There are many terms used in society that come from biblical situations that the general public might be surprised to learn.
A Good Samaritan is a very popular term. The Prodigal Son is another. But terms such as – going the extra mile or to take the shirt off one’s back are also terms commonly used that come from the teachings of Jesus. Another one that is used often and it comes from today’s Gospel reading is to undergo a “baptism of fire”. It’s used when someone is thrown into the deep end and undergoes a sharp learning curve. Jesus said, “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division!
John the Baptist prophesied this when he was preparing the people for Jesus’ arrival: “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
We don’t often see baptism in such harsh ways. We often consider baptism as a sweet event where an innocent child is brought to the font to be made a child of God. But what is really happening? Our Baptism rite suggests there is much more happening – something much deeper. We are familiar with the first question asked of parents and Godparents on behalf of the child being baptized: Do you renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways. Have you stopped to consider that?
Some find that question quite confronting – naming the devil when baptizing a baby. The devil being the enemy of God and his children who has come to kill, steal and destroy – what’s he doing here as we baptize this sweet innocent child. We are asking for this child to renounce the devil revealing that the devil has had influence in this child’s life.
Another part of the Baptism rite which is seldom used because of the same concern that it has brought to parents is when the Pastor says over the child: “Until Christ claims us in baptism through is Holy Spirit we are under the power of the devil. Therefore I say – depart from this child you unclean spirit and make way for the Holy Spirit in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Effectively, it is an exorcism of a baby. Does that confuse you about Baptism? Is that what you thought was happening in Baptism.
Many see it just as a sweet thing you do when a child is born that doesn’t really mean that much. Yes it makes them a child of God but do we realise the spiritual dimensions that Baptism has? St Paul certainly did when he said that our battle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual powers of darkness in the heavenly realm If you look at Jesus’ own Baptism we begin to see what the effects of Baptism are: In Matthew, Mark and Luke, as soon as Jesus is Baptised the Holy Spirit sends Jesus into the wilderness where he is tempted, unsuccessfully, by the devil. This helps us to understand what Jesus says next when he says – Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division! But what division? I thought Jesus was the “prince of peace” and has come to bring a peace the world cannot give. Yes he has come to bring peace to those who look to him for the assurance of Salvation. But in bringing us peace he brings division between us and the enemies of God. He casts out anything that may disrupt or interfere with his peace. And that means creating a division between God’s perfect peace and everything that might disrupt it.
So what we see really happening in Baptism is that Jesus is taking us out of all things that are against God and placing us into his loving care. It’s what Jesus said last week when he said – have no fear little flock for it is the Father’s pleasure to give you the Kingdom. And as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer that kingdom has begun for us in our Baptism as Paul says in Romans 6 – all who have been baptised have been baptised into Christ’s death and raised with him. John’s Gospel doesn’t have the temptation of Jesus after his baptism but John describes the work of Baptism when he says – The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him – and here’s the Baptism promise – to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
So, our baptism, divides the world’s darkness from God’s light and we are called, in our Baptism, to let God’s light shine in our lives. We see that division in our Hebrews reading that reflects on the Egyptians and Israelites. There before Israel was an impenetrable wall as they fled from Egypt – the Red Sea. The Israelites panicked and abused Moses: “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? (note the wilderness) Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness. But then God intervenes and makes a path for Israel to walk through – but that very same path becomes destruction the Egyptians – the enemies of God through water.
And that’s what our Baptism does for us. It divides – and makes a safe path for us to journey through but destroys the enemy chasing after us. And not only do we have the example of faith in Moses but also Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets. And we know some of them faced insurmountable obstacles – even death. But even in death the path was opened for them to escape this world and enter the next. And so the writer of Hebrews says – we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses. In particular – Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.
Maybe you’ve never seen Baptism this in depth. But it is the true line in the sand that divides us from Satan and all his works and all his ways that we renounce. Baptism is more than just something we do to recognise the birth of a child. It is a rescuing of that child by taking that child away from everything that is against God and placing that child firmly and safely into God’s Kingdom. But we know that those forces against God don’t give up but Jesus has promised us that nothing can snatch us out of his hands.
Jesus Baptism began a journey of wilderness, of suffering of betrayal and ultimately his death. But he rose from that death to eternal life and promises all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. 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. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. So let us go in the peace of the Lord and the assurance of our Baptism.
