According to my Bible students, I might not even teach Bible.
I'm not too worried about that, though. I really am enjoying working through the life of Christ and giving my 10th grade students mini-sermons that I think are synoptically snazzy. I was teaching about the baptism of Christ today, and I really learned a lot from it. I'm not sure if they did or not, but the homework pretty much reiterates the whole point, so whatever.
I was talking about how baptism has its roots in the Jews baptizing Gentiles into the Promise, which has its roots in the Jews passing through the Red Sea. Now, I've argued fairly thoroughly with Ben Johnson about baptism, whether babies should be baptized or not, and, as I told my students today, I'm not terribly worried about that question compared to the understanding of the symbolism. Let's take a quick look at the ol' passage through that Arabian body of water:
The Jews were coming out of Egypt, where they were in slavery, led by Moses, the soon-to-be lawgiver, into the Promised Land (if only they'd go in). What would this possibly picture on a deeper level? Well, I thought about it in the way I figured Jud Davis, my New Testament professor would, and I came up with something that seems fairly legitimate. Passage from slavery through the law into the Promise. That's what goes on. Now, Moses doesn't get people into the Promised Land, because they're too scared to enter. However, the Fulfillment of the law brings everyone into the ultimate Promised Land.
Get it? Jesus' baptism is a picture of our salvation! I don't think I did any sketchy Bible work to see that; the picture is slavery to promise, and as John the Baptizer says, Jesus' baptizes us not with water, but with the Holy Spirit.
Well dip me or sprinkle me, but I want some of that.
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