baptism

Step by Step with Jesus #2 — A Course Correction

David Chupp Step by step with Jesus ,

If you read the accompanying resource and make it all the way to the end of this post, you are a certified Bible Nerd.  If you just want the details on following Jesus’ steps, skip to the last 2 paragraphs.

As I explained earlier, I am attempting to map Jesus’ journeys throughout this year of ministry.  I was aware that there would be some difficulty determining some locations and routes, but since I have been unable to find anyone who has attempted this, I had no real idea how hard it would be.  I certainly didn’t expect to have trouble the very first day. 

I had always accepted the traditional location of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist.  John 1:28 says, “These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan where John was baptizing.  I had read that it states “Bethany beyond the Jordan” to differentiate from the ‘Bethany’ near Jerusalem that is listed many times in the gospels.  “Beyond the Jordan” is assumed to mean “on the other side of the Jordan” from Jerusalem, so on the east bank.  Currently, we know of no places named ‘Bethany’ anywhere near the Jordan.  Both Origen and Chrysostom (early ‘church fathers’) favored a location called Bethbara, on the Jordan about 6 miles southeast of Jericho. But none of the earliest manuscripts of John support the spelling of ‘Bethbara.’  

I  have been to the traditional Baptismal site several times.  There are ruins of church structures dating back to 500 AD at that site to commemorate the baptism of Jesus.  But when I began to calculate Jesus’ journey from that area to the Galilee, I ran into a problem.  On March 30, Andrew and John, disciples of John the Baptist, spent the day with Jesus, where he was ‘dwelling.’  The following day, March 31, Jesus “decided to go to Galilee” and then has conversations with Philip and Nathaniel in the Galilee.  The next day he was at a wedding in Cana of Galilee.  

The problem is that even to get to the most southern aspect of the Galilee would be 48-50 miles at least.  Jesus was a miracle worker, but I doubt this one day 50-mile hike is one of them.  So then I began searching to see what other locations John may have been baptizing at that could be near “Bethany.”  I won’t bore you with the missteps I took, but I did find a resource that explains the problem well and does an excellent summary of the possibilities.  Bethany Beyond the Jordan (John 1:28) Topography, Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel, by Rainer Reisner,1  Jesus returns to this location ‘across the Jordan’ in John 10:40.  Looking at when Lazarus died and when Jesus arrives in Bethany near Jerusalem (by which time Lazarus has been dead four days) also makes the location near Jericho in the south unreasonable.  So Reisner locates Jesus’ baptism in the north, in the region of Batanaea (see map below) with Batanaea being a variant of the Greek that our current English versions translate as ‘Bethany’.  I believe Reisner makes a strong case for this location.  Read his article.  It is available online and not too difficult to follow, but the ability to read a little Greek is helpful. 

Also, there is the possibility that since this is the spring season, the Jordan might be at flood stage, making baptism in the Jordan dangerous.  Joshua 3:15 says”now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest.”  (We know that he was referring to the barley harvest, which begins just after Passover because Joshua 4:19 says, “The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month.”  The 14th of the first month is Passover.  So baptism in the traditional location (which is very close to the location of the crossing in Jordan) is very unlikely. We know that John the Baptist baptizes in several locations, using springs for baptism at some times.  John 3:23 says, “John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim because water was plentiful there.”  Aenon near Salim most likely means “the springs near Salem.”  These springs still exist and currently feed many ponds in the area that are used for fish hatcheries by a local kibbutz.

So now I have to revise my previous articles that refer to the baptismal site in the south. Jesus’ time in the wilderness would be not in the Judean wilderness but in the wilderness east of the Sea of Galilee, in the region of Batanea.  And his journey from the place John was baptizing to Galilee on March 31 (in John 1:29-34) would be between 2-7 miles.  He would then travel around 14-15 miles to Cana for the wedding on April 1.  

So for those of you following with your feet, it makes more sense now and is certainly more doable.  I’m sure we will run into other issues determining these 2000 year old locations, but for now, happy walking!

