MarkSample

As Mark opens, we see John the Baptist going around preaching and baptizing.

Now, if you are familiar with baptism, you might be thinking, “I thought you got baptized to show you follow Jesus!?” And you’re right. Many Christians practice baptism as an outward symbol of an inward decision they made to follow Jesus. It’s a public declaration. 

So, why was John the Baptist baptizing people?

In ancient Judaism, there were lots of laws about ritual purity. Essentially, you had to be “clean” to come to God. There was a practice in Judaism called mikvah that would’ve looked really close to baptism. The mikvah was a ritual cleansing. You would get dipped in water to purify yourself. 

We’re told that later people were baptizing people as a sign that they were turning back to God. So, this idea of baptism wasn’t foreign to people.

Here’s my question for you - if you’ve made the decision to follow Jesus, have you taken the step to get baptized? If not, what’s holding you back?