John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached, saying, “After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
Ping.
Im sure you agree that baptism has nothing to do with salvation. Neither the Thief nor any disciple was ever baptized. All chief priests ( and Jesus as chief priest) were baptized and ,of course the Essenes like John ( daily)
Someday people will know the Messiah of Israel was baptized on His 30th birthday. An appointed day He taught Israel to assemble. And not December 25 or January 7.
It’s the same reason there were 40 days of purification at His birth and the same 40 days in the wilderness after His baptism.
Same days, 30 years apart.
Amazing that the day He began His ministry is the same day He was presented in the temple 30 years earlier.
And that day was also a day He taught Israel to assemble.
Shadows and rehearsals for and about Him.
The Word Became Flesh and dwelt among us.
For His Glory!
It is a symbolic ceremony to represent submerging our old selves to death and emerging reborn in Christ.
Your sins are washed and become a child of God when you believe on Jesus and trust in Him.
And then there is "schizophrenia."
What do you think of when you hear that the heavens were torn open? What do you expect to happen next? ... [T]he idea of the heavens being torn open is not usually a very pleasant or desirable thing in biblical thinking.... This background, then, should shape our expectations when we read that at Jesus’ baptism the heavens were torn open. We would expect that God’s judgment should come crashing down.... And this is God’s judgment on him: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” ... But where is the judgment? Where is the displeasure and wrath? There is none. Just divine approval. Because Jesus has no sins of his own to confess. He is without sin. He is holy and righteous--always, constantly, consistently, doing God’s will. Yet he takes his stand with sinners. He identifies with us. And here at the Jordan he undertakes his saving mission to rescue us from the death and judgment we all deserve.Thank you for your meditation on the Baptism of Our Lord, as related by Mark the evangelist.So where and when will the judgment fall? Where is God’s displeasure and wrath? Not here. Not yet. But it will come. At the cross the righteous judgment of God will come crashing down like a ton of bricks. And it will land on the head of this man Jesus, like lightning hitting a lightning rod.
I'm with you so far as the nexus between Christ's baptism in the Jordan and his crucifixion on Calvary, though I do have a different take on the import of schizo, due to my comparing the event of "the heavens being torn open" not to similar events in the OT but to a parallel event near the end of the same Gospel according to Mark. Permit me to explain.
As I've already mentioned, I see a clear connection between Christ’s baptism in the Jordan at the beginning of his earthly ministry and Christ’s death on the cross at the end of his ministry. Later in Mark’s gospel, for example, Jesus himself refers to the death he will suffer on the cross as his baptism, when he will be 'immersed' in suffering (cf. Mk 10:38-39). By accepting John’s baptism of repentance, Jesus is, in fact, unconditionally accepting God’s will for him that he should take upon himself the sins of the world and die on the cross in order to reconcile God and man. Jesus will, as Paul tells us, be obedient to God unto death, even death on a cross (Phil 3:8).
Mark tells us that when Jesus came “up out of the water, he saw the heavens being torn opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; and a voice came from the heavens, ‘You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.’” If we fast-forward in Mark’s gospel to his narrative of Our Lord's crucifixion, Mark tells us that at the moment of Jesus’ death, "the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!” We see, then, in Mark's narrative a clear connection between Jesus’ baptism and his Crucifixion. At both events, we see (1) a tearing apart (same verb, schizo) of the heavens/temple curtain, followed by (2) the presence of the spirit/breath (same root, pneum-, followed by a proclamation of Jesus as the Son (same noun, huios) of God. It is in the parallelism of these two events, both in terms of word usage and sequence, that we recognize that the baptism of Jesus is, in fact, an anticipation and acceptance of the crucifixion.
All this is not to say that I disagree that Jesus suffered God's judgment for our sins on the Cross, but that I am more inclined to understand the schizo at the Lord's crucifixion in the same way as I understand it at his baptism: as a destruction of the barrier separating God and man that had brought about by the sin of Adam.
Again, many thanks for your post, and God bless.