How often do you bath? NO, I don’t really want to know. But, think about all the commercials for shampoo, bath gels, bubbles and water softeners. One would think we are obsessed with cleanliness, and one would be correct. Well, in the first century the same could be said for the ancient world.
Romans had their public and private baths where the social and political occurred. The Jewish communities had their own rituals around bathing and they were quite strict and always associated with purity. So, let’s travel back and catch a few snapshots of the roots of baptism, the seemingly unique activity that John offered by the Jordan River.
Set the camera for the Temple in Jerusalem. No one can enter without first ritually cleansing him or herself. The Jewish tradition was clear – if you bring uncleanness before God, God leaves! So, if you want to prayer and be in the presence of the Lord you needed to be squeaky clean. And the tubs used for these rituals were at least 60 gallons and deep enough for complete submersion. There were at least 280 synagogues in Jerusalem alone and priests needed to bath three times a day. And we can see the average Jew cleansing hands and feet and perhaps bodies before each meal, before daily prayer time, before entering the synagogue, etc. etc. These were a clean people! And the purpose was for religious purity.
Let’s open the lens wide and look at the wilderness. Over there we see the Essenes in small closed communities splashing that water around. Over here we see another group called the ‘Morning Dippers’ keeping purity before God their priority through baptism. And then, at the edge of the River Jordan we can first hear the strident message of John. “God is coming any second to end our oppression! Are you ready? Prepare by bathing now, because if God comes and we are not clean and pure He will not come and set us free!”
The Gospel writers put great emphasis on Jesus coming to John to be baptized. We may never truly know why he did, but we do know that bathing ritually was a daily and very common practice for any Jew. John’s uniqueness was his politically radical message. He was expecting God to come and get rid of the Romans, possibly the next minute, thereby bringing back ‘old time religion’ for the Jews.
At this point we catch snapshots of Jesus exploring the different religious and political Jewish sects around the area. This included his cousin John. We will take some good snapshots of those groups soon. Then Jesus will begin his own ministry, and we’ll watch how he spins off in a completely different direction. So, to paraphrase a contemporary Hollywood figure, “We’ll be baaack!”
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