My wife and I were teaching our Sunday School class today and we talked about Jesus asking John to baptize him. We discussed the meaning of baptism. We told the class that the root word was baptizo and that since there wasn't really an English equivalent of the word, translators simple used baptize.
Baptizo implies identification. When a piece of cloth was dipped into a vat of dye, the cloth took on the colour of the dye. This was process was called baptizo. The cloth became identified with the colour of the dye. In other words, the cloth took on the dye's colour.
Similarly, baptism was a symbolic ritual of identification. When folks came to John the Baptist to be baptized, it wasn't that the act did anything to clear their sin. They were just identifying or agreeing with John's message that they needed to repent in order to be accepted into the Kingdom of God. When Jesus asked to be baptised by John, it wasn't as if he had any sins that needed repentance. He was simply identifying or agreeing with John's message that repentance was needed in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. He was validating what John was teaching.
