Christians continue to ask many questions about baptism (how to do it, when to do it), but one of the most interesting questions may be: Do we know if Jesus baptized anyone himself? If not, does that present a problem for the historic claim that all Christians must be baptized?
Let’s take a look at what the Bible tells us about Jesus’ baptism, his teachings about baptism, and whether he ever practiced it himself.
Did Jesus Baptize Anyone in the Bible?
All four gospels record that Jesus was baptized by his cousin, John the Baptist, before starting his ministry (Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22, and John 1:32-34). John had been baptizing people, a ritual that appears to be rooted in Old Testament passages that commanded Jews to avoid specific activities that made them ceremonially unclean, to purify themselves by washing before performing religious activities. By John’s time, cleansing oneself by immersion in water (possibly also by having it sprinkled on the head several times) had apparently become an activity to show recommitment to God. Baptism becoming a recommitment ceremony sound like a strange shift. However, the goal of cleansing oneself was to remove distance from God (to be allowed back into God’s presence). John’s baptism captured the heart of ritual cleansing, making it an outward sign of following God.
Jesus’ baptism was more of a consecration for a special mission: the Holy Spirit appeared and God the Father identified Jesus as his son, a sign that his ministry was beginning. After being tempted in the desert for 40 days, Jesus embarked on three years of ministry, gaining many followers—including an inner circle of 12 disciples. At least two of these disciples had previously followed John the Baptist (John 1:40).
The Bible does not record Jesus baptizing any of his followers, but he does make it a part of his ministry. John 4 mentions that while Jesus did not baptize anyone, he had his disciples baptize new followers. The disciples continue to perform baptisms after Jesus ascends into heaven, as we see in Acts 3, when Peter and the other disciples baptize 3,000 new believers on Pentecost.
Although the Bible does not mention Jesus baptizing anyone, this does not mean he did not treat baptism as a vital activity.
Did Jesus Tell People to Be Baptized?
Even though Jesus is not mentioned immersing anyone in the Jordan (or sprinkling them, for that matter), he affirmed multiple times that anyone who wanted to follow him needed to receive baptism.
When Nicodemus asks Jesus how to receive salvation, Jesus replies, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5).
Two of the gospels include Jesus mentioning baptism when he directs his disciples about what to do after he is gone. In Mark 16, he says, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16).
Some pastors avoid mentioning this passage because it is part of a passage (Mark 16:8-20) that does not appear in many early copies of the Gospel of Mark. Like the story of Jesus rescuing the woman caught in adultery from being stoned (John 8:1-11), it is unclear if this means it was added later or was simply left out of some early copies. Regardless, the detail about baptism is repeated in another gospel. The Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20 includes Jesus telling his disciples, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19). Whichever passage we read, it is clear that Jesus sees baptism as a crucial activity that all Christ-followers must take part in.
Did Jesus Spiritually Baptize Anyone in the Bible?
It may seem strange that the Bible does not record Jesus physically baptizing anyone himself, since he emphasizes that anyone who followed him needed to be baptized.
There are hints that he baptized people in other ways, however.
First, John 3:26 mentions that John the Baptist’s followers complained that Jesus was competing with John, baptizing on the other side of the Jordan River. Since John 4 clarifies that Jesus himself did not baptize anyone, the passage implies that any time one of Jesus’ disciples baptized someone under his supervision, it was seen as Jesus baptizing the new follower by extension. The principle here appears to be similar to how the Israelites treated kings as divinely anointed if Old Testament prophets like Samuel anointed those kings: God’s representative doing something under God’s special direction was treated as God accomplishing something through a human being.
Second, John the Baptist makes a statement about his future successor that implies Jesus baptized in a different, greater way than he did:
“I baptize with water. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11 NIV)
Jesus did give power to 72 of his followers, including the ability to heal people and even exorcise demons (Luke 10). However, their power seems to have been limited. They did great things under Jesus’ instructions, but were pretty useless when Jesus did not offer direction. For example, the disciples were helpless to stop temple guards from arresting Jesus in Gethsemane, even though they had earlier called fire from heaven on people (Luke 9:54). The disciples do not gain ever-present spiritual power until Pentecost, when tongues of fire anointed them. Some denominations have treated the Pentecost event as a second special anointing that all believers must experience. Given John the Baptist’s remark that Jesus baptized people with the Holy Spirit, it might be more accurate to say Pentecost realized something that Jesus laid the foundation for. The spiritual baptism he gave people gained a new dimension after he ascended into heaven.
