The religious leaders, by John’s and Jesus’s time, had turned baptism into an elaborate ceremony, full of rules and regulations. Sometimes they baptized themselves every day. They self-baptize at least once a week. The Jewish religious establishment had all kinds of reasons why they must baptize themselves, as the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal.
Baptism in Jewish and early church culture always required the person to be fully immersed in water. The remains of the small pits with steps in rock that were filled with clean, fresh water to be used only for “mikveh” still remain. The rich had these baptismal pits in their homes. John the Baptist and Jesus (though it was actually Jesus’ disciples, John 4:2) used the dirty water in the Jordan River. (Matthew 3:6; Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3; John 1:28; John 4:1-3)
Because of and after John and Jesus (theologically it was after Jesus’ ascension), baptism became a baptism of repentance. That is, baptism is a proclamation to God and the world of a personal and practical decision in the heart to stop sinning and beginning living by faith in Jesus. Luke recorded John “preaching a baptism”. Baptism, by John’s and Jesus’ day, was somewhat of an ordinary sign of repentance of the heart. (Luke 3:3) Baptism (“mikvah” or “mikveh” in Hebrew) in Jewish culture became a ritual sometime after the exile of Babylon. John not only baptized; he preached baptism. If you have not been publicly baptized, why not? If you have, are you keeping to your proclamation by preaching a baptism of repentance with you life?
