Rights

“Then the Pharisees who had been sent asked him, “If you aren’t the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet, what right do you have to baptize?”“
John 1:24-25 NLT

More questions for John, this time concerning his apparent intrusion into an area the Pharisees considered to be their religious “”right”. They claimed exclusive rights over all things spiritual in Israel and tried very hard to stop anyone trying to take over part of what they do. Apparently, baptism was not something new to the Jews. They used immersion in water as a ritual act of cleansing when a Gentile converted into Judaism. But John’s baptism was applied to the Jews themselves, as a public declaration that they had repented of their sins. Not something the religious authorities would have been pleased about because they considered that their exclusive territory.

Should we pilgrims have been baptised, by full immersion as those in the early church were? Peter’s first recorded sermon included this verse, “ … Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). The reference, “be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” implies full immersion in water, a public declaration of faith and one that clearly transitions a person into the Kingdom of God. It is also something very significant in the life of a believer because, in times of stress and doubt, their heritage can be referred back to. Baptism is a spiritual event just as significant as any other identity document.

John was asked, “what right do you have to baptise?”. In some countries today, there are very few “rights” let only being able to be a believer in Jesus. We mustn’t forget that many will consider it a privilege to be able to express our religious and social freedom in a Western nation. In John the Baptist’s day, the rights of an individual were few, being impacted by poverty, the Romans and by the religious authorities. But John wasn’t fazed by that and he just got on with what God had commissioned him to do – “prepare the way …”. We pilgrims also have a task before us, and one that is likely to be impacted by the conversion ban legislation that is slowly, but inexorably, passing its way through the UK parliaments, central and devolved. In the Anglican and Presbyterian denominations here in the UK, there is a restriction on who can officiate at services, but believers in Christ are all “ordained” in their own right – ” … you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9).

So what “rights” do we pilgrims have, in our spiritual and religious duties? There is nothing complicated here. We just get on with what God has asked us to do. It may not be easy. For some it may be dangerous, for others inconvenient. It may cost us our money and time. But the Holy Spirit will lead and guide us – that is God’s “right”. There is a higher law at work and one that, when followed, could lead us to our own “cross”. The Creator God of this world had the “right” to send His Son, Jesus, to save the world. We pilgrims have dual citizenship – we are citizens of the nation in which we were born, but we are also citizens of the Kingdom of God. The authorities may remove or amend our “rights” in our natural kingdoms, but they cannot touch our “rights” as children of God at all. And we know which kingdom will prevail in the end.

Father God. Only You can determine our true rights. Through Jesus we are privileged citizens in Your Heavenly Kingdom for ever and ever. Amen.