Taking these details together, we can say that Jesus did baptize people in water (through his disciples) and baptized them in the Holy Spirit (although it did not reach its fullest form until later). But do we have any hints from the Bible about why he didn’t practice physical baptism more directly?
Why Did Jesus Not Physically Baptize Anyone?
The Bible does not give an explicit answer to why Jesus did not perform physical baptisms himself.
One potential reason is that Jesus knew his community of followers would grow into a larger community after he ascended into heaven and did not want to create favoritism. Baptizing people personally could have produced squabbles in which people Jesus baptized claimed special authority (like the 1 Corinthians 3:4-9 squabble, where people claimed special authority based on their mentors). Instead of being known for Jesus personally baptizing them, the early church’s key leaders (the apostles) were known for Jesus verbally giving them special assignments. The emphasis on Jesus’ verbal commissioning meant that figures like Paul had apostolic authority even though Paul did not encounter Jesus until after Jesus’ ascension (on the road to Damascus). Not baptizing people directly avoided some feuding.
A simpler answer may be that the original audience understood that Jesus’ disciples performing baptisms was Jesus performing baptism by extension. As noted above, Jews had a history of leaders being commissioned by God to perform special actions. These actions were seen as God’s hands touching people (God healing the sick through Elijah, etc.). Marc Cortez writes in Theological Anthropology about how many ancient pagan cultures held a similar principle: kings were seen as God’s representatives, so a king’s actions were presumed to be divinely guided. In an ancient world where most cultures saw a God-ordained person’s actions as God working through that person, the fact that Jesus did not baptize anyone directly may not have been a problem. The bigger question was who Jesus represented (God) and who Jesus ordained to continue his work (the apostles).
Still, the fact that Jesus apparently did not baptize anyone himself may make us wonder: what’s the point of getting baptized in the first place?
Why Get Baptized If Jesus Did Not Baptize Anyone?
It is tempting to treat baptism as unimportant if Jesus did not do it himself. After all, he is the heart of Christianity, so why do things that he did not do?
This question is understandable, but it misses an important part of Jesus’ work: he often did things he framed as a foundational step that would be fully realized later.
For example, the one topic Jesus mentions more than any other is “the kingdom of God,” always saying it had come. First-century Jews believed that when the promised Messiah came, God would restore all things, sin would be judged, and the final resurrection of the dead would occur. Jesus accomplished crucial steps to bring the kingdom of God to earth. He dealt with sin on the cross and established the church to spread the message about his new covenant. But crucial parts of the kingdom (the final judgment, the resurrection of the dead) will occur in the future, when God’s work (like the Great Commission being fulfilled) is finished. We live in a world in which the kingdom of God has come, but is still being realized. Or, as many theologians put it, we live in the “already-not-yet” phase of God’s plan.
Similarly, Jesus gave his followers spiritual power, but the Holy Spirit’s power in their lives did not reach its fullest expression until after he ascended into heaven (possibly because, according to scholars like Benjamin Moffat, Jesus’ sacrificial work was only complete when he reentered heaven).
Given that Jesus often set the stage for future work that would reach its fullest dimension after his ministry on earth, it is not really a problem that he establishes baptism as a crucial activity and commissions others to do it. The important thing is that Jesus said multiple times that anyone who followed him had to be baptized as part of their journey to become new creations in Christ. As his sons and daughters (2 Corinthians 6:18), we follow these commands and embrace baptism as an outward sign of our new life.
If you found this article helpful and want to explore baptism further, check out these articles:
What Is Baptism? Its Meaning and Importance in Christianity
Important Bible Verses about Baptism
What Was the Importance and Symbolism of Water Baptism?
Photo Credit: Unsplash/thenata
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