  1. “Bethany Beyond the Jordan (John 1:28) Topography, Theology and History in the Fourth Gospel” by Rainer Reisner. Available at: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://tyndalebulletin.org/api/v1/articles/30556-bethany-beyond-the-jordan-john-1-28-topography-theology-and-history-in-the-fourth-gospel.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjqyez4lpKFAxUB18kDHdmRBzEQFnoECBIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0KvtX1aUZskL6fmZI-vCJ2

February 16, 27 A.D. Sabbath (Saturday) In the Jordan River -The Year of the Lord’s Favor #11

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog ,

February 16, 27 A.D. Sabbath (Saturday) In the Jordan River -The Year of the Lord’s Favor #11

Week 1 The Baptism of Jesus, part 2 –

Matthew 3: 13-17—Mark 1: 9-11—Luke 3: 21-22

In our first discussion (If you missed it: The Year of the Lord’s Favor #1), we discussed how all the prophets, after the exile in Babylon, looked forward to a time when God would come as he promised. Remember this scripture we discussed?

Mal. 3:1 “Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 

We have seen the messenger come as John the Baptist. He has prepared the way by preaching on the coming Kingdom of Heaven and the need to repent and bring fruit. Then, Jesus showed up and requested baptism by John. Last time, we looked at the why of Jesus’ baptism. Now, we will look at what happened at the time of his baptism.

Matthew 3:16-17 And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

As Jesus emerges from the water, “behold, the heavens were opened to him.” We need to understand what this moment meant to John. At this point, John is sure  400+ years of prayer are being answered because he knows the words of the prophets. Isaiah 64:1 is another of the passages, like Malachi 3:1 above, that looked forward to the time when the Lord would return.  

“Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence.”  Isaiah 64:1

Isaiah is looking backward to the time when God descended at Sinai, and the mountains quaked, “when you did awesome things” (Isaiah 64:3). He is looking forward to the time when God would come and do extraordinary things again. At this revelation to John, he sees the wish of the people voiced by Isaiah come to pass. He sees the heavens open, and God’s Spirit descends. And Jesus will certainly do awesome things, but the earthquake will only come when his sacrifice for us is complete (Matthew 27:51).

Then John “saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him [Jesus].”1 Have you ever watched as a bird lands or feeds their young, that for a moment they hover? The second verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:2, says, “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” That Hebrew word for ‘hovering’ is “merachafet,” which means ‘fluttering’ or, as the rabbis describe it, “even as a dove hovers over its nest,” linking it to the dove that heralds the re-creation of the world after the flood in Genesis 6 (a de-creation and re-creation event). So it is appropriate for John to describe the Spirit of God descending like a dove on Jesus, for his baptism heralds that God is about to do something new again. At this point, John is sure that Jesus is the long-awaited Messiah, as he later relates:

John 1:33   I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

Then, a voice with a message hyperlinks to three Old Testament scriptures.

1. “This is my son” – This phrase is a reference to the third stanza of Psalm 2. The end of the second stanza of Psalm 2 introduces the Davidic king, the Messiah, who speaks in verse 7:

 “I will tell of the decree: The LORD [Yehovah] said to me [the messiah], “You are my Son; today I have begotten you.” Psalm 2:7

2. “with whom I am well pleased” – This is from another known messianic passage in Isaiah.

 Isaiah 42:1 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations.

3. “my beloved son” – Though in the days of Jesus, this was not recognized as a messianic illusion,  looking back, we now readily connect this story to the crucifixion of Jesus. God asked Abraham to be willing to “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love” and sacrifice him. Arriving at the site of the sacrifice, Isaac asks his father. “Where is the lamb? and Abraham answers, “God will provide the lamb.” The willingness of Abraham to give up his beloved son, Issac’s desire to be obedient to his father and lie down on the altar to be bound2, and the divine provision of a lamb to be a substitute sacrifice for Isaac — these three things shout to us a foreshadowing of God providing his beloved son as a substitutionary sacrifice for us. John sees Jesus as that sacrificial lamb as he later says, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! (John 1:29)  

God had already fulfilled the sign of the Messiah that he had given John at his calling. Then to confirm it, God speaks the words known to refer to the Messiah. There can be no doubt in John’s mind that before him is the long-awaited one.3  

Luke sees this baptism as his anointing to begin his ministry, and Jesus says as much, reading from the Isaiah scroll in Luke 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me…” Remember that ‘Messiah’ (which the Greek translates as ‘Christos’ or Christ) means ‘the anointed one’. Jesus, as the anointed one, must have a time of anointing, and many see his baptism as his anointing for service. Near the end of his ministry, we will speak of another anointing (April 23 of next year).4 

From this point on, readers of the Gospels must be sure of Jesus’ position as the Messiah. John the Baptist is also sure, though he will ask his disciples to seek further evidence when he is imprisoned. Other people in the first century will come to this conclusion slowly over the next year, and sadly, many will reject Jesus as the Messiah.

