The sacrament of baptism as a participation in the death of Christ

The Sacrament of Baptism as a Participation in the Death of Christ | Owen Vyner | Homiletic & Pastoral Review | March 2011

To be baptized in Christ is to be baptized into his death as well as his Resurrection.

The Easter season is ultimately a time for rebirth, expressed most dramatically at the Easter Vigil by the life-giving waters of baptism. To impart new life, however, baptism must destroy the old life of sin and our fallen aversions to Christ. That is why the rite of baptism makes it clear that the person baptized is baptized into Christ's death: "We ask you, Father, with your Son to send the Holy Spirit upon the waters of this font. May all who are buried with Christ in the death of baptism rise also with him to newness of life."1 It is precisely the signification of immersion in water as a descent into Christ's death which eloquently addresses the questions of today's seekers.

This article will seek to address this question: what does it mean to be baptized into Christ's death and how does this speak to us in a manner that is relevant to our current experience? It will first do this by delineating the link between baptism and death. Secondly, because baptism is understood as an immersion, or a descensus, it will then examine the issue of Christ's descent into hell as symbolized in baptism. Finally, it will consider the anthropological dimension of baptism and baptism's ramifications for the moral life of Christians.

The waters of baptism and death

For the early Christians, the Old Testament understanding of water in the events of salvation was the foundation for the symbolism of water in the baptismal rite. While there is clearly a link between water and cleansing in the Old Testament (just think of Naaman the leper in 2 Kings 5), the stories of the Flood and the Red Sea also reveal that water is connected with destruction and death. In the story of the Flood, water is a symbol of destruction. Water is the instrument of judgment through which God destroyed the sinful world (cf. Gn 6:17). The other principal reference to the destructive nature of water is in God executing judgment on the Egyptians and his defeat of the Egyptian army as they crossed the Red Sea in pursuit of Moses and the tribes of Israel (cf. Ex 7:4-5).

In the Psalms, we witness the man who, drowning in deep water, is in dire need of God's rescue: "I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me" (Ps 69:2). We also read, "Deep calls to deep at the thunder of thy cataracts; all thy waves and thy billows have gone over me" (Ps 42:7). Later the fate of this suffering individual, who seems to be abandoned, will be allegorically attributed to Christ and his cry for help on the Cross (cf. Mt 27:45-46).

In the Old Testament, just as water is linked with death, it is simultaneously connected with victory and salvation. The sinful world is destroyed in the Deluge, but at the same time, Noah is spared to be the principle of the new creation (cf. Gn 9:1-15). With the crossing of the Red Sea, there is death and judgment, but there is also God's victory over Pharaoh and the salvation of the tribes of Israel (cf. Ex 15:1). In his work, The Bible and the Liturgy, Jean Danielou argues that underlying this notion of a victory through the waters is the ancient myth of a serpent that dwells in the depths of the sea (cf. Is 27:1; 51:9-10).2 Thus, the victory which is to be obtained through the waters also follows a great struggle with the forces of evil.

In the New Testament, these images of descent into water, judgment, and victory through a physical wrestling with a great power are typologically applied to Christ's crucifixion. The stories of the Flood and the Red Sea are seen as being fulfilled by the promised salvation won by Christ on the Cross. First Peter establishes a connection between Noah's salvation through water and Christ's victory over death communicated to the Christian through baptism (cf. 1 Pt 3:20-21), while St. Paul interprets the crossing of the Red Sea as a prefiguring of Christian baptism. Paul understands the crossing of the Red Sea as a type of baptism, which is then typologically applied to the Christian, who, passing through the waters of baptism, is baptized into Christ (cf. 1 Cor 10:11-12).

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