Week 21 Matthew 3
I have my doubts that John the Baptist invented baptism. It’s quite possible that it was a practice that evolved during the long gap between Malachi & Matthew. But whether or not John started baptism isn’t the point. The main thing is that John did baptize people. And Matthew spelled-out three things that were happening when John was baptizing:
When people were baptized they were confessing their sins
John specifically told people: I baptize you with water for repentance
And when people had repented & confessed & been baptized John give them follow-up instructions that they now had to practice: produce fruit in keeping with repentance.
So there were three elements to John’s preaching & baptizing:
• Confession (I take personal inventory. I take ownership of my sin)
• Repentance (I have an internal & personal feeling of regret & sorrow)
• Producing good fruit (I take post-baptismal action-steps. Now that I’ve confessed-repented-and-been-baptized I begin to assess what I need to do differently). (In a cross-reference to Luke 3:10-14 John gives a couple of concrete examples of good fruit – real-life changes that I need to start doing.)
One thing that gets my attention is that Jesus’ baptism was completely different from everyone else’s. He didn’t have to:
a) confess sin
b) repent of evil or
c) start changing his behaviour.
But in spite of those key differences he got baptized anyway.
Note: quotes from Matthew 3:6 11 8 (NIV)