Last month, I offered a reflection on the nature of Communion and how it lies at the center of the Gospel. This month, I will direct some attention to the other sacrament recognized by the Global Methodist Church: Baptism.
Baptism is first and foremost something that Jesus did for us. When Jesus went to get baptized by John in the Jordan, Matthew tells us that John didn’t want to do it. Jesus’ response is remarkable: “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). This is especially noteworthy because we read that John’s baptism was a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3). Since Jesus had no sins to repent of, what is going on? It is something worth taking a closer look at.
One aspect that is especially clear in Mark’s account is that, after He was baptized, the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness (Mark 1:12). This may not seem so important except that this whole procedure is exactly parallel to what we read in the Old Testament in the ritual for the Day of Atonement. In Leviticus 16, we read about a ritual that involves two “sheep” or “goats.” One is ritually sacrificed and its blood is applied to the “mercy seat,” but the other one is the “scapegoat.”
After sacrificing the other animal, the high priest comes out of the Holy of Holies and “shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness…” (Leviticus 16:21). While the offering of blood is crucially important, the Atonement ritual requires someone to be the sin bearer, to receive the transfer of the sins of the people, and then carry them away from them. This is exactly what we see happening in the baptism of Jesus. He does not confess His own sins, but the sins of humanity, and then bears them away for our deliverance.
Because of this, baptism isn’t really about what we do at all, but about what God has done. The church has often, throughout history, seen baptism as parallel to the Old Testament practice of circumcision. In Jewish communities, young men are marked with the sign of the covenant long before they can ever choose whether to live consistently with that covenant or not. The church has traditionally felt that, if infants can receive the sign of the Old Covenant, they can receive the sign of the New Covenant. This is one key reason why the Global Methodist Church baptizes infants.
This emphasis, that baptism is primarily the act of God and not a human act, is largely why the Global Methodist Church does not baptize someone a second time (though there are opportunities to remember one’s baptism). Because it is the act of God, no unworthiness or unpreparedness on our part can nullify or undo the work that God does through baptism, and, therefore, the work done in baptism never needs to be done again.
In some ancient cultures, those who entered military service received a mark in their flesh, whether through the imposition of branding or else a tattoo. So long as that person served with honor, that was their mark of pride, something that showed the whole world who they were and what they stood for. However, if that soldier were to desert their service, that very same mark became their mark of shame, the sign that they knew better and yet behaved with dishonor.
It is the same with baptism. It is given to us freely, but it does place an expectation on us that we will follow Christ in obedience. When someone lives a life that contradicts the promises made in baptism, it does not prove that baptism is useless (as if God’s grace could ever be useless), but it goes from being what it should be, a sign that we belong to Christ, to being a mark of our shame, because we ought to have known better.
At the risk of making this reflection too long, it is worth noting that baptism is not designed to be done in private. In the normal course of events, baptisms should be done within the context of the congregation gathered for worship. This is, in part, because the congregation makes vows to the one being baptized, at the very least to surround them with a community of love and forgiveness, to live in such a way that they can grow in their understanding of God and their commitment to Christ.
We know that, sometimes, parents do not fulfill their promises. We trust that God always fulfills his promises. All too often, congregations have failed to keep their promises, forgetting to surround those baptized, especially those who are very young, with the community they promised, forgetting their role in shaping their faith and life, and neglecting the awesome responsibility for being the body of Christ for one another. The fact that some people do not engage in the sacrament of baptism in bad faith does not excuse the rest of us from holding up our end of the covenant. Every person baptized in our midst is both a call to live the life of discipleship ever more fully and a reminder that other people need us to be faithful in order to support them. May we never trivialize the sacraments with our actions!
