Initiation Rites

Vanuatu, a nation in the South Pacific, has 83 islands. One of them is called Pentecost Island. It has one of the strangest initiation rituals for a young man to become a man. They build a 20 to 30-meter-tall structure, and the young man must jump from it with only a rope tied to his legs. At the last moment, if he is lucky, the rope will prevent him from dashing to the ground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0Mq6rCfYtU

John came proclaiming a baptism of repentance where people entered the Jordan River and dipped, washed, immersed, or cleansed themselves. It was a familiar ritual for the Israelites. Their commentary on their holy book had an entire chapter devoted to the proper way to baptize a person (the chapter is called Miqvaot in the Mishna). For example, it defined the acceptable pools in this descending order: pools with flowing water, pools with salty or hot water, pools with a small quantity of water, pools with rainwater, or pools with buckets of water poured in them. John chose the best option: the Jordan River with flowing water (in Hebrew, “living water”). As the people flocked to take his ritual cleansing and change their ways, he had a message for them.

“One mightier than I is coming after me, whose sandals’ straps – I am not worthy to stoop low to untie. I washed you with water, and he will wash you with a holy spirit.” (Mark 1:7–8)

Just like Elisha, who came after Elijah and was mightier than Elijah, Jesus would be too. John was unworthy even to untie Jesus’s sandals’ straps. What made him mightier was his initiation ritual. Whereas John washed them with river water, Jesus would wash them with a holy spirit.

The Nicene Creed of 325 AD began with “we believe” and had only four words about the spirit: “in the holy spirit.” The early Christians were trying to understand the complexity of God as presented in the New Testament. Within another fifty years, they would have a much larger and more refined definition of the spirit as a person, the Holy Spirit.

The Hebrews, however, thought of the holy spirit as a metaphor for the presence of God. David said,

“Do not cast me away from before you, and do not take the holy spirit from me.” (Ps 51:11)

The poetical parallelism shows that David thought that being cast away from God’s presence was to lose the holiness of his spirit. Isaiah had a similar statement:

“They rebelled and grieved his holy spirit, and he turned from them to become their enemy.” (Isa 63:10)

When people were nearer to God, they had holy spirits; when they were far from him, or he was away from them, they no longer had holy, i.e., sanctified or set apart, spirits. The Judeans, then, would have understood John to be saying that when the mightier one came, he would wash them with a holy spirit, that was, draw them closer to the presence of God. And that made him mightier than John because John washed the outside of one’s body, and Jesus washed the heart and soul of them – to draw them nearer to God.