Baptism with Fire, Part 4

Baptism by Fire, Part 4

I baptize you with water…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. [1]

After my children were baptized, both as infants, our extended family went out for a nice dinner. It was a celebration of a happy, traditional ritual, after which we all returned to life as usual. By contrast, after his baptism, Jesus went into the wilderness alone for 40 days and fasted. At the end of his extended fast, he was presented with three temptations[2] by the devil, each encouraging him to prioritize personal gain over the common good in the areas of power, prestige, and possessions – three areas in which we continue to be tempted and misled today. Jesus refuted each temptation, insisting his life-work was for the furtherance of God’s kingdom and not for personal advancement. Unlike the baptisms of my children and me, Jesus’ baptism was an initiation into a completely different way of life, completely changing its trajectory. It represented the beginning of his other-focused, God-centered ministry and started the chain of events that eventually led to his death by crucifixion.

I confess, sheepishly, that baptism should probably serve as a life-changing initiation for us, too. “Oh sure,” some will say, “he was the son of God. His baptism and subsequent life-focus was pre-ordained from birth.” Yet, if we study his life and teachings it is clear that becoming Christ-like and taking our place as children of God is pre-ordained for all of us. Most of us fail to prioritize our call to Christ-likeness because it seems an impossible, undesirable, and unpleasant way to spend our earthly days. Without a transformational baptism, we remain self-focused and not other-focused. The primary source of the difficulty is our desire for and attachment to familiar, predictable, and comfortable ways of living. Most of us easily succumb to variations of the three earth-bound temptations Jesus resisted in the wilderness. Just about everything we’ve learned in life has taught us that gains in influence, titles, and wealth are doorways to success instead of being chains that bind us to what has no eternal significance.  

And this is what underlies the baptism with fire John the Baptist claimed Jesus would bring. Any transformative inclinations from baptism with water can be easily ignored because it leaves the attachments of our past intact, meaning we can easily pick up life wherever we left off. A baptism with fire is transformational, both internally and externally, in that the option to go back to life as it was is no longer present – those bridges are burned down.

To better understand baptism with fire it is helpful to consider the ancient science of Alchemy. Alchemists purified or refined precious metals by using fire to burn away the impurities within them. The art of Alchemy was in knowing how much heat to apply and for how long in order to burn away the foreign substances without destroying the base metal one sought to purify. Many today think Alchemy was junk-science that charlatans used to con people into thinking they could transform a relatively worthless substance, like lead, into something valuable, like gold. But what alchemists attempted was to burn away the relatively worthless substances from the valuable substances making them ever more pure and valuable. In this alchemical metaphor, we are the precious metal, and Jesus is the alchemist.

The goal of Alchemy is purification. Which is also the goal of baptism with fire: to remove our impurities. The baptism Jesus offers is one where the heat of our life experiences – the difficulties, sufferings, and trials – burns away that which prevents us from attaining Oneness with God. And that which prevents us from attaining Oneness with God is almost always a personal quest for additional power, prestige, or possessions. Everything of the earth passes away. Oneness with God requires a focus on the invisible, spiritual ties that bind us together in this life and beyond. The very experiences that make life seem difficult – that make us feel we have been tossed into a fiery furnace – are the very things that can burn away our unhealthy attachments to that which has no eternal value. That, of course, assumes that we let go of what has been burned away instead of dedicating ourselves to rebuilding or regaining what the baptizing fire removed. Otherwise, we waste a purifyingly good flame.

Jesus was tested after his lengthy period of isolation and fasting with earthly types of temptations to assure his aspirations were properly placed, and he proved they were. He had been purified sufficiently to model what God-in-the-flesh looks and acts like. Whether we choose to believe Jesus was born divine (One with God) or whether he matured into his divinity, our goal as Christians is the same: Christ-likeness.

I will explore additional implications of baptism with fire next week.

This is the 15^th in a series titled Crucifying Christianity, Resurrecting the Way. Life Notes are my explorations into mysteries that interest me. They are not objective truths but invitations for readers to explore, too. Engage with me or explore contemplative spiritual direction at ghildenbrand@outlook.com.

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[1] Matthew 3:11

[2] Luke 4:1-13; Mark 1:12-13; Matthew 4:1-10