Testify

Jesus participated in two sacraments that demonstrate to us what He has done for us through His death on the cross - there was communion, the Lord's Supper, in which He took the bread, symbolizing His body broken for us, and the cup, expressing His blood, shed for the forgiveness of our sins.  He was also baptized in water by John the Baptist - this is an outward sign of His death, burial, and resurrection. We read in 1st Corinthians 11:
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.
27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.

We've been talking this week about really considering what Jesus has done - we see that a good portion of His time during what is commonly called Holy Week was spent in teaching; sharing His principles that we can apply in our daily walk.  Because Jesus died on the cross and because Scripture says we have been crucified with Christ, we can identify with that death by dying to self and living anew through the life of Christ, which will consume us as we surrender our hearts to our Savior.

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In Romans 6, there is a passage that effectively summarizes the events of Jesus' death and
resurrection, their significance for us, and the process that we go through when we are actually born again:
4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection...

A variety of news outlets - Christian and secular - have been covering a celebrity who has made a recent visit to the Holy Land and was baptized in the Jordan River.  His name is Mario Lopez, host of the entertainment television program, Extra.  The Faithwire website traces his steps:

But perhaps the most significant moment of his trip so far came when the “Extra” host decided to get baptized at the very location where Christ himself was submerged by John the Baptist, as described in Matthew 3:13-17.

It is reported that Lopez is from a Catholic background.  The story says that...

...Lopez was led into the river by the two priests, before being asked, “Do you believe in Jesus Christ?” and “Do you intend to serve him all your life?”

“Yes, I do,” Lopez declared, as an assembled crowd of Romanian tourists began to sing “I have decided to follow Jesus” on the river bank.

The Faithwire story goes on to state:

In an interview with Fox News Latino back in 2015, Lopez spoke of the vital importance of his deeply-held faith in God.

“I think as I’ve gotten older, I’ve just tried to build a more spiritual muscle in a business that is very unpredictable,” he explained. “It’s nice to have something that is consistent in our life — family and faith is that for me.”

But to actually get baptized now?  Was it a search for a deeper experience?  Was it the thrill of being baptized in the Jordan River?  Whatever the motivation might be, a very public baptism, as well as other shots from the Holy Land being transmitted to social media, can provide some points to consider.

It is Good Friday - and the sacrament of baptism can provide a picture of what Jesus has done for us through His death, burial, and resurrection; a spiritual process that we undergo as well when we accept Christ as Savior.  Water baptism is an outward expression of the inward work of Christ, which is described in that passage from Romans 6 I read earlier.

In order to experience the life of Christ, we have to surrender; and where there are unsurrendered areas of our hearts and minds, Jesus wants to take those parts of our life as we render ourselves dead to them.  We can confess our sins and be cleansed; we can consecrate our hearts and discover newfound power in Him.  His power can set us free from whatever might hold us back; His love can soften our hearts so that we grow in that love and know Him better.