Baptism Or Really Dying

This week I learned a strange fact about the Knights Templar. Apart from what I've heard in that Nicholas Cage movie ("I'm going to steal the Declaration of Independence!"), I don't know much about them.

Apparently when the church baptized one of the knights they would be baptized with their sword, but they wouldn't take their sword under water with them. Instead, they would hold it up out of the water while the rest of them was immersed. It was their way of saying to Jesus, "I belong to you, all except this part of me. This part of me, I won't compromise." I think you know where I'm going with this... 

We all know there are areas of our lives where we refuse to give up control. What I don't think we realize is how destructive this can be to our relationship with Christ. Although some religious traditions talk about having a formal —almost distant— kind of relationship with God, when Jesus prayed he got very personal. He called the mysterious, omniscient, omnipotent creator of the universe 'daddy.' In both testaments the people of God are referred to as a Bride awaiting her Bridegroom (God). This is very intimate relational kinds of language. 

If —then— we're in a relationship with God, there are certain commitments He expects us to honor, just like any spouse would expect of their partner. In a healthy relationship you would never promise to be totally committed to the person you love, and then search out ways to violate that trust behind their backs. Good wives don't hide their crippling debt from their husband, and good husbands don't lie about where they go on the weekends. When you're all in, you're all in. 

God doesn't want some of our hearts, He wants the whole thing. The Knights Templar understood this, so maybe they figured they'd at least be honest from the start: Jesus, just so you know, that's all you get. But love, like baptism, doesn't work like that.

I heard a Palestinian comedian once say his cousins curse in English because God only speaks Arabic. God, we assume, doesn't know or doesn't really care when we don't honor our baptism commitment. But first, what is that commitment? Baptism is a symbolic act of dying to ourselves and being born again Christ. It seems backwards because we think about life coming before death. But Jesus said only when you die will you truly live. 

The Jewish sabbath begins sundown on Friday and ends Saturday afternoon. Why is this? It's because when God was creating the earth it says "and there was evening and morning the (next) day"(Gen. 1,2). When God creates it is always in a cycle of going from death to life. We see this in how a plant is grown. A seed falls from a tree to be buried in the dirt, and from the death of the seed comes the life of a plant. Baptism symbolizes the believers choice to die to their own selfish desires of themselves in exchange for a new life of sacrificial love for the people around them. The early Christians would remind one another of their Baptism whenever their old ways began to sneak back in. "You're not going to lie to your friend, remember the person who would do that is dead! This new person speaks the truth." 

It may sound obvious to say 'when you're dead, you're dead,' but old habits die hard, they tend to come back around like zombies. They're dead and yet alive at the same time, reaching havoc on everything around them.

Essentially the importance of baptism is not in the one time ritual of going from death (dunking) to life (emerging), it's the daily decision to die to yourself that day, and the day after, and the one after that. 

If we practiced baptism like the Knights Templar we might not hold up a sword, but we might hold up our wallett, or our entertainment choices....

or, our...

busy schedule

children's lives

marriage

sarcasm

jobs

food addiction

jealousy 

resentment

sex life

illness

internet history

cynicism

grudges

inadequacies 

disappointments

pride

vanity 

road rage

body issues

boyfriend

girlfriend

anxiety

partying

stereotypes

politics

What would it look like to die to these things on a daily basis?

 For me it might mean deciding to be 'happy for' rather than 'jealous of' fiends who have what I want. Or saving money I would have spent on a movie for more important things. It might mean instead of overeating in front of the TV, I slow down and eat at the table, or clean my room instead of making a fast food run. 

To truly die you have to sacrifice everything. Nothing is off limits. Like the saying goes: you can't take it with you. 

Seems logical enough, but most of us refuse to let ourselves truly die. Again and again I see friends make huge compromises to satisfy their boyfriends/girlfriends. I see parents working overtime instead of spending time with their kids, and in the process they miss unrepeatable milestones. I've seen what refusing to die to anger can do to a person... I've seen what pornography can do to a marriage... And what unchecked vanity can do to a persons empathy of others. 

If you're letting your grudges eat you a live like a zombie, can I just be the one to tell you that old person is dead. The new you can let old hurts go, because the only one they're harming is you. And if you're looking for something to be cynical about, there are plenty of things. But letting that die in exchange for optimism and contentment can give you a freedom for joy that cynicism will never be able to give you. So let it die. 

Let's walk down the aisle to Christ without checking out other people on the way down. Let's focus on the one we love, forsaking all others. 

Die so that you may live.