Baptism is one of the most familiar practices in Christianity.  It's also one of the most debated.  Who should be baptized?  When?  How?  Does baptism save you?  Is it symbolic?  Is it necessary?  Does someone have to understand certain things before being baptized?  Christians have argued about those questions for centuries.  But perhaps there's a more basic question we should ask first: What is baptism?

Baptism Is a Beginning

Sometimes baptism is treated almost like a graduation.  You've studied enough.  You've learned the correct teachings.  You've made the necessary commitments.  You've demonstrated that you're serious.  Now you're ready to be baptized.  But the New Testament gives us another way of seeing it.  Baptism marks the beginning of a journey.  It is a public declaration that says:

  • I'm stepping into the story of Jesus.
  • I'm identifying myself with him.
  • This is the direction I want my life to go.

That doesn't mean the person being baptized completely understands what following Jesus will eventually require.  The original disciples certainly didn't.  They followed Jesus while still learning who he was.

  • They misunderstood him.
  • They argued.
  • They doubted.
  • They failed.
  • They changed.
  • They grew.

Discipleship was the journey through which they were formed.  Baptism shouldn't require someone to have already arrived at the destination.

Baptism Is an Outward Act

Baptism is physical.  Water.  A body.  Other people.  Something visible happens.  That's important.  Christian faith isn't presented merely as something happening privately inside someone's head.  Baptism takes an internal decision and gives it an outward expression.  I am choosing to identify with Jesus.  But calling baptism an “outward display” doesn't mean it's only symbolic.  Biblical symbols often do more than illustrate ideas.  They locate people within stories.  They create identity.  They mark important transitions.  And baptism is loaded with meaning.

Baptism Connects Us to the Story of Jesus

Paul gives baptism extraordinary imagery in Romans 6.  He connects baptism with:

  • Jesus' death
  • Jesus' burial
  • Jesus' resurrection

The person enters the water and emerges.  Death, burial and new life.  Paul's point isn't simply about getting wet.  Baptism declares participation in the pattern of Jesus:  the old gives way to something new.  That's why baptism makes sense as a journey marker.  It says:  The life Jesus lived, the kingdom he announced, and the new creation his resurrection began are now the story I want shaping my life.

Baptism Is About Allegiance

The earliest Christians lived in a world filled with competing allegiances.

  • Empire.
  • Family.
  • Social status.
  • Religion.
  • Economic systems.
  • Political power.

To identify publicly with Jesus meant something.  Calling Jesus Lord wasn't merely expressing a private spiritual preference.  It was declaring allegiance.  Baptism made that allegiance visible.  I belong to this story now.  That's considerably bigger than:  “I completed the requirements necessary to become a Christian.”

Baptism Gives Us a New Identity

Paul also writes in Galatians 3: “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”  That's identity language.  Paul immediately begins dismantling some of the categories people used to determine status:

  • Jew and Gentile
  • slave and free
  • male and female

Something new is happening.  People who previously might never have shared status, community or table fellowship now belong together in Christ.  So baptism isn't merely about: me and God.  It places us within a people.

Baptism Is Personal, But It Isn't Private

Modern Christianity can make conversion extremely individual:

  • my decision
  • my salvation
  • my relationship with God

Those things matter.  But baptism happens within a community.  Someone baptizes you.  Others witness it.  You become part of something larger than yourself.  The journey toward becoming like Christ was never intended to be traveled alone.  Other people will encourage you.  Challenge you.  teach you.  Correct you.  Forgive you.  Disappoint you.  And sometimes require you to learn how to forgive them.  Community is part of the formation.

Baptism Doesn't Mean You Have Everything Figured Out

This is particularly important.  A person being baptized doesn't need to understand everything about Christianity.  Who does?

Baptism doesn't announce:  “I now possess all the correct answers.”  It announces something closer to:  “I have decided who I want to follow.”  That's a very different statement.  There will be questions afterward.  There should be.  There will be things you believe today that you'll understand differently years from now.  There will be assumptions that need examination.  There will be failures.  There will be growth.  There may even be periods of doubt.  None of that necessarily means the journey failed.  It means you're on a journey.

Becoming Like Jesus Takes Time

If discipleship means learning to become like the person we're following, then discipleship can't be reduced to an entry process.

Becoming:

  • more loving,
  • more generous,
  • more forgiving,
  • more compassionate,
  • more courageous,
  • more peaceful,
  • more attentive to outsiders,
  • more willing to serve,
  • more willing to sacrifice,
  • more committed to reconciliation

doesn't happen before baptism.  It doesn't happen the week after baptism either.  It happens over a lifetime.  That's why baptism makes much more sense as a beginning marker than a finish line.

So What Is Baptism?

Baptism is an outward, embodied declaration of allegiance to Jesus.  It identifies us with his death and resurrection.  It marks our entrance into a community shaped by his story.  It declares that the direction of our life has changed.  And it signals the beginning of a journey: learning to become like the one we've chosen to follow.  Different Christian traditions will continue debating precisely what happens spiritually in baptism.  Those conversations are worth having.  But perhaps before arguing about everything baptism does, we should recover what baptism says:

  • I'm stepping into the story.
  • I'm choosing to follow Jesus.
  • I don't know everything yet.
  • I haven't become everything I'm supposed to become.
  • But this is the direction I'm going.

Maybe that's one of the most beautiful things about baptism.  You don't have to have completed the journey.  You just have to begin walking.