Today is a good day to remember your baptism. I pray you have entered the waters of repentance with Jesus and have risen as a new creation. This morning, I pray for you. I look over the list of 50 subscribers to this blog and pray that God will open the heavens for you and show you His glory as he did at Sinai, as he did for John on this day, 1997 years ago. I read Isaiah 64:1 and hear the people begging God to “rend the heavens and come down.” God promises he will open the windows of heaven for us if we are his obedient children (See the rest of Malachi chapter 3 that we quoted the first verse of above. And don’t think it is all about tithing — read all of Malachi— you can’t buy God’s favor —it is about obedience.) And if you don’t know Vertical Worship’s song from 2012, “Open Up the Heavens,” then pull it up and let that be your prayer and worship this morning (link below).5 Jesus is still on the mission that he began 1997 years ago on a Sabbath in the river Jordan — a mission to fulfill our righteousness and reconcile us to the Father. “Show us your glory, Lord.”

David

1.    Who saw the heavens open and Spirit descend, and who heard the voice from heaven? John bears witness that he saw it in John 1:32. Other than that, we do not know. Luke tells us that others were baptized before Jesus but did not specify who saw the heavens open and heard the voice. Matthew is not specific.

2.    Despite the Sunday School pictures of Isaac as a young child at the time of this story, he was already a grown man and could have easily overpowered his over 100-year-old father if he wanted to. But Isaac allowed himself to be bound and placed on the altar. The rabbis have emphasized Isaac’s obedience, and this section is often titled “The Binding of Isaac.”

3.    Though John is convinced of Jesus as the Messiah here, we will see him have some questions (doubts?) when Jesus’ ministry does not align with exactly what everyone in that day pictured the Messiah would be.

4.    There is much precedence for multiple anointings in the Old Testament. David was anointed on three occasions (1 Samuel 16:13, 2 Samuel 2:4, and 2 Samuel 5:3).

5.    “Open Up the Heavens” https://www.youtube.com/

February 16, 27 A.D.  Sabbath (Saturday)  In the Jordan River- The Year of the Lord’s Favor #10

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , ,

Week 1 The Baptism of Jesus

Matthew 3:13-15   Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.  John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. 

John said his baptism was for repentance.  People were baptized “confessing their sins” (Matthew 3:6).  So why was Jesus baptized by John?  We know he did not need to confess his sins, for the author of Hebrews tells us that Jesus “in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”  No one was more surprised at this request than John himself.  John made very clear that he was subordinate to Jesus, saying that he was not even worthy to untie Jesus’ shoes (the job of a slave).  John tells Jesus, “No way, you be the rabbi, I’ll be your disciple.” But Jesus tells John to accept it that way for now, that he can “fulfill all righteousness”.

I have read many explanations of why Jesus was baptized by John.  Some say it was just for Jesus to give his stamp of approval on John’s ministry and message.  This could be part of it, for Jesus preached the same message as John preached.  Some say it was Jesus being humble, and certainly, Jesus’ humility shows throughout his ministry, even to the point of the humiliation of death on the cross (Phil. 2:8).  Some say he was baptized as a model for us, and certainly Jesus’ way of living is our model of how to follow God. Still, others say that John was calling a nation to repentance, and Jesus was born a Jew, a member of that nation and thus in need of repentance for the corporate sins of his forefathers.1  But John asked Jesus this very question, and how does Jesus answer?

But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

What righteousness is Jesus fulfilling by being baptized by John?

I think Jesus is doing here what he will do on the cross.  He takes responsibility for sins that he didn’t commit.  Jesus was innocent.  He had no sin, but Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.  The righteousness Jesus is fulfilling is ours, because we can’t fulfill it on our own.  He has no personal need to repent, but he enters the waters of repentance with us.  Isn’t that what Isaiah predicted he would do?  “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Is. 7:14).  Immanuel means “God with us”.  We celebrate each year that Jesus came from his place at God’s right hand to be one of us.  He came to experience humanity that he could identify with us.  He came to know our hunger, to know our pain, to know our temptations, to know rejection, to know abuse, to know suffering.  And by becoming a human like us, he shows us how to be a human like God intended us to be.  

