"The waters of baptism and death"

From the essay, "The sacrament of baptism as a participation in the death of Christ", by Owen Vyner (Homiletic & Pastoral Review, April 2011):

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).

In St. Paul's theology of baptism, there are images of descent, burial, and immersion (cf. Rom 6:4, Col 2:12). However, he also links baptism with a sharing in Christ's victory over the powers of evil (cf. Rom 6:9). Just as God overcame the tyranny of Pharaoh through the waters of the Red Sea, Christ overcomes Satan in the life of the Christian through the waters of baptism. These themes of death and victory are taken up with the baptismal liturgy in the early Church: "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?" (Rom 6:3). Therefore, through baptism into Christ, the Christian undergoes a configuration to Christ dead and risen signified by immersion in and emersion from water. Taking their lead from St. Paul, the Church Fathers developed these themes within the context of the baptismal liturgy, associating baptism with Christ's death and explicating the Christian's participation in that death.

Pope Benedict XVI speaks of this victory when he refers to Christ's struggle with Satan in his baptism. Referring to this struggle, Benedict states that Christ descends in the "role of one whose suffering-with-others is a transforming suffering that turns the underworld around, knocking down and flinging open the gates of the abyss."3 In Jesus of Nazareth, Pope Benedict refers to the iconographic tradition that depicts Jesus' baptism in the Jordan as a liquid tomb with the form of a dark cavern, which is a symbol of hell. Benedict quotes St. Cyril of Jerusalem's allegorical reading of Christ's baptism and its connection with his descent into the dead: "Jesus' descent into the watery tomb, into the inferno that envelops him from every side, is thus an anticipation of this act of descending into the underworld: 'When he went down into the waters, he bound the strong man.'"4 St. Cyril also refers to the triple immersion as symbolic of Christ's three days in the tomb: "For just as our Savior spent three days and nights in the hollow bosom of the earth, so you upon first emerging were representing Christ's day in the earth, and by your immersion his first night…. In one and the same action you died and were born."5 St. Ambrose develops the connection between baptism and Christ's death even further when he likens the baptismal font with the grave: "[I]t is not earth which washes, but water. So it is that the font is a kind of grave."6 It is interesting to note that many baptismal fonts in the early Church were often shaped like tombs.7

The early Church saw the liturgy of baptism as a real participation in Christ's death and resurrection. In the Apostolic Constitutions (late fourth century), we find a prayer for the blessing of water so that the baptized person may be crucified with Christ: "Sanctify this water so that those who are baptized may be crucified with Christ, die with him, be buried with him, and rise again for adoption."8 St. Gregory Nazianzen expresses something similar: "We are buried with Christ in baptism so we may rise again with him."9 As mentioned earlier, St. Cyril sees the three immersions as a symbol of the three days of the Paschal Triduum and therefore, through his immersion, the Christian is plunged into Christ's death and resurrection. In responding to those who hold that baptism only forgives sin and procures divine adoption, but is not a participation in the sufferings of Christ, St. Cyril maintains: "We well know that not merely does [baptism] cleanse sin and bestow on us the gift of the Holy Spirit, it is also the sign of Christ's suffering…. So in order that we may realize that Christ endured all his sufferings for us and our salvation actually, and not in make believe, and that we share in his pains."10 Finally, for St. Ambrose there is a mystical union between the Christian and the Crucified Christ brought about through baptism, so that in baptism the Christian can be said to have received a "sacrament of the cross."11

Thus, in examining the symbolism of water in the Scriptures and in the liturgy of the early Church, water is clearly linked with the death of Christ. For the Christian, baptism means the participation in this death. At the same time, water is connected with a struggle and victory over the powers that threaten God's Chosen People. Therefore, it can be said that the baptized share in Christ's victory over sin and death.

Read the entire essay at www.HPRweb.com.