Baptizing A Couch?

# 432 - Today's Living Word comes from Mr 7:4 When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other things which they have received and hold, like the washing of cups, pitchers, copper vessels, and couches.

What word sticks out like a sore thumb in this passage? The answer is couches. Cups, pitcher, copper vessels, are all things you could wash in the kitchen sink, but then we find the word, “couches.” Try putting your sofa in the kitchen sink next time you're doing the dishes! Why would couches have to be washed?

A quick example would be if the woman whom Jesus had healed of a bloody issue had sat on a couch while she suffered from her malady, it would've made the couch unclean.

Now, there is also something very instructive here connected with the manner of baptism. The word “washing” here in the Greek is the same word used for baptism. While cups, pitchers, and copper vessels can be immersed in order to be baptized, it's highly unlikely that a couch would be baptized or washed by immersion.

While baptism by immersion is a beautiful picture of the drowning of the old Adam and the raising of the new, the strict use of the word does not have to mean immersion. Baptism can be accomplished through sprinkling as well. It's the water and the Word not the methodology that makes baptism effective.

I'm Duane Matz and that's Today's Living Word.