Stage 4 Stage 4 Stage 4

“Here’s a towel. Congratulations!” That’s what Blair just heard as she made her way to the back of the room, soaking wet. Her t-shirt was wet. Her jeans were wet. Her socks, her hair, her jewelry – all wet. 

This wasn’t the first time she had been soaked. After all, she had been to the beach before. She had also been caught in rainstorms before. But what made this different was that she was soaking wet in front of a lot of people. Because that’s what happens when you’re baptized.

Blair had experienced water baptism like so many Christians before her. She had wanted to be baptized for years now but had always come up with reason after reason why THAT time wasn’t the right time. But that had just changed. She was baptized; and her life was different.

Water baptism is a somewhat unique experience for Christians. From the outside, it’s kind of weird: the process of being dunked under water in front of other people, on purpose. But it’s important.

Rewind 2,000 years and Jesus Himself was water baptized by his relative, John. John was good at baptism. In fact, he baptized so many people that he was called John the Baptizer, or John the Baptist. And once again, he’s in the Jordan River baptizing people when Jesus started walking his way to be baptized.

John tried to stop him. You see, baptism wasn’t for someone like Jesus. Baptism was for sinners. Baptism was for people who hurt people, who had turned their back on God, for the broken in the world. And Jesus was none of those things. So John tried to stop him.

There are always people who will try to stop you from baptism. You just can’t let them.

John would go on to admit that he should have been baptized by Jesus.

But Jesus replied,

“Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.”

And so John baptized Jesus.

For 2,000 years, Christians have followed in the footsteps of Jesus by being baptized. Thousands and thousands of Christians have “Let it be” in their lives. 

They’ve done that because Jesus commanded us to

“go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

And with every baptism, there is a washing away. Sins are washed away. Shame is washed away. Pain, worry, and anxiety are all washed away. The old life is washed away.

2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”

That’s why we still go in front of people and get immersed in the water.

Hear the words of Jesus today for your life: “Let it be so now.”

What’s getting in your way?

Scripture References: Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, Matthew 28: 18, 2 Corinthians 5:17