Taking the Plunge: Why Baptism isn't Arbitrary

Baptism is weird.  As a follower of Jesus, it is one of those things we do about which I sometimes ask myself, “hold on a second, why are we doing this again?  What does this have to do with my faith?”  It can just seem like such an arbitrary act.

Not only can it seem arbitrary, but it is also unbelievably divisive among Christians.  Infant baptism?  Adult baptism?  Dunking?  Pouring?  Sprinkling?  For ‘salvation’? For church ‘membership’?  In other words, there are both theological and practical interpretations of baptism that slice through the church in a hundred (a thousand?) different ways.

And yet, and yet, there is also an indescribable beauty that seems to enter the world the moment someone gets baptized.  I’ve noticed this for years, watching friends, family and perfect strangers get drenched to the bone in the waters of baptism—almost every time I have to choke back tears. 

Maybe it’s a silly comparison, but it reminds me of watching a cheesy movie, when the filmmaker orchestrates all of the cinematic elements perfectly to jerk out your tears...the music swells, the camera pans on a little orphan running into the arms of his long-lost mother, or two lovers separated by war finally reunite and share a kiss, or the Death Star explodes (that one gets me every time).

Why is that?  What is it that makes baptism a powerful experience?  Well, like those tear-jerking movies, baptism is actually telling a story.  What is so great and mind-boggling about this story is that on one hand it is so personal, so intimate, and on the other, completely cosmic and universal. 

Through the entirety of Christian scriptures, water—whether symbolically or literally—plays a central role.  On the very first page of the Bible, God hovers over the “waters”, preparing to create reality as we know it.  “Creation”, in other words, is “baptized” as God separates out the water from the dry land.  Later on, the people of Israel are “baptized” as they escape from Egypt through a separated Red Sea, and then again they cross through the Jordan River—both incredibly significant moments in Hebrew history which are told and retold to remember that God brings freedom, new life, and hope.

It is in this context that baptism as we know it began.  As a Jewish rite of purification, it was used by some—like the famous John the Baptist—to act out a return to God, as if to say, “we used to be a part of your great story, God, but haven’t really been acting that way lately…so we’re re-committing ourselves.”  Jesus himself even got baptized in this way.

But then, as with pretty much everything else, Jesus added new meaning.  In Luke 12:50, he refers to his impending crucifixion and death as a “baptism.”  Why?  He is re-centering the whole story of Israel through himself.  He is saying that he will die, but on the other side of his death is freedom, new life, and hope (just like those other significant events in Israel’s history). 

Baptism is what we are given, as followers of Jesus, as a way of saying “YES!” to the life of Jesus.   It’s like the ring on the finger in marriage—the culmination (and yet, at same time, the beginning) of a love story.  As the apostle Paul says, ^“We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)

So baptism isn’t merely a symbol of what has already taken place, it is also a very real entrance into a new community, a new life.

Bible scholar N.T. Wright puts it this way:

The point is that the story which baptism tells is God’s own story, from creation and covenant to new covenant and new creation, with Jesus in the middle of it and the Spirit brooding over it.  In baptism, you are brought into that story, to be an actor in the play which God is writing and producing.  And once you’re onstage, you’re a part of the action.  You can get the lines wrong.  You can do your best to spoil the play.  But the story is moving forward, and it would be far better to understand where it’s going and how to learn your lines and join in the drama.  Through the water to become part of God’s purpose for the world. (Simply Christian p.215)

As it turns out, baptism may still be weird (and stir up controversy), but it isn’t arbitrary.  It is the act of stepping into and participating in God’s story here and now.

(Most of the ideas on this post were taking from the book Simply Christian, quoted above.  Check it out at amazon.com)