Day 4 Saturday - Feb 25, 2023; Feb 17, 2024; Mar 8, 2025
See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized? -Acts 8:36
We’ve talked about baptism and the Word, baptism and faith, now let’s talk about Baptism and water…
A sacrament is in a way a “sermon with props”, but not just any props that the preacher chooses. Rather, Jesus associates a very specific one to the message he speaks over you. The more traditional words used in the church to describe these props are “elements” (to emphasize their physicality) or “signs” (to emphasize that they convey a message). Martin Luther’s preferred definition of a sacrament came from Augustine: Accedat verbum ad elementum et fit sacramentum (“When the Word is added to the external element, it becomes a sacrament”). You might think of it as a formula: element + God's Word = Sacrament. God chooses the element and Christ shares a specific Word to accompany it. As a sacrament, baptism has a unique way of sharing the message of grace in that it is accompanied by an element; a sign; water.
In the early church document the Didache, we can see that the church preferred cold, running water. But if you did not have access to cold water, it said use warm. And if you didn’t have access to running water, then use what water you do have access to. If you must pour on the person instead of submerging them, then pour it. The idea was that certain practices like submerging a person in cold, running water (like a river) was preferred - probably because it pointed to the way the element served as a sign of the message it proclaimed - but in the end all that mattered was that one used water.
Even today there are a lot of different ways a person can be baptized, but one thing is clear, a baptism should include water. When the Ethiopian Eunuch saw that he and Philip had come upon some water he realized that the opportunity to be baptized had come. We rightly emphasize the power of the Word in baptism. That’s what makes the water holy if you will and no longer “just plain water”. That's what we base baptism upon, not the internal strength of our faith or the external rightness of the type of water we use or way we are covered in that water. Yet just as faith matters, so also water still matters, especially as a means of helping our faith grasp and remember baptism. Its message is not only heard, but seen and felt. The elemental nature of it allows it to work as a proclaiming sign.
It’s an amazing thing to have water as the sign for baptism, because we cannot live long without water. Its essentialness is part of the message, as is its access. In general, we try to always have access to water. And if access to water is all it takes for a person to start asking “What prevents me from being baptized?” then baptism’s message of grace is always close to us - calling us to Jesus and reminding us of his salvation. How long will you go today before you are in front of water? Let that serve to remind you of how readily present God’s grace is, and may water’s life-giving nourishment and our desperate need for it remind you of our need for the life-giving grace of Jesus.
Let me see you Jesus, in the waters of baptism. Let every drop of water I see, remind me of how you came to me in these waters. Let every thirsting I crave cause a craving for righteousness to well up within me. Let every bottle, glass, faucet, lake, river, ocean, and spring remind me that you are all around me and as the rain that waters the ground so you cover the earth with your mercy in Jesus. Blessed are we, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for you have filled us indeed. Amen.
This post is a part of my daily Lenten devotional on Baptism. You can read more about it here.
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