The curious relationship between being pickled and baptised

I was 23, married and waiting for babies to start arriving when I got serious with God and soon after, baptised. I was dunked in a line-up by a Pentecostal pastor in a hired main-line church in the city, on a hot airconditionless afternoon since the warehouse style Pentecostal building had no baptistry.

Family and friends of the 28 dunkees came along to watch. Some with joy, some with curiosity, some with bamboozlement and some with clouds of annoyance/compulsion/duty to said loved ones simmering over their heads.

I felt no amazing spiritual anything. That’s not what it was about… not what I was looking for… not what God promises. The amazing spiritual something had already taken place and this was my statement to all the departments of gathered family and/or friends, and my then gathering of believers – that I was serious about this. The old was gone, the new had come – not going back. The amazing spiritual something had taken place 2000 years ago on a cross on a hill and also in my heart across my life and specifically one afternoon sitting alone on my bed age 22… plus, the amazing spiritual something has continued every day of my life as He takes me further up and further in.

I’m writing this today as I was asked some questions about baptism and can hardly believe I’ve not written about it before! It’s one of those things in God that the longer you look into it, the deeper it becomes but here’s a few points of note to begin.

• The word ‘baptism’ is not in the Old Testament – WHY would people walk for days in the desert to get dunked in a river by a crazy looking man to do something they’d never heard of before? (Mat 3:5) That’s actually a bit of a trick question, and the one that prompted my digging into the subject – but what I found is that while the word itself isn’t there – it is there in pictures, patterns, types and foreshadows. (More of that later). Baptism is a word that comes from the Greek language. It has crossed over to English as there was no equivalent to relay its depth of meaning.
• Jesus, fully God and fully man – was baptised by John (Mat 3:15)
• John recognised that he needed to receive from Jesus in a way his own baptism type couldn’t achieve (Mat 3:14)
• Jesus baptism was to fulfil “all righteousness” (Mat 3:15)
• Jesus facilitated baptisms (the disciples did the dunking but He was there – John 4:1-2)
• Jesus said whoever believes and is baptised will be saved (Mark 16:16). Baptism is first an event that happens in the heart and is symbolised by an outward action. Getting dunked without the inner change won’t save anybody – if it did – it would be a works righteousness
• Baptism is a proclamation. It sends a message in increasing, overlapping circles – to self, others (believers and nonbelievers), the angelic realm and to God. It says things like “I am not ashamed” and “I will follow”. God the Father, Jesus the Son and then the Holy Spirit were all at His baptism… and the one who Jesus came to crush turned up late. (Mark 1:12-13) The same audiences that witness the proclaimation of Communion also witness baptism – both are outer symbols of an inner work.
• Baptism is important as in Jesus own words and actions around it we see obedience, submission, example, instruction – and all that before His proclamation of BEING the water.

Every denomination has their own traditions and emphasis on virtually everything that is a part of church life. What we hear first tends to be what imprints on our minds and becomes the measure we go by – but in all things – is what is taught consistent with what the Word teaches? – and that’s where the rub comes in. It’s actually up to us to know the Word Himself and to measure by the plumbline that Scripture is and to some extent what I’m writing is coasting on a certain amount of understanding of what baptism is… dying to the old and being raised up in Him. First spiritually, next – symbolically and one day, physically as well.

Jesus said “believe and be baptised”. He didn’t say where, when, who by, what to wear or do a 19 part course before you obey. Churches that develop structure around those things usually have good reasons, but the Scripture is simple. Believe and be baptised. How a church focuses on baptism should be the same as with everything else Jesus said.

One first-century day, 3000 were baptised in one hit. Not long later a eunuch (an eunuch?!?) was baptised by Phillip on the side of the road, spontaneously upon believing. Presumably with just the two of them humanly present. (Acts 2:41 and 8:38)

If there were rules outside of ‘believe and be baptised’ I recon we’d have been told.

My lovely Granpa was baptised nearly 100 years ago at age 18 in the too-small-for-his-6-foot-frame-bathtub in a home where they held their weekly Bible study – everyone packing into or craning their heads around the doorway to witness it.

