THERE are many striking features about this fourth chapter of John's Gospel, one of the most notable being that on this occasion Jesus acted not so much from any inner sense of divine guidance but as a reaction to circumstances. "When therefore the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, he left Judea and departed again into Galilee". There is no suggestion that His decision was taken from any other motive than the receipt of this report concerning popular comment on His apparent success.
We who put such stress on seeking 'guidance', may at first be rather shocked at the idea of Jesus allowing His movements to be precipitated by peoples' gossip. That, of course, was not really the case. What we must realise is that in this case Jesus did not need to seek guidance from His heavenly Father, for He acted in accordance with spiritual principles. So it was not just the common talk about His mission which made Him leave Judea; it was rather a right determination never to allow Himself to be involved in those comparisons which carnal men tend to make between one servant of God and another. The Servant of Jehovah sought nothing for Himself and had no wish to be the object of the kind of rivalries and comparisons which the Pharisees might try to make between Him and John the Baptist.
But while the writer was putting on record this unusual motive for movement, his memory was prompted concerning another point which might easily have been overlooked. Hence this parenthesis. The apostle informs us that in fact Jesus made it His practice to leave to His disciples the work of baptizing. For his part the Evangelist might have regarded this fact as so unimportant as not to be worthy of mention, but if so he was corrected by the Holy Spirit who caused him to draw our attention to this feature of Christ's ministry by means of the inspired parenthesis. We are confronted, then, by a question. Why did Jesus not Himself administer baptism?
The student of the New Testament will at once be reminded of a similar attitude adopted by the apostle Paul. "Besides, I know not whether I baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel" (1 Corinthians 1:16-17). Does this mean that baptism is unnecessary or unimportant? Never. There were occasions when Paul did baptize converts, and in any case the Great Commission to all who make disciples is that they should baptize them (Matthew 28:19). Why then, we ask, did the Lord Jesus refrain from baptizing; and why did His great apostle speak as he did?
Perhaps we may get a clue to the answer by looking again at that first remark of John's that Jesus was making more disciples than the Baptist. The Lord would be careful to avoid the kind of personality complexes which can arise in the case of God's servants. How easily could some disciples claim superiority over others because they had the distinction of being baptized by Christ's own hands? How readily would some of the Pauline party in Corinth (or elsewhere) have assumed advantage over their brethren if they could have claimed that it was the apostle who had personally immersed them in baptismal waters? That is just the kind of carnal and rather stupid sort of division which does arise among Christians, who fall into the trap of personality cults. The Lord Jesus would be careful to safeguard people from that sort of error. Perhaps that is why He took no personal part in the baptizings.
We are reminded, also, that from the beginning John the Baptist had declared that the specific baptism of Jesus would not be in water but in the Holy Spirit. This is a work which the Lord shares with nobody else. He, and He alone, is the One ordained to make that spiritual baptism real in the experience of His Church. After His resurrection He confirmed John the Baptist's prophecy, making it plain that the promise would be fulfilled at Pentecost (Acts 1:5). In this matter there can be no question of comparing Him with John or with any of the apostles, for this function is unique. Every believer should know the Lord Jesus not only as the Lamb of God who bears away his sin but also as the Baptizer in the Spirit (John 1:33). The water baptism is an outward testimony: the Spirit's baptism is an inner reality.
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