into a nearby lake? They didn’t belong on land, with humans; so Jesus sent them back to their home.
Going into the water, then, symbolically expresses one’s desire to die, especially since the possibility of actual death is not that far off.
And just what is it that Jesus is dying to? He’s dying to a world in which his identity is defined by people and things that are not God. He’s dying to Caesar, and an empire that considers someone like him to be of little importance, and which gives him worth only in regards to how much wealth or power he can help the empire acquire. In baptism, he has severed all obligations to Caesar.
He’s dying to his friends and family. That sounds harsh, but the people closest to us can define us in ways that limit who we are or who we are to become. Jesus doesn’t hate his family, but he also can’t let them define who he is.
He’s dying to the church, the temple. Jesus has great respect for the temple, but he also knows that those who run the temple have a tendency to place obstacles that keep people separated from God, and that they often prescribe forms of worship that maintain the status quo, rather than allowing people to draw closer to God. In baptism, Jesus severs his obligations to the temple.
From this point forward, the only obligation Jesus has is to God. His life is found only in God, in doing God’s will.
And in making that decision, God’s Spirit descended upon Jesus. And a voice came down with it, a voice that said, “You are my son—my beloved son—and with you I am very pleased.”
And that is what it means to be baptized in the Spirit.
It was in, or around, my fifth grade year that I was baptized. I remember sitting through the pastor’s class, learning about the books of the Bible, and what the different leaders in the church did, and some of what it means to be baptized. And I know that the pastor who baptized me did everything he could to prepare me to understand the significance of the decision I was about to make—the decision to be baptized. I made that decision, because I knew it would make my parents happy, and because I knew it was hoped—if not expected—of me; but mostly, I made that decision because I really did want to follow Jesus. I really wanted to live the life that Jesus wanted me to live.
I realize now that I had almost no idea what I was doing. Severing my obligations to society? Declaring that the way of Jesus is a higher priority for me than even the hopes and expectations of my family? And yet, that is the meaning of the words in our confession, when we declare that Jesus is Lord. It means that nothing is more important than following Jesus.
I know that, every day since my baptism, my understanding of the meaning of baptism has grown—and it’s still incomplete. Every time I reflect on my life as a baptized Christian, I see the areas in my life where I’m still holding on to the sides, not yet willing or ready to let go and plunge all the way into living the way of Jesus. I still cling to far too many of the trappings and expectations of this world. I still worry about my image, and about keeping up with the Joneses, and about impressing people, rather than impressing God.
I realize now, more than ever, that my baptism in the water was just the beginning. My baptism in the Spirit continues. It’s ongoing. The disciples certainly didn’t get it all right away, and yet there was always grace to steer them back to the path, back to the way. And I know that having questions is a part of that path—a part of that journey—as we discern just how it is that God is calling us to live.
So maybe those kids will ask those questions. If so, I think I’ll be alright. And I know that they will be alright as well. Because the questions themselves will show their desire to follow the way of Jesus. The questions themselves will show that they’re ready to be baptized. Anyone can memorize right answers. But those who are ready to follow the way of Jesus—those who are ready for a baptism of water and the spirit—they will undoubtedly ask many questions as well.
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