Perhaps no act of the Christian faith inolves the whole person more than the sacrament of baptism. In baptism one surrenders oneself to being placed under the physical water while also surrendering to work of God through Christ by the Holy Spirit.
Our text for this coming Sunday, Mark 1:2-11, marks the historical beginning of the practice of baptism in connection with the Christian faith. Baptism begins with the pre-Christian baptism of John, in which Jesus Himself participates as a mark of identity with the rest of humanity. While Jesus Himself has no need of John’s baptism “of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (verse 4), He enters the water to place Himself fully with those He has come to redeem.
As we look at this point in sacred history where baptism began we can see displayed four points of significance for our continued practice and experience of baptism.
1) Baptism with its resonances of washing expresses just what it did for John, God’s cleansing of our sins through gracious forgiveneness.
2) Just as Christ identified with us in the act of baptism, we identify with Him by being baptized. Which means that His death and resurrection, His dying and rising, apply to us. In baptism we die to an old life and rise to a new life. We also are assured the hope that physical death will be followed by physical resurrection when Christ comes again.
3) Baptism was for Jesus the moment for public declaration by God the Father that “You are my beloved Son.” Likewise for us in baptism we enter into the family of the children of God, the Church.
4) Baptism was Jesus’ preparation for ministry. Almost immediately after His baptism (only His temptation intervenes) Jesus began His mission to preach the good news of the coming of God’s kingdom (see Mark 1:14-15). Our baptism places us in solidarity with Jesus’ mission, marking us as people who will do what He does, bringing good news to the lost and needy.
All of the above is why the experience of baptism has been at the heart of Christian life and practice from the beginning. It all starts here in what we read about John and Jesus.