The Necessity of Baptism by Fire

At the beginning of Mark's gospel, John the Baptist says that the one who will come after him, Jesus, will baptize with fire.

The word baptize in its Greek context means "to submerge." John is telling us that if we choose to live according to the example of Christ, we will be "submerged" in fire.

We typically associate fire today with destruction, but in Jesus' day, fire was primarily associated with healing, restoration, and purification.  In the era before modern medicine, fire was used to heal wounds.  Fire was used to purify materials.  Fire was commonly used in connection with religious rituals to signify renewal and restoration.

God's agenda is not to destroy us, because God has important work for us to accomplish.  God needs our hearts and minds to be purified and healed of all our impurities so that we can be the people that God needs us to be to accomplish God's purposes: the redemption and transformation of the world.  To accomplish God's purposes, God cannot take use us as we are: God must take us out of the world and purify us so that we can then be in the world to fulfill the Great Commission.

God's mechanism for transformation is the Church, the community that seeks to live according to the example of Christ.  The Church exists as the conduit through which disciples are made; where our impurities and imperfections are removed so that we can be empowered to go back into the world to transform the world.

The Church too often seeks to accommodate human culture and to give us the things that human culture tells us are important.  If the Church is being faithful to its purpose, it will transform us so that we can see that our preoccupation with the concerns of human culture; of materials possessions and success, is a manifestation of our impurity.  If we are baptized by fire, we will see ourselves in Pauline terms as in the world but not of the world because we will see the world for what it is as we will also see God's plan for what it needs to be.