What is Baptism?
Posted on Jan 08, 2017 by David Whetter
Do you remember anything about your baptism? If you’re like me, you were baptized as an infant, which means you have no memory of your baptism.
Now, I ask this question because I find it very interesting that most Christians have no memory of their baptism, yet, we confess that baptism is the pivotal event in the life of a Christian. And the other interesting thing here is that not only do we have no memory of this pivotal event, but most of us have no clear idea of what it means or why it’s important. And for most of us we have no idea as to how such an event ought to shape our daily lives. For a life event that is supposed to be so critical and important in our lives, it ought to have meaning and it ought to somehow affect how we live. When was the last time you thought about your baptism? In fact, I’d be willing to go so far as to say that most of us almost never think about baptism, or think about baptism at all? My guess is that most of us have thought often about our finances, or about violence in the world, or maybe the presidency in these past three months and how these events will shape our lives this year and, yet, not once have we thought about how the fact that we are baptized will shape our lives this year.
So, let’s stop here and ask, what is baptism and why do we proclaim it to be such an important part of our lives?
Well, first and foremost, I will lift up a very Lutheran view and that it that baptism is God’s activity. That is, there is nothing we humans do in the act of baptism except participate. This is why we Lutherans, and other faith traditions such as the Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Orthodox Christians all baptize infants whereas Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians baptize adults. While most all of the Christian traditions confess that baptism is a gift from God, those of us that practice infant baptism place the dominant emphasis on God’s unconditional promise to accept us as we are, adopt us into God’s family, and forgive us all of our sin. Infant baptism reminds us that all we can really do is receive God’s love with gratitude and try to live as the persons we’ve been called. All we can do is receive God’s grace. Now those that practice believer’s baptism, or adult baptism, tend to focus more on our response to God’s grace. God’s grace, in this case, is like a blank check that still needs us to sign and cash it, hence their emphasis on “believer Baptism,”
Secondly, baptism is primarily about identity. Did you notice in the Gospel text today about Jesus’ baptism that a voice from heaven announced to everyone present, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased”? In our baptism, God gives us a new identity. In baptism, God proclaims us to be God’s beloved children. In this claiming of us as His children, God says to us, and to the world, that He will go to any length to share that love, even to the point of dying on the cross. In an individualistic world that challenges us daily to think about and focus on “number one,” God has given us a gift in baptism that says to us if we want to know who we are, first we need to know whose we are? And today, we are reminded that in baptism, God says, “you are mine and in you I am well pleased.” We are God’s beloved children and baptism reminds us that we have infinite value and worth, that God wants only good things for us, that God will always seek to draw us back into relationship with God and each other and forgive us when we stray, and that God will be with us all the days of our lives.
Which brings me to my final comment about baptism and that has to do with forgiveness. For millennia, the church has been plagued with the question of what does baptism have to do with the “forgiveness of sin,” particularly in relation to Jesus’ baptism. John’s baptism is routinely described as one of “repentance for the forgiveness of sin.” But if Jesus is sinless which is a primary confession of the church, why would he need to be baptized? Well, for centuries the church has offered all kinds of responses to this this question, but I would like to suggest that Jesus himself answered this question in our text today. According to Matthew, when John tried to prevent Jesus’ baptism, Jesus responded by saying, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” In today’s terminology, we might have heard Jesus say, “We must do this act because God said so.” Righteousness is something only God can do and so Jesus was saying God desires to do this for us, that is, publically claim us and in doing so, God announces to the world, we are God’s, as we are, sinner, yet, forgiven. In other words, because God loves us, God will always forgive us.
Ultimately, brothers and sisters, baptism is about identity. It is about God’s gift and promise to us that in baptism, God publically announces to the world that we belong to Him and that our relationship with Him has been restored through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. You see, because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God has has made us part of God’s family? We aren’t baptized to become part of God’s family, for that would mean baptism was a requirement and therefore an act we must do. In essence, it would be our “ticket to heaven.” No, we participate in this act of baptism because God desires for the world, and us, to know that we belong to Him and that as God’s children we have already been forgiven and that we are a part of God’s family.
The act of baptism announces to us that we have been given a new life. Our old sinful ways have been drowned in the waters of baptism Martin Luther said, and we have been made new in God’s family. Now, we do profess that once baptized, we never need to be baptized again. However, Luther did teach that we ought to remind ourselves daily that we are baptized, by making the sing of the cross on our forehead and say the words “God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit watch over me. Amen.” And following this and the reciting of the Lord’s Prayer, Luther said, “then go to your work joyfully.”
And this brings me to how baptism ought to shape our daily lives. You see, in baptism, God not only claims us but promises to be with us always. In a world that tries to rule us with creating fear in us, Luther understood and taught that because we are baptized we need not fear anything in this world. As such, we ought to go forth knowing we can change the world, we can overcome the evil in this world as we live knowing we are filled with God’s spirit.
There is much to fear in this world; racism, terrorism, community violence, disease… In our own faith community here at Salem, we enter the year filled with anxiety and fear over the debt we carry, the facilities we need to improve, the ministries we need to support and so much more, yet, because we are God’s, in baptism we are called to daily repent to God’s ways that with God, we can overcome all.
So, I pray that beginning today, you think about your baptism daily. I pray that daily, you begin each day by making the sign of the cross on your forehead and say the words, “God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit watch over me. Amen.” And then go about your day filled with the knowledge that you belong to God and as a child of God’s, you need fear nothing in this world. Amen.