This month, we tour the Holy Land where Jesus walked. Today, we’ll look at the Jordan River, both in Jesus’s day and in the Old Testament.
In the New Testament, our introduction to the Jordan River comes by way of John the Baptist. As Jesus’s three years of ministry were just about to commence, John had been preaching and baptizing in the wilderness of Judea, clothed in camels’ hair and sustained by locusts and honey. His message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (John 3:2).
“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (John 3:11).
Jesus traveled down from Galilee down to Judea, where he was baptized by John in the Jordan River.
“And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (John 3:16-17).
What might you have seen, smelled, felt, or heard, if you were there in the crowd witnessing Christ’s baptism?
The Lumo Project. John the Baptist in the wilderness and the baptism of Jesus.
https://www.freebibleimages.org/photos/john-baptist/
The Jordan River
I haven’t seen the Jordan River myself. But my husband has.
He tells me that there is little rainfall in the arid area around Jerusalem, but the Jordan River carries water from the higher elevations down into the valley. Vegetation lines the banks of the river, murky with the silt carried from upstream. From Scripture and early Church tradition, we understand that Jesus was baptized at Bethany Beyond the Jordan, north of the Dead Sea and east of the city of Jericho.
Lying on the Eastern border of Israel and the Western border of Jordan and Syria, the Jordan flows south from its sources in the Hula Valley into the Sea of Galilee. From the Sea of Galilee, it continues south into lower elevations, carrying silt into the Dead Sea.
The Jordan River in Jewish History: Entering the Promised Land
While my first introduction to the Jordan River as a young Christian was the story of Christ’s Baptism, and my limited understanding of the river comes from research and second-hand descriptions, the Jews with Jesus and John knew this river well and recognized it as a long-established setting of new beginnings in their history with God.
Before John stood on the river banks, declaring the coming Kingdom of God and calling for repentance….
Before Jesus was submerged in the murky waters….
Before the Spirit of God descending upon Christ as a dove….
Before God proclaimed of Jesus, “This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased….”
Long before any of the Jews present on that miraculous day had begun their own trek into the wilderness, God had demonstrated His faithfulness to the Jews at this very site, establishing the Jordan River as a boundary and a transition into new life.
Joshua chapter 3 tells of the Israelites, led by Joshua, entering the Promised Land by crossing the Jordan before continuing West to Jericho. In a miraculous event reminiscent of the crossing of the Red Sea a generation before, the Lord held back the waters of the Jordan as His people passed on dry ground:
“Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan…. And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap. …Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.” (Joshua 3:11,13,17)
In this way, the Israelites entered the Promised Land and began the conquest of the land the Lord was giving over to them. Six hundred years later, the Jordan River was also the setting at which Elijah was taken up to heaven (2 Kings 2:8-11), and it was the Jordan River where God cleansed and healed the Syrian commander Naaman of leprosy.
The Jordan River, Christ’s Baptism, and Our Baptism
The Jordan River is the setting of John’s call to repentance and the declaration of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Jordan River is the boundary into the Promised Land, entered by Israel in God’s timing and by His provision, conquered in obedience and by His hand.
And the Jordan River is the water in which our Savior was immersed, where the Father, Son, and Spirit were manifest together (Matthew 3:16-17).
In our baptism, we are called to repentance as the Jews were on the banks of the Jordan. In baptism, we become citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. We begin to live within God’s timing, by His provision, victorious only through obedience and by His hand.
“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4)
Where were you baptized? Has your understanding of baptism changed or grown since that time? Share with us in the comments. I’ll add my story, too.
I was baptized by my grandfather, in my swim suit in my parents’ big bathtub. I’d returned from summer camp the summer after third grade asking to be baptized, but our church wouldn’t allow students to be baptized until they completed a confirmation class a few years later. I was eager to respond to God’s call upon my life that I’d experienced at camp, and my family agreed to baptize me despite our church’s policy. My parents gifted me a Precious Moments depiction of baptism in a bathtub, which still sits on my shelf. At that time, I saw baptism as my action, a decision of obedience. While that is also true, I look back now and see the movement of God’s hand more than that of my own.
I love your story! I was baptized in our bathtub, too! But I didn’t completely understand it at the time and was baptized at my church when I was 16. I had been struggling with assurance if my salvation for a long time, and when I finally found peace in that struggle, I knew baptism was my first step of obedience. <3