Baptsim -- A Dunking Good Time

As a Christ-follower and an educator, I guess it was natural that I would be called upon to perform certain ceremonies for former students. In fact, I have officiated a half-dozen weddings -- and sadly, about the same number of funerals. I thoroughly enjoyed the weddings (nothing like a front seat view of the expressions of the bride and groom!). The funerals not so much, but I was still glad that I was able to be a voice of comfort and eternal perspective to the families and friends. Funerals are particularly hard. My wife has reminded me many times that no one remembers what you say at a wedding, but they always remember what you say at a funeral!

This last Sunday, though, was my first opportunity to "officiate" a baptism (I doubt that is the right word, but you get the drift). Our church held an outdoor baptism on a local river. It was an incredibly cool setting for a baptism. The weather was threatening rain in the distance, the air was warm and humid, and the river was muddy. A group of very athletic, muscle-bound guys played Frisbee on the beach next to us while another group sat in the water on lawn chairs drinking beer. Another guy floated in the water behind us with his dog (who was wearing a flotation device). It was perfect.

Our church has been growing and we are serious about engaging the culture around us with the truth of the gospel. God has done some incredible things, and we had around 50 people getting baptized at this event. Even though we baptized a lot of people and there was a crowd of several hundred standing on the shore watching, each baptism was incredibly personal...at least from my perspective.

I didn't have to say much -- not like a funeral or wedding. An introduction, a quick question (Do you have faith in Jesus as the leader of your life and forgiver of your sins?), and a pronouncement (I baptize you then in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). The whole thing was easy and joyful...

But it was still stirring, and a bit strange. Have you ever dunked someone in a pool and held them under water? I have -- my brother and I would get into a dunking fight every time we got in the water together. Every time I tried to get his head under water (or visa versa), he has fought me, punched, kicked, and exploded out of the water like a wild animal fighting for life. Even if I never got my brother's head under the water, there was a fight.

It struck me how the whole baptism thing is different. These people walked joyfully out and willingly allowed me to shove their heads under water. I stood there above them, watching them under water, their hair waving with the current, as they waited with anticipation for the moment when I would pull them back up.

What an incredible picture of what it means to follow Christ. Everyone knows Jesus died for sinners, but I don't know how many have really thought about what that means. Jesus was, in a sense, baptized into our sin, submerged in our moral and spiritual corruption so he could take our place in punishment. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "He who did not know sin became sin for us." He willingly became our sin-bearer, our substitute on the cross in order to suffer the full, undiluted wrath of the Father in our place -- a punishment we deserved and could not avoid. He was baptized under God's wrath...and in that mirky water of judgment, He willingly died to set us free. When he rose from the grave on the third day, he proved that the penalty was paid, the payment was complete and there was no judgment left for those who would follow him.

As I pulled each person out of the water on Sunday and saw them wipe their eyes, take deep breaths, and smile in joy, I saw in them a picture of Jesus. They were entering into his death and resurrection in a public, symbolic way to announce to me and the guys playing Frisbee and the guys drinking beer in their lawn chairs and the guy with the flotation-protected dog (and to the entire world of unseen beings) that they were followers of Jesus, that they believed and were entering into the work Jesus had done for them. They were receiving, not giving. They were resting, not working. In the end, their baptisms weren't even about them -- they were about the One who had gone before them in order to win for them what they could not win for themselves.

It was very cool.