“I will be with you.” It it the most common promise in the Bible.  It is the way Matthew begins his gospel, quoting Isaiah.  It is the way Matthew ends his gospel, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20).  It is only fitting that this is the way Jesus begins his ministry.  He enters the river with us.  He awaits his turn with those repenting of their sins and being immersed.  He rises up out of the water and looks out at those who have not yet been baptized.  You can almost hear the words now that Jesus will say many times in the coming year.  “Follow me.”   Follow me in repentance.  Follow me in the waters.  Follow me as I rise to minister.  If we follow him, he promises to always be with us.

But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

Jesus is fulfilling my righteousness, he is fulfilling your righteousness. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Thank you, Jesus.  Let us all now follow him into the waters of repentance as we enter this journey with Jesus.

1. We don’t talk a lot about corporate sins, but recently there has been a movement to accept the guilt of our forefathers for their mistreatment of people groups in the past (specifically the issues of the treatment of Native Americans, slaves, and minorities.)  The Bible is very clear that each person accepts the punishment only for his own sin, not that of his fathers (Deut. 24:16, Jer. 31:29-30).  Children are only guilty of the sins of their fathers if they imitate their fathers, though sometimes we reap the consequences of what was sown in previous generations.  Yet the sins of the past are relevant.  We should acknowledge them and renounce them. But there is no need to repent of sins we didn’t personally commit.  Kevin DeYoung, in his short book (with a long title) Impossible Christianity: Why Following Jesus Does Not Mean You Have to Change the World, Be an Expert in Everything, Accept Spiritual Failure, and Feel Miserable Pretty Much All the Time  said it this way:

“We are not meant to live with a sense of corporate guilt for an ethnic, racial, or biological identity we did not choose and from which we cannot be free. Self-flagellation is not a requirement for spiritual maturity. It is one thing for us to love God and love our neighbors; it is quite another if the call of Christian discipleship means we must, on account of the failures of others, hate ourselves.”

If you have ever felt like it is impossible to measure up as a Christian, read this book.  There is no need to live with constant guilt and remorse.  (That’s part of what makes the baptism that Jesus will bring different than the baptism that John does.) 

The months before Jesus’ ministry begins.  Winter, 27 AD  The Year of the Lord’s Favor #8

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , ,

John’s Baptism

As we approach the baptism of Jesus, it is important to think about how John’s baptism was viewed by his disciples and those who came to hear him.  

There had been 400 years without a prophet giving a word from God.  A messenger had been promised.  And John the Baptist arrives on the scene.  He can’t be easily ignored, wearing camel hair and preaching in the wilderness.  But John is called “the baptist” or “the baptizer”, and it is this activity that makes him stand out the most.  This baptism is something new and different, and many are coming a long way to see what is going on.

Now we don’t think baptism is odd or unusual.  We see it as a normal part of our religion that some do as an infant, some after the time of confirmation, or some at the time of making a personal decision.  But our understanding of baptism is based on the baptism as done in the book of Acts and following.  We are looking backward with our preconceptions of what baptism means in our time.  The people in John’s time had their own preconceptions about baptizing.   How did the people of his day understand John?  What did it mean to them? 

The idea of ritual bathing or immersion goes back to the time when Israel was about to leave Egypt.  They are told to “consecrate” the firstborn before Passover.  According to the Jewish Torah Commentary, the instruction to consecrate people “involves a purificatory rite …[that] requires bathing, laundering of clothes, and abstention from ritual defilement on the part of the initiate.”1 Later, all of Israel is to consecrate themselves before their encounter with God on Sinai, and again before crossing the Jordan.  Priests also are consecrated before any service and washed in the bronze laver in the Tabernacle.

Up on Sinai, God gives Moses instructions for a tabernacle, and God tells him the purpose of the tabernacle is not for God to dwell in it, but for it to be a place God can dwell with man.  Again, this is God’s purpose for man from the beginning.  God has always sought to live in community with us.