I’ve seen pictures of soldiers being baptised in the iron buckets of earth moving equipment in the Middle East where there was no stream or pool… and of African baptisms in drought areas where a person-sized hole is dug, the believer lays down under earth level and is sprinkled with water since it is so scarce. (Same but different – in parts of Asia where there is no bread, rice being substituted as the staple food for communion. Its less about getting the specifics ‘right’ and more about the heart – and that is not a cheat sheet. It’s all about intentions)

The Old Testament has a bunch of pictures, shadows and types of baptism… All the ritual/ceremonial washings. The laver in the Tabernacle. The flood of Noah and the Red Sea crossing.

The Old Testament Pictures are exciting as they show us snapshots of what Jesus has done. Things that our New Testament lives and familiarity may miss whether for cultural/contextual lack, or assumption of already knowing.

The Old Testament washings (MIKVEH) that had to take place at certain times – after childbirth, monthly periods, ‘nocturnal emissions’, intercourse, contact with a dead body and also before entering the temple – all are baptism snapshots. They required full immersion in living water (catchment pools fed by flowing springs = living water). You read that right. Living Water. They either were going to love Jesus or kill him when He said He was the source of the Living Water! (John 4 and John 7)

In Jeremiah where God is referred to as the “Hope of Israel” the word ‘hope’ is ‘Mikveh’ – which means something waited for or a collection of water. Baptism was way less of a mystery to the Jews that came out in the desert to John the Baptist than I knew.

The New Testament makes two interesting OT references with the word baptism in regards to Noah and to Moses.

Please don’t skip the Scripture readings here!

1 Peter 3:18-22 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.

The picture of the flood is terribly graphic. The waters were utterly littered with the corpses of all but the eight folk and the animals lifted up on the waters – living and floating safely above.

The picture from the Red Sea crossing is similar. The Hebrews crossed to safety between walls of held-back water, under the cloud that led them and out to a new life following Moses on the other side. And death came and swept those that followed them away.

1 Corinthians 10:1-4 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

As the Hebrews were baptised into Moses – we are baptised into the name of Jesus. Into His death, life, resurrection, authority and fullness.

When our spirit comes alive in Jesus, we cross from death to life. Life eternal – life abundant, free and now.

We are followers of Jesus.

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And regarding pickles? Well lookee here 🙂
(Strongs Bible Dictionary)

Is water baptism important?
Yes. Very. The inner and the outer.

How important?
Jesus said it so that about covers it.

Should it be the focus of a church?
As much as everything else Jesus said. Yes.

Do the circumstances around it matter?
Not really no. Though I think being witnessed matters. It’s part of the purpose – although if I were stranded on a desert island and had never been baptised I recon Jesus’d be OK if He were my only witness since He and I would be the sum total of our community.

Should there be an awakening with it or after it?
Maybe. Maybe not. It’s an outer sign of an inner work. And an outer obedience which is an outworking of that inner work.

At times I’ve doubted whether I really belong to Him. I don’t have a ‘radical’ salvation story. I’ve questioned the truth of whether my life has truly changed. How have I changed? How has the gospel changed my life?

In some ways I don’t know – but I do know I am changING.

I do see markers. Calls to deep. Quickenings.  Equippings. Answers.

And Grace. I see grace unfolding and deepening in richness and colour and presence ever-flowing.

I haven’t been called out of drugs, but I have been called out of death.

I haven’t been called out of radical addiction but I have been called out of self-righteousness and religiosity – being form/tradition/works without power.

My ‘sin continuum slider’ may have been at a less visibly obvious outward mark, but I have broken every commandment in some way at the heart level. Sin is sin and self-rationalisation coats me with Teflon again the receiving of His love. And I want it. I need it. So I ask my Daddy-God to help my unbelief – and He does.

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The mind map below was the result of a study I did about 10 years ago. There is much in it I have not touched on in this post, however, I’ve still learned new things today as I’ve written this. I’d never seen the Jeremiah ‘Hope of Israel’ Mikveh thing till today and my mind is blown! Again! He is GOOD!