From Vicar Linneman

December Newsletter
Vicar Tyler Linneman

JORDAN RIVER - BAPTISM AND CALLING
The Jordan River might just be the most famous river in the Christian faith, and all the faithful likely remember learning about that great river in Sunday School. Even today, many people in the evangelical tradition will go to the Jordan River to be baptized in the same stream which saw the baptisms of John, which included of course the baptism of our very own Lord, Jesus Christ.

But I have heard from many travelers who visited the Holy Land, that when they came to the Jordan River, they were very underwhelmed. This “river” is no more than a creek to a Midwesterner. I myself grew up farming on the banks of the Missouri River, which is over two thousand miles long, averages 10-20 feet deep, and discharges over 39 million gallons a minute. Now that’s a river. The Jordan River, on the other hand, is a little over 200 miles long, is anywhere from 2-10 feet deep, and discharges roughly 9,000 gallons minute. So this tiny little river is sure to disappoint Americans familiar with the vast waterways of North America and expect the same of the most famous river in the Bible.

But as we know, the fame of this river does not come from its prestigious size, but from its central role in the life of the children of Israel. The Jordan River forms the eastern border of the Promised Land proper, and today forms the border between Israel and Jordan. As such, this river was the final stopping point of the children of Israel before they finally entered the promised land to take possession of it, as we read about in Joshua 3, where the priests take the ark of the covenant into the river, and it ceases flowing that the people may cross over on dry ground. And the symbolism of this moment ought not be missed; the Israelites exited Egypt by crossing the Red Sea on dry ground, and now they enter the promised land by crossing over the Jordan on dry ground. God saves his people and blesses them with the Promised Land by causing them to pass through the water safely.

And this imagery is important, because it focuses us on the one who was eventually himself baptized in these very same waters, Jesus Christ. Jesus came down to John, who rightly recognized that he ought to be baptized by Christ, and yet, submitted himself to the will of Christ and baptized him in those waters to fulfill all righteousness. But for Christ, he did not pass through those waters safely, as did the children of Israel. Because it was in those waters, that Christ took on the sinfulness of mankind, the sinfulness that would drive him eventually to his cross. The waters of the Jordan were the beginning of Christ’s ministry to his people, a ministry that would culminate in his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the tomb, for the justification and new life of all the faithful.

​This was so that in every place where there is found water and the Word of God, which is the presence of Jesus Christ himself, it becomes a life-giving flood that saves all who pass through it. So that, whether the water be from the humble Jordan, or the mighty American rivers, or even the splash of water in the font, when it is combined with God’s Word, the one who passes through it will be brought safely to the other side, washed clean of all sin and brought forth in everlasting faith. And like the Jordan before it, Baptism has now become the new waters which we cross through, and on the other side, we belong to a new Promised Land, the kingdom of God, wherein we live as children of our Heavenly Father in righteousness and peace forever.