God tells Moses that if we are going to dwell together, you have to keep yourselves pure.  He gives rules for two kinds of purity: Moral Purity and Ritual Purity.  Now we understand moral purity pretty well, including the 10 commandments given at Sinai. But ritual purity is more of a mystery for us 21st-century people.  (It is not that hard.)  Every modern culture has standards of purity and defilement.   For example, even though discrimination on the grounds of caste has been outlawed, many Hindus will not touch people of lower caste, and if they do, they must wash to remove the defilement.  Certain sicknesses are taboo to touch in many societies.  And I have witnessed it many times watching people interact with homeless people, refusing to shake hands, touch, hug, etc.  

You wouldn’t want one of my surgeon friends who just pulled a dead dog off the road, gathered up the pieces and buried it, to just walk into the operating room to do surgery without going through a process to become clean again. That would seem crazy to you.  Yet in the mid-1800s, before the idea of germ theory existed, medical residents in a hospital in Vienna would practice surgery on cadavers and then go upstairs and deliver babies without washing their hands.  It was Ignaz Semmelweis who discovered why this hospital had 3 times the maternal death rate of their sister hospital, and he saved countless lives simply by instituting handwashing there.2  Despite the decrease in maternal deaths, there was tremendous resistance to handwashing by the medical community and Semmelweis was ridiculed and eventually fired.  They had no basis to understand it in their culture.  Similarly, our modern culture has no basis to understand ritual washing (unless you read the Bible).  

Becoming ritually unclean was not a sin. It was a normal part of life to encounter bodily fluids and death.  There are just some things you don’t bring into God’s presence. If you followed the rules for cleansing before entering God’s presence, then there was no problem.  Ritual purity is totally separate from breaking moral laws.  And the Jews never believed that the water had any effect of actually washing impurity away, it was an act of obedience. It was a symbolic representation of the cleansing that God did because they were obedient.3

So God established a means for dealing with ritual impurity and with moral impurity (sin).  Dealing with ritual impurity usually involved washing.  Dealing with sin required a sacrifice.  When Israel went into exile in Babylon, they had no temple or altar and could not perform sacrifices.  So washing for ritual impurity became more important.  Philip Birnbaum in “An Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts” noted that because it had become common to perform tevilah (immersion in a mikvah) before entering the temple, “some religious Jews began to see a greater spiritual significance to ritual purity as it embodied a state of nearness to God, as if one were truly present in the Temple.”4  Over 1000 mikveh (ceremonial bathing sites) have been excavated in Israel, some dating before 100 B.C.E. including many at the entrances to the temple where all Jews (including Jesus) would immerse (tevilah) before entering the temple area, just in case you carried some ritual impurity.

The Jews coming to John’s Baptism had this background of ceremonial bathing in preparation for coming into God’s presence to remove ritual impurity.  Immersion in the mikvah would represent a change of status – from ritually impure to pure.  John is taking this idea of a change of status and applying it to moral impurity. His baptism was “with water for repentance”, a symbol of repentance of a moral wrong.  Again, no one believed the water accomplished cleansing from sin.  It was a physical act demonstrating their inward repentance.  

The place where John was baptizing was very significant.  This is the same place where Israel crossed the Jordan to enter the land of promise.  They were to establish a community in this land where they would have no other gods, where they would love God completely and love their neighbor.  But the Scriptures note over and over again how they failed.  Tim Mackie said, “so John is calling Israel to start over, to go back through the river and come out rededicated to their God, ready for the new thing that God’s about to do.”5

With this understanding of how the Jews viewed John’s baptism, now you can consider how you view your baptism.  How is it the same?  How is it different?  We will consider this as we move along Jesus’ ministry this year.  We will also revisit the idea of ritual purity several times.  Jesus has a lot to say about ritual purity, and his actions regarding ritual purity rules shock his followers over and over.  

1. The Jewish Torah Commentary, Exodus, on Exodus 13:1.

2. The story of Ignaz Semmelweis is a fascinating read.  Probably the best book on this is 

Genius Belabored: Childbed Fever and the Tragic Life of Ignaz Semmelweis, 

by Theodore G. Obenchain (2021).

3. Though the practical benefits of washing after contact with bodily fluid are well known

  to us now, they were certainly not before Louis Pasteur and modern germ theory 

and had no impact on the understanding of people before 1850.

4. Birnbaum, Philip, An Encyclopedia of Jewish Concepts, p. 240, (1979).

5. Tim Mackie, from the Bible Project video, “The Baptism of Jesus”.