· Genesis 1:1-5
· Psalm 29 (3)
· Acts 19:1-7
· Mark 1:4-11
You know, I would really like to know what it was exactly that John said. John was a Levite, meaning he was a priest, and he was also a prophet. Whatever he was saying would have been in Hebrew and rooted in the Hebrew scripture, but what has survived for us to read was written thirty years later, in Greek, by someone who wasn't there when John was preaching, and who might not even have been particularly versed in the Hebrew scriptures.
When we read the Old Testament, however, there are two different concepts that are brought together in Mark's rendition of John the Baptist. On the one hand, there is the ritual washing by immersion, from which the ritual of baptism is descended. This washing marks one's becoming clean after having been impure, for example after having contact with a corpse, or being cured of a leprous disease, or having an unclean discharge. On the other hand, there is rebellion against God. This is completely different from uncleanness. Uncleanness happens inevitably from time to time, and is removed by time, healing and washing. Rebellion against God is deliberate and cannot be taken away by washing. The remedy for it is repentance and sacrifice, and sacrifice means having to give up to the Lord some of the necessities of life, in the form of food.
So what was John preaching? Apparently, he was telling people that now they could get reconciled with God just by immersion, which is free, rather than by sacrifice, which is costly. Even though the law provided a sort of sliding scale of sacrifice, so that everyone sacrificed according to their means, we often see in the Old Testament that priests would become corrupt and make demands of the people which might exclude the poor from reconciliation with God. By preaching this reconciliation through immersion instead, John is extending reconciliation to all, regardless of means.
In Mark's version, John does not know Jesus before he immerses him, which makes sense. This is happening in Jerusalem, and Jesus is from Nazareth in Galilee. Jesus would have been down to Jerusalem every year, but so would everyone else, so John would have no reason to know him. In the Matthew and John, which are written later, John recognises Jesus before immersing him, and in Matthew he argues with him, saying "I need to be baptised by you, and do you come to me?"
This has given rise to an enduring controversy between those who believe that Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, and those who believe he was chosen by God at the time of his encounter with John. Personally, I'm with Mark, but of course as Lutherans, you're to read the scripture and make up your own mind. But if you believe that Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit and was without sin, it begs the question that shows up in Matthew: why is Jesus being baptised by John? And we get told "well, it's just a formality, to do everything as per the law."
That doesn't make much sense, though, because first of all, it isn't the law. That's not what the law had ordained, which is exactly what made John the Baptist interesting. And second, if it's just a formality, then we're actually learning that Jesus is insincere. "Right, I'm gonna go through this thing of repentance and reconciliation, but it's all just for show because I don't actually sin." Is that the thinking of the Son of God? Not even close. That's the thinking of a Pharisee. And in fact in both Matthew and Luke, John rants prophesies against the Pharisees and Sadducees, saying to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance... Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruits is cut down and thrown into the fire." And so on. This is both Matthew 3:7-10 and Luke 3:7-9, but not in Mark. There are more than 200 verses like these, which are nearly identical in Matthew and Luke and don't appear in Mark, and are theorised to come from another early gospel known as the Q document. Again, it's difficult to know what's original and what's apocryphal in the gospels, but this rant against the Pharisees and Sadducees sounds true, because it makes sense theologically.
So why did Jesus come to be immersed by John? Because he genuinely repented his sins. Jesus did not believe he was without sin. In fact he wasn't without sin, by our modern concept of "sin" or by the Law. We see in the gospel Jesus being angry, eating and drinking with prostitutes and tax collectors, working on the Sabbath, and other sins that concern petty people like ourselves and the Pharisees. And no doubt he repented all these things, though he did it again. But if you read the Old Testament, it becomes apparent that God is not very concerned with these things. The one thing God really holds against us is forsaking him to worship other gods. I think it is best stated in 1 Samuel 12:20-25:
Samuel said to the people, "Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil, yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart; and do not turn aside after useless things that cannot profit or save, for they are useless. For the LORD will not cast away his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the LORD to make you a people for himself. Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you; and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. Only fear the LORD, and serve him faithfully with all your heart; for consider what great things he has done for you. But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king."
God is not fussy about the details of how we've done wrong, as long as we serve him with all our heart, not turning aside after useless things that cannot profit or save. In the days of the prophets these "useless things" were carved idols, the Baals and the Astartes. Nowadays we have the things I call "loot": money, Santa, status, over-abundance.
Had Jesus turned away from the Lord and worshipped other gods? I think that's possible. Jesus was remarkably Buddhist, for a Jew, and he also had some rather unusual ties with Roman soldiers, whose god was Mithras; and there are many similarities between Mithraism and the mythology of Christ that we have today. So in my personal opinion, it's quite possible that Jesus had departed from the faith, and that he repented and returned to the Lord. And when he repented and was immersed by John, as he came up from the water, the Spirit of God came down from the heavens in the form of a dove, and announced that Jesus was selected as God's son, because his repentance pleased the Lord. In this way I think the story of Jesus' baptism makes much more sense than with the virgin birth.
Why did the Lord choose Jesus? The Lord always chooses people because of their obedience. If he picked Jesus at the time Jesus repented, I suspect it was because Jesus was the most sincere in his repentance and commitment to obeying the will of the Lord, fearing him and serving him faithfully with all his heart. And so God chose him to be the final sacrifice of atonement, the new Covenant between God and his people.
And this is why also we are to have the faith of Jesus, not in Jesus. If we have the faith that lets us turn from the useless thing and serve the Lord faithfully with all our heart, we are [SQG] "baptised", immersed in the Spirit of God and his chosen son Jesus Christ, so that the Spirit moves us henceforward in obedience to the will of God. We are all baptised with water by a human. Our baptism in the Holy Spirit comes from God, when we have the faith of Jesus.
Praise be to God, the Maker, the Shaper, the Forgiver, the Subduer.
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