A New Baptism

After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. (John 3:22)

There are some places where phrases or words just seem to jump out at me from the Bible. This happens to be one of those. When I read that Jesus intentionally spent time with His disciples while at the same time drawing others close to them to be baptized, it just does something inside of me. It makes me want to have that same experience myself. I want to benefit from Jesus spending time with me, mentoring me, showing me through expression and body language, tone of voice and gestures all sorts of things about Himself that simply cannot be conveyed through words.

It is said that 90% of communication is non-verbal. I don't know how that can be accurately measured or how true that number is, but it is certainly true that words fall far short of conveying the real essence of what a person is really like. To get to know someone reliably you have to be exposed to them on a very personal level, to watch how they act around different kinds of people and in various circumstances. This is the way in which a person's real character and personality become known much more accurately than by simply listening to them say words to you. Words can certainly be an important part of the mix and can strongly reinforce or explain many things that might be confusing about them. But to have a deep and significant bond with someone nothing can replace just spending time with them personally.

I also see something in this verse that has been a point of difference between what I see in the Bible and the traditions of men as implemented in nearly every Christian church. The Bible explains elsewhere that Jesus in fact, did not actually do the baptizing on these occasions but his disciples did that. Jesus was the central attraction that drew people who wanted to be baptized just as John the Baptist was in his sphere.

Today, baptism has become an issue entangled in the power struggles over supposed authority and even control over people's lives. Baptism has devolved into simply an initiation of sorts, a means of determining whether one can join a certain denomination as a member instead of it being an outward symbol of a real new-birth experience. All too often baptism in reality has little to do with an attraction to Jesus on a very personal level. I agree that we often talk about new birth and give lip service to the meaning of baptism and claim that baptism has great significance. But all too often it mostly ends up much more about talk than reality. We try to say all the right words while ignoring the much more important realities that are going on at the heart level.

Another hot-button issue that is even more ignored because it is so entrenched in long-standing tradition is the question of who is supposed to administer this act of baptism. I have been through the Bible numerous times in my life and I have yet to see clear restrictions about who is supposedly allowed to baptize or who is forbidden to do this. I just don't see any place in Scripture where someone was reprimanded for baptizing without being duly authorized or licensed. In fact, what seems to be much more clear from a plain reading of the Bible is the fact that Jesus' commission to disciple and baptize others throughout the whole world was given to everyone He was talking to at the time which included women, men and whoever else happened to be in the group listening to Him.

This has been a source of quiet concern for me over many years. Any time it is raised in a discussion it is immediately confronted with long-standing rules, traditions and ideas completely rooted in church policies and opinions but with no meaningful Scriptural support. This leaves me to believe that nearly all of the heavy restrictions that churches today impose on who and who cannot baptize others are completely artificial and have much more to do with control and political power over membership privileges and authority than it has anything to do with the real kingdom of God. People who are in positions of power over others seem to feel so threatened by any discussion of this issue that they will do nearly anything to shut down thoughtful discussion of this topic as quickly as possible.

Over the past few years I have tried to learn to be more open to what the Word of God has to say and its true meaning while being less and less influenced by the opinions and traditions of religion. And while I don't feel God is calling me to rebel against the wrong-headed ideas of religious people and try to start up some new movement, I do believe that the time may soon come when the false structures and worldly-oriented reasons for how things are done in traditional religions are going to collapse in the advancing light of God's true glory. I believe that either churches are going to disintegrate and have to be re-formed by the hand of God along His lines of thinking and His ways or they are going to be humanly propped up by the use of force and fear to justify their counterfeit ways of doing things.

Some call this the great shaking time. Some call it the little time of trouble. Whatever you want to call it, I have reason to believe that the true body of Christ is going to look and act so different and think so radically different than anything seen today that it will both be unavoidably effective in exploding the gospel all over the planet and it will cause a violent reaction from those who cling to tradition that will polarize the whole world solidly into only two modes of belief.

When those days come I believe that it will be seen that anyone who has a passionate connection with God at the heart level will be inherently qualified to baptize anyone else who desires to enter into that relationship as well. There will no longer be any arguments about licenses, ordination or other such silly squabbles as seen today, at least among the true followers of God. God is going to use anyone and everyone possible without prejudice to export the truth about His love and grace and mercy and truth to the whole world with a speed and efficiency that has not been seen since the days just after Pentacost.

When we really begin to spend quality time with Jesus and absorb the power of His example and presence with us as the disciples did in this verse, then will be seen the results of that exposure in baptisms that will be performed by anyone who is connected with Jesus irregardless of race, color, sex or maybe even age. Baptism will no longer just be an initiation into formal membership in some denomination; it will be a powerful external experience of an even more powerful, life-changing inner transformation of each person's view of reality and a new life hidden in Christ.