It's been five months since I last posted here, so I figured it was time to throw a little something together. We're all imperfect; we all get distracted from certain things, no matter how important they might be. The same was true for me and this blog as well. I can't make any promises about how often I will post going forward, and will probably end up neglecting this blog again, but here are at least some thoughts continuing on the topic of Jesus' baptism.
First off, my last post mentioned the strangeness of Jesus' baptism and the possibility that this strangeness lends some credibility to the fact of His baptism. If He was perfect, why be baptized at all? Why include such a strange and confusing story if the Gospels are a work of fiction?
The argument that something probably would not have been made up by no means proves it wasn't made up. People do make up crazy and nonsensical things that contradict other things they've said all the time. In terms of evidence beyond the "it seems to work against the other alleged facts about Jesus being perfect" argument, I was interested to find a few websites about archaeological research into finding the exact site of Jesus' baptism. Now, if Jesus was never baptized, no such site would even exist, so I would think that if someone could definitively identify the site where Jesus was baptized, that would mean he was actually baptized.
I found mention of some research into Jesus' baptismal site based on other historical happenings, like people establishing churches near the site of Jesus' baptism in the days of early Christianity. The establishing of churches near the alleged site of Jesus baptism still does not prove Jesus' baptism happened, but it shows Jesus' baptism was important to people. Based on its importance for early Christians, it seems that either the baptism really happened or many people were convinced it had. People usually don't intentionally cling to something they know to be false, and the churches were started not long after the time Jesus was alive, by people who had the potential to have received first or second hand accounts of Jesus' baptism. This all lends credibility to Jesus' baptism being real, but it doesn't "prove" it. (As a side note, a very similar thing could be said of Jesus' resurrection, but we will get to this more in future posts.)
Then, I found this documentary (which I have not personally vetted and have just started to watch) about the site of Jesus' baptism: http://www.baptismsite.com/index.php/watch-the-documentary.html (I may update or add to this post after I've watched more of the documentary)
Now supposing Jesus' baptism really did occur, what is it's significance to followers of Jesus? Perhaps it lends authenticity to what John the Baptist was saying about repentance. It could also serve as an example for Jesus' own followers. When I think of Jesus being baptized, I think also of the story about Him turning around and washing his disciples feet. When Jesus asked John to baptize Him, John at first refused according to Matthew 3:14. According to Matthew, John felt Jesus should be baptizing Him, but Jesus replied by saying: “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” (Matthew 3:15) I don't really know what that means, but perhaps it means that Jesus was setting an example for others. With the washing of His disciples feet, Jesus again met with resistance, according to the Gospel of John. This time, Peter tried to stop Jesus from this degrading act of feet washing, but Jesus told him, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me." (John 13:8b) And John's account further states that after washing the disciples feet, Jesus told them that they "also should do just as I have done to you" (John 13:15b). The Bible often claims to share with us things that Jesus did that we should emulate. It seems that baptism may intended as one of those things as well.
In my next post, I will try to finally get to what in many ways was the original goal of this blog. I will consider some of the alleged evidence for Jesus' resurrection and/or will present some alternative theories for Jesus' resurrection. There are many who will lean towards the alternative theories, but I hope to show that believing in Jesus' resurrection, though it seems crazy, is not as far out there as many people think.
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