Watergrave
Do any of you remember your baptism? I remember mine. You see, I can remember
mine because I was 17 at the time. I was baptized and brought into membership in a
Baptist church. Now, it wasn’t because I was a Baptist that I was older when I had
this experience of baptism and I’m not here to debate the theology of this passage of
scripture. For those of you who might not know what I mean, Baptists believe in
total immersion as the only acceptable method of baptism. Verse 16, where it says
Jesus came “up from” or “up out of” the water is interpreted by Baptists to mean
Jesus was baptized by total immersion, which may be how it happened. Other
interpretations say that maybe Jesus was standing waist deep in the water, was
sprinkled, and then walked up to shore “out of” or “from” the water. We, as
Presbyterians, believe the latter interpretation.
No, I was older when I was baptized because I never went to church until I was 15.
Now, you might think that, being older, I would understand or, at least, have a clue
as to what my baptism meant. Wrong! I wanted to be a member of this church and
to do that I had to be baptized. And, as a Baptist, I had to be baptized by immersion.
Now, Wendy will verify this, I won’t put my head under water in the pool, so it’s
hard to believe that I would allow myself to be “dunked”. Well, I wasn’t thrilled
about it, but I did it.
I remember it well. The baptistery was located behind a wall in back of the pulpit.
There were steps down into it from both sides, I came from the left side, along with
the other men. The women came from the other side. The water was warm and
came up to right here on me. I remember turning to my left to turn back toward the
steps I had just come down, seeing the blurred faces of the congregation as I turned
(no glasses). I stood there in my white robe, as the Pastor said his words, dreading
what was coming next. When the Pastor finished, he put his right hand on my back
(the signal from our practice sessions to lean back toward the water). The moment I
had been dreading was about to happen. My head was about to go under water.
If you swim, you know the sound when your head goes under the surface of the
water. I remember that sound so well. I can still hear it and feel it. He guided my
body backwards, then I was completely underwater. I was in a watergrave.
After being under for like, 5-6 minutes (actually, only a few seconds) I was brought
back up out of the water to an upright position. Water was in my eyes, I couldn’t
see, water was dripping off my (much longer) hair. I had done it! Now if I could
only tell you just what it meant. I didn’t really have a clue. I remember everything
about my baptism except the most important thing. What it meant. The significance
of baptism. Clueless.
It is only in the past few years that I have come to realize the significance of that
event on that day, the magnitude of the statement I was making to the world when I
was “buried alive” in my watergrave.
When a person is baptized, that person is making a statement to the world, that they
are a changed person. Baptism is an outward and visible sign of an inward and
spiritual grace. In the song you just heard (The Baptism of Jesse Taylor by the
Gaither Vocal Band), Jesse was an alcoholic, a cheater, and a gambler, spending his
money on liquor, women, and gambling without regard for the welfare of his family.
But when he was baptized, he changed. He got back on the right track. He gained
respect from his wife, he got his family back. The baptism changed Jesse, turned
him around, because when he went under, he went under for the Lord.
You all know that a grave is where a person is buried. That’s kind of like what
baptism symbolizes. When a person is baptized, the person they were is dead,
buried in a grave of water. They have gone to their “watergrave”. And the person
that comes out of that watergrave is like a new person. All of that filth, all of that
dirt has been washed away and they have a new beginning. They have repented of
their sins. The order for The Sacrament of Baptism in our Book of Common
Worship acknowledges this.
(Read questions from pg. 407 in BOCW.) That’s what “repent” means, to turn
around. When you undergo a baptism of repentance, you are turning from your old,
sinful ways and turning toward Christ and His ways. Baptism signifies this more as
a promise than as an actually fulfilled fact. The direction is indicated rather than the
arrival.
John was baptizing people in the Jordan when Jesus came to him to be baptized.
And John, argues against this, saying, “Hold on here, Cuz, I’m the one who should
be baptized by you.” This is similar to what his mother said when Christ’s mother
came to her, “But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to
me?” Or when Peter tried to prevent Jesus from washing his feet in John 13:8.
We ask the same question. Why did Jesus need to be baptized? Jesus? Baptized?
Come on! Well, verse 15 provides the answer, “....to fulfill all righteousness.”
Great! But just what does that mean?
There was a reason for everything that Jesus did, He leads by example. And, as
John and Peter (and we) learn, Jesus, by His example, shows His readiness to
comply with God’s righteous precepts. “For it is proper...” it says, “For it is
proper....” to justify God and approve His wisdom. John was entirely satisfied, the
last line of verse 15 says, “.....Then he consented.” And if the answer Jesus gives is
good enough for John, and if we accept the leading of Jesus by His examples, it
surely should be good enough for us, as well. Jesus had no need to repent of His
sins by water baptism. He was sinless! He had nothing to repent of!
Then, after Jesus’ baptism by water: Read verses 16-17.
“...suddenly the heavens were opened to him...” Imagine a closed, locked door. A
door that you knew led to someplace wonderful. But you can’t reach the doorknob,
so you get a chair or maybe even a ladder. And you reach and you stretch. Then,
when you finally reach the knob, you try to turn it, only to find it locked.....and you
have no key. “...suddenly the heavens were opened to him....” tells us that, through
His baptism, Jesus has flung open this closed, locked door that we can barely reach
the knob on and have no key to the lock. Christ has opened the kingdom of heaven
to all believers.
“....he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.” Jesus
was baptized with water, and now he was being baptized with the Holy Spirit. That
is what happens when you are baptized with the water. The baptism of the Holy
Spirit follows. (Read Acts 19:3-6) You see, John’s baptism by water is the sign of a
change, the baptism by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God descending on us, as it did
upon Jesus, is what causes the change.
The Holy Spirit manifested itself in the form of a dove, but God was a voice. A
voice from heaven that said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well
pleased.” Jesus was not just God’s son, but His beloved son. God was pleased with
Jesus’ consent to the covenant of redemption and Jesus’ delight in doing the will of
God. And God is just as pleased with us when we follow Jesus’ example and delight
in doing God’s will. We become His beloved children, as well.
God loves when we follow His way. He is “well pleased” with us when we follow
the path that Jesus walked. As a result, we are blessed with a full measure of the
same grace and share in the same love that Jesus received.
I want to make it as clear as possible to you that, when we are baptized with water,
we are also baptized with the Holy Spirit. Regardless of whether we understand it,
acknowledge it, or want to happen at all, it still happens. It may take some longer to
allow this baptism of the Holy Spirit to work in their lives. We don’t know how long
it was between Jesse’s baptism and the Nancy Taylor’s “speaking proudly” and
little Jimmy’s “having a daddy”. It was 20 years before I allowed my own Holy
Spirit baptism to come forth and work in my life. Each one of you, whether you
remember your baptism or not, whether it meant anything to you at the time,
whether you understood the significance of it at the time, when you were baptized
with the water, you were also baptized with the Holy Spirit. We have been blessed
with a powerful change and we should use it just as Jesus did.
