It’s long been a curiosity of mine why John the Baptizer was chosen as the ‘marketing representative’ for the coming Messiah. Why in the world would this bug eating, long haired, rastafarian be considered the best possible choice to build expectations and promote hype for the arrival of the God/Man?
Now, grant it, most of the time I’m not wrestling with this at 4:30 am on a week night. But hey, if I can’t sleep, I might as well get some questions answered. God never sleeps so I thought I’d ask Him for some clarification. And here are my list of questions:
- Why such a weirdo? A bug eating, fur wearing, tree hugging, woods living, mangy haired hermit to announce the arrival of the Son of God?
- Why no more credentials than, “a voice crying out in the wilderness?”
- How much weight should we put on his one word message— “Repent?!”
- Why dunk people to get them ready?
- Why a form of water baptism that didn’t even last (John’s baptism was for repentance. Jesus’ baptism was an outward sign of an inward profession)?
- Jesus absolutely insists on every believer professing Him this way (through water baptism) but makes very clear that baptism has nothing to do with salvation. So why not make it optional?
I’m not trying to be a trouble maker here, but let’s face it—baptism is really, really important to my Savior, so I want to make sure we get it right—especially with another one coming up this weekend at Southbrook. And apparently it’s such a good idea that God chose to use it in the pre-launch as well as the launch of Jesus earthly presentation.
So, back to John the Baptizer—wild-eyed, crazy looking, rastafarian dude, living in the Judaean desert, spending 24/7 promoting the Liberator’s launch. It clearly works—no doubt about that. John draws ginormous crowds and people are greatly convicted about turning back toward God and outing themselves as God-Followers by having John dunk them in front of thousands. But is this just meaningless symbolism?
No. John stresses the importance of the life-style changes that must accompany the identification with God. And the baptism turns out to be an individual pre-launch for thousands—sort of like the hand stamp you get so you can get in or out of the water park on opening day. These early adaptors are the first in line to help the mission of Jesus go viral.
Now I think I’m starting to get it!!
But it’s 4:45 am and my body is not cooperating. I don’t want to fall asleep on the key-board, so I’ll try to unpack the rest later.
Good night!